Hadley Sorensen

Hadley resides in the Washington, DC, area with her husband and a house full of boys. She’s fluent in potty humor and depends on her dog, Maya, as the only other female in the house. She's an avid runner, constantly planning her next goal race and distance.

Hadley acts as a one-woman sobriety hype squad on social media, working hard to spread the message that anyone can quit drinking at any time, for any reason.

As a lifelong fitness enthusiast and coach for many years, she was very good at preaching about the essentials of a healthy lifestyle. She even built a whole brand around her love of wine and fitness. The dirty truth was that she was neglecting her own health. Alcohol was a dark cloud that followed her for most of her life, always lurking in the shadows. Ever since her first sip at fourteen, something about her relationship with booze felt corrupt in a way she couldn’t articulate. It turned out that no amount of exercise or eating kale could negate the damage drinking was doing to her body and mind.

Her problem with drinking wasn’t extreme; she wasn’t physically dependent, and she wasn’t even close to the stereotypical rock bottom. She drank the same way everyone around her did: graduating from the college binge-drinking scene straight to the mommy wine scene. It was the typical suburban woman’s trajectory. “Normal” social drinker or not, alcohol had a stranglehold on her that she didn’t like. She was riddled with shame and self-loathing. She felt like she was the only person experiencing these tumultuous feelings tied to booze, which made her feel broken and alone.

In 2021, she reached her breaking point after a series of escalating drinking episodes and the resulting deterioration of her mental health. One morning, after too much rosé, she woke up with hot chills and a pounding headache. She knew it was time, and she made the scary decision to stop drinking. Her heart screamed that it was the right choice. Instead of feeling like she was making a sacrifice, it felt like a new door was opening.

Hadley spent the next year figuring out who she was without alcohol and learning to navigate a world that seemed to revolve around it. She began to document her experience, and she continues to share her story with the hope that it reaches other women who are stuck in that drinking gray area where she floundered for so many years.