A CEO who quit drinking feels fitter now than in her 20s. She's no longer groggy, can manage stress, and has her weekends back.

• Sam White, a CEO, said hangovers from her weekends made her "tired and groggy" on Mondays.
• White decided to get sober in 2022.
• She said she now has more energy, is more resilient, and performs better at the gym.

Since Sam White, a CEO, went sober in 2022, life is "immeasurably" better.

White, who founded Stella Insurance in Australia and Freedom Services Group in the UK, told Business Insider that the insurance industry "has a love affair with alcohol," with huge amounts of booze served at events.

White, 49, has been an entrepreneur since she was 24 and used to drink at these events when she was younger. But she eventually stopped going to most of them to avoid the pressure to drink.

"I knew that alcohol would be part of the events, and I just knew I couldn't function the next day if I drank," she said.

But weekends were a different story.

"Alcohol was a very quick and easy way of switching my brain off," White said, adding she would go out for drinks on Friday nights to alleviate the stress of the week.

"If I went on a night out, I was never somebody who wanted to have a couple of glasses of wine at the bar and then go home. I was like, 'Where's the party?'" she said.

White would drink "considerably more" than she felt she should, and would have to drag herself through Mondays, feeling "groggy and tired."

In October 2022, White decided to stop drinking and hasn't done since.

She joined an increasing number of people choosing to go sober. A survey of about 1,000 people in the US conducted by Gallup each year from 2001 to 2023 found that between 2001 and 2003, 72% of adults aged 18 to 34 had ever drank alcohol. This dropped to 62% between 2021 and 2023.

Meanwhile, the volume of non-alcoholic beer and cider sold in the US grew by 30% between 2022 and 2023, according to data from IWSR, a market analysis firm specializing in drinks data.

White stopped drinking without a 'rock bottom' moment

White said she didn't have a "rock bottom moment" that was the catalyst for her quitting drinking.

"Why do you need to have a rock bottom moment to make a choice for yourself that is very empowering and makes you feel so much better?" she said.

Instead, there are a few reasons White stopped drinking.

She feared she was at a higher risk of having a problem with alcohol because her mother had abused it for years. Research shows that people whose family members have alcohol use disorder are more likely to experience it themselves — whether that's because of a genetic predisposition, environmental influences, or exposure.

When her dad received a terminal diagnosis, White said she was mindful of the emotional impact the inevitable grief would have on her drinking, because she'd seen her mom go from a heavy drinker to an alcoholic when experiencing grief.

"I didn't want to have something in my life that would enable me to emotionally switch off," she said. "I've got two kids. I want to be the best version of myself for them, so I just decided that it was the right time to just call it a day."

She was also approaching menopause, and wanted to figure out what she could change to give her as much vitality and energy as possible as her hormones changed.

"There's quite a bit of research coming out now on the impact of alcohol on women and cancers, too," she said. In 2019, 16.4% of approximately 270,000 breast cancer cases in women were linked to alcohol consumption, according to a report released earlier this year by the US Surgeon General.

Quitting drinking made dealing with stress easier

"My tolerance for handling stress is substantially better now than it was," White said of life after alcohol. "Everything felt so much more overwhelming on a day with a hangover."

At work, she is more productive and excited about new projects. Her performance is better, too, she said.

When networking, she is more selective about the events she attends. "It has to be interesting and fun in its own right. If it needs booze to make it tolerable, I wouldn't go," she said.

White also feels like she has her weekends back. Instead of waking up late after nights spent drinking, she has time for self-care, hikes, massages, and ice baths.

"I'm now the fittest I've ever been in my life and I'm coming up to 50," she said. "I did a personal best of a 120 kg squat the other day, which I wouldn't have been able to do when I was 26."

The hardest thing is socializing around people who drink heavily, as it can feel as though there's a "disconnect," she said.

"Finding friendships and dynamics where you can socialize and enjoy people's company without alcohol was the biggest struggle for me," she said.

"But I feel better every day now than I ever felt when I drank alcohol. No question, everything is better," she said.