Each year, I take some time to reflect on the lessons I’ve learned about alcohol and, in honor of seven years alcohol-free, I’m sharing seven of the most poignant lessons I’ve learned about alcohol.

A behind the scenes look at attending Lovers & Friends hip-hop festival (in Vegas) SOBER

Hanxiety - a cute term for the existential dread many experience after a night of drinking - started to get very real for me in my late 20s and early 30s. Even after the nights when I managed to have only a drink or two, I woke up with a sense that something had gone terribly wrong. I’d wake up feeling lethargic, unmotivated, and inexplicably helpless and lonely.

In my late twenties and early thirties, I idolized the "Carrie Bradshaw" lifestyle (as portrayed in the popular TV show "Sex and the City"). I saw a successful young single woman with an active social life and believed that drinking alcohol was a key component of being sexy and fun. This led me to believe that having it all means living a life of partying and drinking.