" But today I’m having to live with the restless serpents. I remind myself that absolutely everything that is worth doing, everything that is game-changing in life, is accompanied by that feeling. If you’re avoiding anxiety you’re not properly living, I remind myself. I felt the same before every job interview, every first date, before getting married, before giving birth, before going off backpacking. Where would I be now if I’d avoided doing all those things (or got totally drunk beforehand)? "

― Clare Pooley , The Sober Diaries: How one woman stopped drinking and started living