Why we've called time on wine o'clock ...

(Independent) - Lucy Rocca set up Soberistas.com in a bid to put the sexy back into sobriety. She talks to Chrissie Russell about her struggle with alcohol.

Lucy Rocca didn't think she had a drinking problem. "I never drank during the day," she explains. "I didn't drink spirits, just nice, expensive white wine and I didn't feel drinking was impinging obviously on my life – I did a law degree, a half-marathon and raised a daughter, all while I was drinking. I would always have said I wasn't an alcoholic."

Then three years ago, she woke up one morning in hospital with no memory of how she'd got there. After drinking three bottles of wine, she'd stepped outside her home to have a cigarette and ended up being rushed to A&E by a passing friend who later saw her slumped unconscious on her doorstep.

"I'd not been out, I'd just been drinking in the house on my own and I hadn't even thought that I was drunk," recalls Lucy.

"It was the shock I needed. I was ashamed and frightened about what could have happened while I was in that state and I decided then that I had to stop drinking. I knew I couldn't control it, I had to stop all together."

Not only did the mum of two from Sheffield stop but she also used her experience to set up the website, Soberistas.com, to reach out to other women in a similar position.

Ireland accounts for the fourth-highest level of visits to the site behind the UK, America and Australia. In recent days, the spotlight has fallen on the dangerous drinking habits of young people but the reality is that they're not the only demographic drinking to worrying levels on a regular basis.