TikTok Creator Shares Where She Used To Hide Her "Empties" To Shed Light About Alcohol Misuse

"Taking the recycling out was an embarrassment…"

Chelsi

• Published in Interesting
• October 4, 2024

Issy Hawkins, who labeled herself "That Sober Actor" to her 115k TikTok followers, is known for her advocacies against harmful drinking. She talks about the dangers of alcoholism and dependence on her page to connect to people who are struggling with their sobriety.

According to the National Health Service (NHS), alcohol misuse is "when you drink in a way that's harmful, or when you're dependent on alcohol." Their advice for adult men and women is "not to regularly drink more than 14 units (a unit is 8g or 10mL of pure alcohol) a week."

Aside from short and long-term health risks, the NHS also warned of the interpersonal impact of alcohol dependence. They said it "usually affects a person's quality of life and relationships, but they may not always find it easy to see or accept this."

However, it is not easy to spot alcohol misuse because "Severely dependent drinkers are often able to tolerate very high levels of alcohol in amounts that would dangerously affect or even kill some people." The statements made by the NHS were proven in some of the anecdotes shared by Issy Hawkins on TikTok.

She said that she did not like the person she became when she had alcohol in her system. "I was capable of anything. I was capable of stepping over anybody," Issy added.

One of the things she did was lie and hide about the extent of her alcohol misuse. How she evaded scrutiny from her loved ones was the subject of a video she made about hiding her "empties" at the back of her wardrobe.

Issy recalled the time her family moved. She had to share a room with her sibling and they didn't have a wardrobe.

Irrationally, one of her first thoughts was to worry about where she would hide her empty alcohol cans and bottles in the room.

The room was in complete disarray, but she stashed her empties in a huge garbage bag to hide them.

Issy hid the bag under the curtain and piled her clothes on top of it. Her mom eventually found her bag of empties and told her about it.

She might have learned about hiding her bottles from her parent. She said she used to find theirs also hidden inside their wardrobe when she was younger.

Issy added that hiding these bottles and being secretive about it almost felt like a ritual. She said it was something she didn't miss because it was a giant web of lies you can't remember.

She described the constant dread of someone finding her empties and explaining why she had them.

Issy said she was 14 when she first hid a bottle of alcohol. Back then, she kept her bottle in a box where she stored her socks and took a sip each time she opened it.

Issy said she viewed alcohol as a relief even when she was a teenager but doesn't anymore.

Things changed for her when she found herself checked into rehab at 21.

Even after rehab, Issy struggled to face the world. She said in her interview with Alcohol Change UK, an organization for which she is also an ambassador, that she didn't know how to be a part of a society that expected her to drink as a then newly sober person.

She now advocates for taking young people's struggles with alcohol misuse seriously. Issy said she was 18 when she first realized her problem but delayed getting help because other people dismissed her concerns.

Chelsi