My 2020 – Undetected ADHD, DOPAMINE HITS & Creating Mooze 12% for moderation.

• I am 48, live in Essex and founder of a 12% Low Alcohol Drink brand called Mooze as my relationship with DRINKING over Lockdown was bad. The weekly recommended units are 14, I got up to 50/60 a week, functioning as normal but I couldn’t find a replacement.
• I lost my successful Under 5’s Hospitality Business in Lockdown with 8 staff.
• I started Peri-Menopause at 45, meaning my Oestrogen started dropping relatively early.
• Oestrogen stimulates Dopamine production, so the Menopause has been brutal to me by depleting it even more than the small level I was used to with Undiagnosed ADHD – it robbed me of something which I was already lacking. I really thought I had the early onset of Dementia or Alzheimer’s.
• I didn’t realise I had ADHD until Lockdown. I have discovered NHS ‘Right to Choose’ in England, my Doctor didn’t know about. So, diagnosis is free and quickly booked in online.

Women drink with or without ADHD, using drink to regulate emotions. Why were so many women of Menopausal age, drinking with or without ADHD present? The withdrawal of Oestrogen means less DOPAMINE HITS of course, so we seek it elsewhere.

What do people with ADHD or going through the Menopause do to increase Dopamine levels? They often self medicate to get that feeling of happiness. We stimulate ourselves through Addictions that release Happy Hormones: DRINKING, Smoking, Drugs, Sex, Exercise, Shopping, anything that tops up our brain ‘reward centre’. My stimulation was Booze. During Lockdown 1.0, I drank and got fatter.

My ADHD already causes me (but no one knew including me): Difficulty in Concentrating, Poor Memory and Cognitive Deficiencies, but I realise now my symptoms worsened, depending on where I was in my menstrual cycle.

“I wasn’t looking to ditch alcohol completely, just drink less. Menopausal women need to be extra careful too. But between the extremes of No Alcohol and Standard levels, there was nothing in between and I still need a Dopamine hit. So, I created Mooze (think Moderation + Booze). Now my favourite jeans fit again I don’t even drink 14 units now.”

It is not just me who wants to reduce my Booze Units, talking to Laura Willoughby MBE, Founder of Club Soda she says 17 million people in the UK want to reduce their drinking. I have talked to her about the stupid and unhelpful Binary Drinking Culture, which I think Dry January adds to. You either drink or cannot drink and yet if you are somewhere in the middle, not at AA stage ie wetting yourself in bed, you assume it is ok to carry on. We would never do that with food, if we had an event we wanted to look good for, we might cut down on Chips and Carbs for a while – but when you say you are cutting down on booze, friends can raise eyebrows and you are known to have ‘a drinking problem’? Or get annoyed you are making them look like they are drinking too much???Weird.

Women have the recommended 1000 calories a day for food drummed into their heads but no one understands what 14 units are, the weekly recommendation for Boozing. It is 6 beers or 6 wines or 48 Mooze and Tonic when mixed and just 18 cals a pour. Mooze uses the same process as Ginning.

The name Mooze was the fusion of Moderation + Booze. If you are looking for Dopamine hits during this boring, stagnant time of Covid or Menopausal and looking for a lower alcohol alternative, then why not try Mooze 12%? 1/3 of the alcohol of a regular Spirit. 12% rather than 37.5%+. 100% taste.

www.moozebooze.com
Mel Sims, 48, single mum, Essex