SIPPING a bottle of wine while still nursing a hangover from the day before was the norm for Anna Elston throughout all three of her pregnancies.

The 45-year-old mum, from Bournemouth, is now a recovered alcoholic - but it was only 11 years ago that she was drinking a minimum of a bottle of wine every day- even when pregnant - causing her to lose her kids, her job, and even try and take her own life.

13 Anna knew that drinking in pregnancy was wrong, but she couldn't help but drink through her three pregnancies Credit: Channel 5/Knickerbockerglory

"I really loved my children," she bravely tells the cameras filming the latest documentary on alcoholism. "I loved them like any mother loves their child - but I still drank."

Despite a rise in popularity in clean living, alcohol dependency has reached its highest figure ever- and nine million Brits now rely on booze to get through the day.

Channel 5's My Alcohol Addiction looks into the lives of eight ex-alcoholics.

Here, the Sun Online reveals three of the heart-breaking tales.

‘I drank round the clock while pregnant’

13 She admits to Channel 5 that alcohol was an escape from problems she hid from the world Credit: Channel 5/Knickerbockerglory

Despite - as she puts it: "having everything" - a place to live and a steady job - Anna's drinking habit began as an escape from her problems.

"Deep down I wasn’t feeling very good about myself," she says. "I got into the habit of drinking when I came home after a day at work, and before long I was drinking a bottle of wine an evening."

When Anna fell pregnant with her first of three sons she knew the risks associated with drinking in pregnancy - including premature births - but couldn't stop her addiction.

13 Anna continued to drink throughout her three pregnancies with her sons Credit: Channel 5/Knickerbockerglory

"I would say to myself: ‘I can’t do anything about that so I’ll just take folic acid and everything will be fine’," Anna adds. "I really loved him and I wanted to take care of him, but I kept drinking."

Luckily the baby was born healthy, and so was her second son shortly after even though she admits she was drinking ‘chaotically’ and ‘around the clock’.

"When I got pregnant again my drinking was in full swing," she admits. "My youngest was born very prematurely at 1lb 12oz and I tried really hard to stop. But once he was safe my drinking crept in again."

Social services intervened - realising Anna was drinking - and took Anna’s two eldest sons away while her third was taken to intensive care straight after he was born.

13 Her youngest son was born prematurely and was kept in hospital, weighing 1lb 12oz Credit: Channel 5/Knickerbockerglory

"I drank bottle after bottle - and at that point I was drinking to die," she says. "I didn't want to be in the world at that point. There was nothing in me, I was spent, I was soulless."

Found slumped in a car park, Anna was taken into rehab, but just two days after her release things became so desperate that she attempted to take her own life.

She says: "I just drank and drank and drank, and then I thought it would be a good idea to take all my antidepressants in one go."

13 Anna's drink problem meant she lost her children to social services, leaving her to sink further into addiction Credit: Channel 5/Knickerbockerglory

But she was found and taken to hospital, and having survived a suicide attempt, Anna was resolute that she was going to kick her addiction once and for all and get her sons back from social services.

Over time and through quitting the drink, Anna's boys were all returned home to her in the early years of her rehabilitation, including her youngest son, who fully recovered from his premature birth.

13 Anna changed her life to get her sons back, and she now lives in Bournemouth with the boys Credit: Channel 5/Knickerbockerglory

"It wasn’t just the stopping drinking, it was working out how to maintain that in life," she says of her recovery. "I drove through one pair of traffic lights next to the booze shop with my eyes shut - that was less dangerous than looking at it."

Anna has now been sober for 11 years and lives a normal family life with her sons, working as an addiction counsellor for the Amy Winehouse Foundation.

"I would rather chop off my arm than drink again," she admits.

13 Anna now works for the Amy Winehouse Foundation, which works with people fighting addictions Credit: Knickerbockerglory Ltd

'I hit my wife in front of our kids - then went to prison'

Also in the documentary is Jay Keenan, 42. He had his first drink when he was only 12 years old, sneaking half a bottle of vodka from his parent's drinks cabinet when it was left unlocked and developing a taste for booze early.

"It was fantastic! I’d met my best friend which was alcohol," Jay says of the time. "It was just normal for me; maybe it was from what I’d seen my mum and dad doing."

But Jay's drinking became serious as he grew up, living off of eight and ten cans of beer every day when he got married in his early 20s, and later topping it off with a few bottles of vodka.

13 Jay's addiction was sparked by watching his mum and dad as a child, and he first tasted vodka aged 12 Credit: Channel 5/Knickerbockerglory

"One day my wife locked me out the house because she was clearly concerned for her safety," he says. "But I just battered my way in, went upstairs assaulted her in front of the children. I ended up in prison."

Jay found ways around sobriety in jail by learning to make hooch, a homemade prison alcohol, and to make up for lost time, when released he spent £3,500 on a alcohol binge lasting three months.

"I’d wake up at about 5am and open a bottle of vodka and drink that between being sick," he says of his lifestyle after prison. "And then I'd open another, and another until I went to bed.

13 Jay was drinking almost seventy times more than the recommended weekly allowance suggests Credit: Channel 5/Knickerbockerglory

"And I was told on numerous occasions that one more drink would kill me but I didn’t care," he says, admitting at that point he was an having an incredible 1000 units of alcohol a week, 70 times more than the recommended allowance.

But things turned around when he received an emergency call from the doctor, who explained Jay was going into kidney and liver failure, and unlikely to survive until the following week, he needed to go to rehab.

Whilst there, Jay met his current partner Maria who he currently lives with in Liverpool, and now sober for 2 years, the pair have a young daughter, April.

13 Jay now works at the rehab centre that treated him for his addiction, helping others to overcome alcohol Credit: Knickerbockerglory Ltd

"Now, to have that relationship with my daughter, it's fantastic and it's a beacon of light of what my life should have been like all along," he says.

Looking to turn his bad experiences into something good, Jay went back to college to study social care, and he now works at the same rehab facility which he was put through, helping others to recover.



'I collapsed and was told I would die'

Shameless actress Tina Malone, 55, is another of the show's recovered alcoholics.

Tina says she started drinking at home, sneaking the occasional sip of martini or advocaat as a child at Christmas, or drinking a small glass of red wine over dinner with her parents.

13 Actress Tina used to sneakily drink from a young age, collecting many bottles in her bedroom Credit: Knickerbockerglory Ltd

But this escalated quickly, Tina says: "Suddenly I went from that to I wasn't going to have one glass, I’ll have three bottles. It was all indulgence."

The actress remembers that at age 15, her mum moved around the furniture in her bedroom to find 30 or more bottles of martini and gin stashed away and hidden for her secret tipples.

13 Tina was told she would die if she didn't quit the alcohol after collapsing from dehydration Credit: Knickerbockerglory Ltd

"Maybe the drinking was attention seeking or to annoy my mum," she adds. "But I was a jolly drunk so I could quite often hide what I was drinking and how much of it."

In 1995, Tina was hospitalised after suffering a panic attack, and doctors diagnosed her with severe dehydration and acute hypertension from the alcohol.

She continues: "The doctor said to me 'you know you're going to die' and I just wouldn't hear it - I said I wasn't an alcoholic but he said if I carried on, I'd be dead in two years."

13 Tina decided to go to the AA, and it was there she began her recovery now over 20 years ago Credit: Knickerbockerglory Ltd

It was then that Tina started to attend AA meetings and talk about her drinking.

"I felt a bit of a fraud," she adds. "Some of the people at AA were homeless and desperate, or drank to medicate. But I was addicted."

Now free from her ‘demon’ for over 20 years, Tina enjoys life at home with her husband Paul Chase and her young daughter Flame without having to drink the days away.

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Concluding the documentary, in part a response to the ever increasing numbers of British people being hospitalised for drink related problems, Tina says: "Alcohol is a bigger demon that we think."

My Alcohol Addiction airs Thursday 10th January at 10pm on Channel 5.