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A MILITARY veteran has revealed that behind his superficial social media page, he was a “barely functioning” alcoholic drinking about 10 bottles of wine per day.

Alysia Magen, a United States Air Force veteran, said that despite posting on Instagram to portray an idyllic life, in reality, she was “killing herself” by drinking vast quantities of wine and spirits.

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The 33-year-old explained that she would drink almost the entire day to cope with the pain of past relationships.

Magen told The US Sun: “The strong girl was gone – I didn’t know who I was at that time.

“I didn’t know I was an alcoholic – I thought it was just something to manage anxiety. I would wake up in the morning shaking from withdrawal,” Magen continued.

She explained that she thought she was using the alcohol to merely manage panic attacks at first, only to find out that it was instead to fight withdrawal later on.

“I was so mentally sick and could see I was in pain and not there. I feel like a fraud and a fake because I was living a lie for so long.”

“Throughout that period I wasn’t the person I am at all. I was scared to even go outside and meet people. At times I couldn’t even look at myself in the mirror,” Magen confessed.

Ultimately, Magen said she realized that she was abusing alcohol to block out trauma from abusive relationships — and it started a long time ago.

She revealed that her drinking began while in the military and progressively got worse after being demoted for posting a suggestive picture of herself on Instagram alongside another one of her in military uniform.

Her charge was what’s known as Article 15.

Magen claimed that she was ostracized after it happened and she spent her last six months in the military in “painful isolation”.

After being demobbed in 2017, Alysia threw herself into social media full-time which involved unconventional hours and lots of parties.

This led to her drinking progressively getting worse before it spiraled out of control over the following four years.

During that time she said she had a succession of violent and abusive relationships with former partners.

Alysia explained that in addition to drinking she was taking cocaine and other drugs including opioids during this period.

Near-death experience

At one point she overdosed while her ex-boyfriend was driving – prompting him to rush her to the emergency room.

“The doctors said if I had been 10 seconds later, I would have died,” she explained.

“I was literally seconds from death but I didn’t care. I had lost all interest in life.

“Dealing with all that pain and trauma makes you want to get high to numb the pain,” she continued.

“It’s a vicious cycle and I knew I had to change but it’s hard when you continually get pulled back.”

As time went on and Alysia became sicker and sicker, she realized in March of this year that something had to change.

After a difficult stay in a Veterans Affairs-funded rehab center, she decided to shell out $10,000 to check in to a private facility.

This enabled her to kick the drinking, leave her then-partner, and set her on a road to recovery.

Recovering and re-emerging

And weeks into sobriety, she received a phone call asking if she would fight model and influencer, Blac Chyna, in a celebrity bout in June.

She jumped at the chance and despite earning a draw, Magen knocked Rob Kardashian’s ex on her back during the fight and said training for it “kept her on the road to recovery.”

“I’ve been reborn in six months,” she said.

“I was seconds from death, in abusive relationships and dependent on alcohol.”

“I didn’t think I needed help because I’d been in the military and had this attitude like ‘nothing affects me.’

“I did not go through all of those things to keep the story inside,” she said.

“So get the support and help you need because nobody deserves to be abused by the people who are supposed to love them.”

If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

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This recipe for disaster contains the following ingredients: separate family members contained under one roof for an extended period, high-stress rituals like gift-giving and formal dining and copious amounts of alcohol.

Shake vigorously, and the result is as explosive as it is predictable.

Cann, the top-selling weed-laced soda with an A-list celebrity following, uses its annual end-of-year campaign to acknowledge what many people already know—the holidays can be a toxic stew of drunken conflict—and ask the question , “Why not get baked instead?”

In a scenario that’s heavily stylized and darkly comedic, Cann solves one family’s dramatic clash with its low-dose THC drinks and quick delivery from the new Jane cannabis shopping app.

The 3-minute video, written and directed by actor-filmmaker Lake Bell, features a cast of mostly people of color and queer people and an original song from Grizzly Bear’s Chris Bear. Raja Gemini, a makeup artist, model and past RuPaul’s Drag Race winner, appears as the “fairy cannmother,” providing the memorable line, “Merry microdosing, motherf*cker.”

While the nearly dialogue-free ad marks a creative shift for the brand, it continues the Cann positioning as a “social tonic” and an alternative to traditional liquor-based cocktails.

“We wanted to take the idea of ​​a family gathering, which is a source of anxiety that some people dread and rely on alcohol to get through, and hold a magnifying glass up to it,” Luke Anderson, Cann co-founder, told Adweek . “It doesn’t look good from the outside.”

The short film, dubbed “Cann-Do Holiday,” goes from “moody and negative to dreamy and euphoric,” Anderson said. “It’s the before and after.”

Cheers, my dears

Cann’s latest work drops as THC-spiked drinks are surging nationally. Still a niche category—making up less than 2% of total cannabis sales—the product has exploded in popularity, hailed as sessionable and approachable, especially for the uninitiated. Along with edibles like gummies and chocolates, beverages are now considered “perennial winners” during the busy fourth quarter, per Headset.

On the recent Green Wednesday-Danksgiving long weekend, sales of weed sodas, seltzers, powders and cocktails jumped 13.2%, per Headset’s analysis of seven states. The year-end period could bring more of the same good tidings for the category, based on past performance; Headset says drinks saw a 16.6% boost at Christmas 2021.

Some particular bright spots: Sales grew an eye-popping 272% year over year in Michigan in 2022, according to Headset’s report, while states like Massachusetts, Washington and California saw double-digit bumps.

The data wasn’t all positive for the sector, though, with the Headset noting that Nevada, Maryland, Oregon and Colorado saw demand drop. Meantime, the market has been flooded with new brands—an increase of 65% since January 2021—which could mean there’s more supply than demand or buyers are overwhelmed by their choices.

The researcher also said that consumers seem to be gravitating to the higher-dose drinks, where buyers get more bang for their buck.

Cann’s primary target has been the casual weed user, teetotalers (or the “Cali sober”) and the massive addressable audience that may not currently consume but would be open to try. The brand’s drinks, containing 2 milligrams to 5 milligrams of THC, could qualify as a good on-ramp for such potential buyers.

Tastes better than eggnog

The average American drinks 27% more alcohol during the holiday season compared to the rest of the year, according to a recent study from Sunrise House, with 23% considering themselves “heavy drinkers” between Thanksgiving and New Year and 27% saying they consume stronger liquor during that time.

Cann means to address the outcome of such behavior and urge people to reconsider their relationship with alcohol, albeit in a rather light-hearted, high-concept way, with its video that stars Mickey Sumner (Snowpiercer, Frances Ha), Meg Stalter (Hacks ), comedian Benito Skinner and actor Bre-Z among the eclectic cast.

Shot last month at a home in Los Angeles’ hip Silverlake neighborhood, “Cann-Do Holiday” is a collaboration between Cann’s internal team, Bell and production house London Alley.

The brand hosted a movie premiere-style party for the short film this week in Hollywood, along with a panel discussion on diversity (or the lack thereof) in the cannabis industry, featuring Cannaclusive’s Mary Pryor, Jane Technologies’ Socrates Rosenfeld, Cann investor and board member-actor Rosario Dawson, Bell and Anderson.

In casting the video, Bell talked about the importance of representation behind the scenes—she hired a female director of photography, among other women and people of color—as well as on-screen.

“Family looks like a multitude of different things, and not everyone looks the same,” Bell said during the session. “I wanted the creative to be sexy and fun and inclusive from every vantage point, so it felt like it wasn’t elitist or isolating to anyone.”

“Cann-Do Holiday,” with the tagline, “You can’t change your family, but you can change your drink,” will get a