I'm a high-functioning alcoholic - I didn't fit the image of an addict... but when I tried to quit, I realised just how big my problem was

A hospice nurse has told how she wasn't aware of her spiralling drinking problem until she slashed alcohol from her diet.

Julie McFadden, from Los Angeles in California, made the decision to stop drinking at the age of 33 after realising she had 'a thing with alcohol'.

But she claimed, that after cutting out alcohol completely 'my life got worse' and it was only then that she realised she was a 'high functioning alcoholic'.

Far from the stereotypical image, so-called 'high functioning alcoholics' are able to function in demanding jobs, or manage to be perfectly decent parents, research suggests.

They — and their loved ones — are often unaware of their problem and experts have warned the phenomenon is on the rise.

While 75,000 Britons are diagnosed with alcoholism each year and receive treatment, it is estimated that 7.5 million people show signs of alcohol dependence.

Now, in a video watched than than 1.7million times, Ms McFadden said: 'I always knew I had a 'thing' with alcohol, but I was still functioning pretty well, so who cares, right? Plus, everything else was the problem, not alcohol.

'If I just got the right job, if I just moved to the right place, if I just met the right guy, then I wouldn't drink that much. None of it worked.'

After she 'properly' quit drinking her life 'got worse' she said.

'Instead of my life getting better, doing all the things I thought I would do if I quit drinking, my life got smaller,' she added.

'It was harder for me to go out in public and do things, see friends, workout, have hobbies — it was harder for me to do anything.

'I thought my life was going to flourish. It was the opposite of flourish.

'I finally did the thing, this amazing thing where I quit drinking. But why isn't my life better?'

It was only after she opened up about what she'd been struggling with, with friends that she discovered she was an alcoholic, she claimed.

'They were not even a close friend, they were an acquaintance, and they were like "girl you sound like an alcoholic".

'I was like "what? No",' she told the video.

'She was like "No my mum's an alcoholic. She's in a 12-step programme. She still goes 30 years after being sober.

'"You need extra help. You need friends. You need to talk to other sober people".

'It took a second meeting for me to finally open up and express what was wrong,' Ms McFadden said.

'If you ask for help and are ready for help in a recovery programme you will get it —and that is when my sobriety truly took off.

'I learned about alcoholism, I learned what it meant to be an alcoholic.

'It's not just about drinking. It's about thinking.'

Recent polls suggest that the average Briton drinks roughly 18 units of alcohol a week, equivalent to around six pints of 5.2 per cent beer every week, or six large glasses of wine.

Leading experts have also rowed about the harms of drinking for decades.

Scientists across the board, however, agree that excessive alcohol consumption can permanently damage the liver and cause an array of cancers and drive up blood pressure.

The World Health Organization estimate it kills three million people around the world each year.

The NHS recommends people drink no more than 14 'units' of alcohol—around six glasses of wine, or pints of beer—per week.

Meanwhile, the US says women should drink no more than seven standard drinks a week and men can have 14.