I wrote this as I am really shocked at how things have seemingly changed.

I've done the Dry January thing and hopefully this doesn't come across as pious. But I feel so much better for it, the biggest difference being my anxiety levels are practically zero compared to what they were like.

I have so many friends that need a drink each day of the week and most of them admit they do suffer from anxiety. So have a drink to ease it....

My own experiences with booze (I am talking 2-3 pints type event) is that it changes me the day after. Not overtly but just subtle changes that make me a bit crankier. I can go a week easily without a drink, really enjoy 2or 3 pints but then the day after feel tired, restless and just 'different'

Walking through Burnley yesterday at 2pm I saw so many people drinking bottles of beer just out and about. One thing I noticed was that none of them looked happy, most looked fedup. I love a beer and those couple of pints give me a few hours of relaxation and happiness but I know that it's fake.

I suppose my messge is (and I sincerely hope I don't come across a preaching) is that the stress levels and anxiety levels in society cannot be helped by alcohol and that because we laugh about it (and some will mock me for post this I know) then it becomes a hidden epidemic.

What can be done about it?

If you can’t go 4 weeks without a drink - you have a problem.

IMO yes... If you can't go one day without one tbh. On staying at a friends one time .... I said I need a drink ... You can't have one he said! I rephrased to id like a drink please and got one he wasn't being snotty... He was highlighting the word 'need' which I picked up on.

Did you see the tv programme by Adrian Chiles on his relationship with alcohol?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RX2opvj7WE8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It was pretty good I thought.

Awayfromburnley wrote:I wrote this as I am really shocked at how things have seemingly changed.

I've done the Dry January thing and hopefully this doesn't come across as pious. But I feel so much better for it, the biggest difference being my anxiety levels are practically zero compared to what they were like.

I have so many friends that need a drink each day of the week and most of them admit they do suffer from anxiety. So have a drink to ease it....

My own experiences with booze (I am talking 2-3 pints type event) is that it changes me the day after. Not overtly but just subtle changes that make me a bit crankier. I can go a week easily without a drink, really enjoy 2or 3 pints but then the day after feel tired, restless and just 'different'

Walking through Burnley yesterday at 2pm I saw so many people drinking bottles of beer just out and about. One thing I noticed was that none of them looked happy, most looked fedup. I love a beer and those couple of pints give me a few hours of relaxation and happiness but I know that it's fake.

I suppose my messge is (and I sincerely hope I don't come across a preaching) is that the stress levels and anxiety levels in society cannot be helped by alcohol and that because we laugh about it (and some will mock me for post this I know) then it becomes a hidden epidemic.

What can be done about it?

If your own experience is 2 or 3 pints you've really missed out

I drink heavily because it's the most effective relief I have found for my crippling GAD and OCD. The next day however, the symptoms are back 10 fold due to the hangover and depressive effect of alcohol itself, some of the brightest and darkest periods of my life have been 12-18 hours between each other. A funny thing, is alcohol really.

After almost 35 years of constant drinking I did the dry January four years ago not one of my mates or even family thought I could manage it.I did it and as the weeks went by I was obviously feeling a lot better in myself.After my 4 weeks were up I found I didn't want to drink much anymore and found I still enjoyed myself without the need for a drink and had more money in my pocket.I read recently anyone doing dry Jan. Will go on to drink less than they did before.

Compare and contrast the way we have gone about tobacco and alcohol.
Why were licensing laws brought in and why were they abolished? Did Tony Blair really think Anglo-saxon man in the UK had changed the go out and get hammered approach. Had behaviour changed in the years from 1914-2003 and would we take a more relaxed attitude to drinking like our Southern European neighbours or would we still be like our Northern Scandanavian neighbours.
Just like tobacco, price and availability will determine consumption. I think about 80% of men smoked tobacco in 1948, now it is down to about 20%. Certainly the stat show smoking down from 45% in 1974 to 17% in 2017 and this is as a result of price, lack of advertising, availability and big health advertising campaigns.
Alcohol-never as cheap to buy (hours needed to work for a unit of alcohol) loads of advertising even allowing TV adverts for spirits (relatively new) and available 24hr of the day.
So the poor b+++er trying to give up booze is reminded about it all over the Supermarket and on TV whether in adverts or in soaps and dramas.
The smoker has to seek to find tobacco in the Supermarket, no adverts anywhere and little in soaps and modern dramas/films.
Never seen anyone in A/E from fighting whilst under the influence of nicotine. It is unending from booze.
Death notifications do not help as alcohol often is kept off certificates. Not sure whether it still applies but Inquests were held if alcoholism was on the death certificate and the 7500 deaths attributed to alcohol each year will be a gross underestimate.
Until we take the same attitude to alcohol as we have done with tobacco we will continue to see increasing problems and the age of those problems falling from largely men in their 50's to people men and women in their 20's and 30's.
And the next item on the agenda will be gambling

I went 5 years without a drink. Then on January 1st 2016 a crate of beers tempted me and I smashed the lot. I've gone down hill since and drink about once a week. I don't feel great and as I am no longer in my 20's it takes longer to recover from even just a few beers.

It's weird because during those 5 years I did not care about alcohol at all, I would go out with friends and stay on water or soft drinks but now it's almost like I have the urge to drink, I'll think about it when I'm driving home or when I'm at university feeling stressed I'll crave going out or going to Tesco to get a box of beers.

Not healthy and I know I need to change. Another teetotal time may be in order.

Alcohol is great





In moderation

I've not missed drinking for over four years.

I've got Nodular regenerative hyperplasia of the liver so it probably wouldn't help, and I'm also on Warfarin for life so it pretty much means I could never drink, even if I wanted to.

However, the benefits are that I don't put on weight, and feel much healthier as a result.

I went 15 years without a drink. Then I nicked one of my mums cans of Kestrel and haven’t looked back since.

I don’t make much of this “dry” whatever... if you need to be motivated by outside factors to not have a drink, you have a problem. Trouble is with everyone who has a problem, they absolutely cannot and will not see it. Having said that though, if it works for those of you who need that motivation, good luck to ya....

I’m a binge drinker. I don’t drink in the house, unless someone comes round, which is rarely because nobody likes me, and I have recently dumped the out of date beer from my beer fridge. I decide when I don’t drink, and it’s most of the time. When I do tho, I like a good rinse.

Problem is just about every social situation in this country involves booze. Going to the footy, weddings, works do's etc. I enjoy a beer or two at home in the evening but feel like when I go out it's mainly to socialise and see my mates rather than have a drink. Reckon after 6 or 7 pints I'm drinking more for the sake of it as opposed to actually wanting to carry on.

To answer the thread title - yes

I've been sober for 37 days now.



Not in a row, just in total.

Yes there is, but many won't admit it, like most addicts don't tend to.

They become socially dependent on it, much like stoners are with weed.

Recently, some people I work with who originate from India/Pakistan asked me why I used to drink, why did I start and why other people drink so much.
I didn't have an answer to those questions and trying to explain it to people from a non drinking culture made me realise how daft drinking in excess can be.

As someone else has said, if you're not can't go a month without a drink by choice then you've got a problem.

I have a drink a couple of times a year, usually at social functions, I don't drink at home and my kids have only seen me drink a handful of times.

Drinking Alcohol steals happiness off tomorrow and uses it today

I was under the impression that less young people are drinking now? It certainly feels, anecdotally at least, that more people will go out and not drink.
I can see the next generation being teetotal vegans while I grumble in my armchair that life used to be better; steak sandwich in one hand, glass of red in the other.

That is true about the young and about the amount of drink consumed but the 500,000+ problem drinkers will be here for many until they die and the important job is to try and prevent those who would become victims drinking to excess in the first place and adding to the numbers. Not easy in a free society.

I almost always only ever drink around the footy (and sometimes the cricket in summer). Hence I had 3 pints before the match yesterday and 2 after, but as I'm not doing Brighton away this year, the next time I have a drink will almost certainly be the Spurs match. I hardly ever drink in the house as for me the mates, the chat, the real ale and the (good) pub are a massive part of it.

Fortunately I don't need to drink but have empathy for those that do. My eldest Brother died at 58 virtually housebound and was alcohol dependant for much of his life. When Alcohol stopped providing the crutch he turned to other things as well.

I have never felt the need to drink in the house so rarely do, I still have the 4 bottles of alchol free beer in the cupboard that I bought in 2017.

I did far too much drinking during my Army days, it was part of the culture but fortunately didn't find I needed to continue when I left.

I like a drink of beer and tend to have a binge once or twice a month but can leave it. Supporting the Clarets is always a good excuse!

My friends talk about coming home and looking forward to having a couple of glasses of wine in front of tele. I thought they meant figuratively or on a Friday night or something.

When I quizzed them, asking "So you drink a few glasses of wine a night?" they were like, "Yeah? Whats wrong with that, everyone does that?!"

I bet, apart from the occasional night in with friends, Christmas and going on Holiday. I bet I don't have anymore than 1 pint a month. I can't understand the mindset of having a job and thinking, I can't wait to get home and have a drink... if I was thinking that, I'd be changing jobs. That ain't living.

there will be after Brexit! i'm stocking up now to be on the safe side. Brexit has a lot to answer for; now I wish I'd voted to remain. didn't see this one coming.

Having spent 15 years working with drug and alcohol addicts I can assure you the answer is a very big YES.
Massive problem, compounded by the way most of the media subtly promotes alcohol as essential for enjoyment of life...and the influential drinks lobby manages to manipulate the criteria to massage the figure of alcohol related deaths down to around 9k a year.
Real alcoholism is a distressing, pitiful thing to see in strangers....God knows what it must be like for the families of victims.

I do love a pint or 2 of Theakstons, Sharps or Taylor's mind....just like the next chap....but I'm lucky.

Neve ceases to amaze me that when you read or talk to people about healthy eating, deciding to do excercise or them joining the gym they often comment " I've allowed for my glass of wine". Yes I think there is a problem.

claptrappers_union wrote:My friends talk about coming home and looking forward to having a couple of glasses of wine in front of tele. I thought they meant figuratively or on a Friday night or something.

When I quizzed them, asking "So you drink a few glasses of wine a night?" they were like, "Yeah? Whats wrong with that, everyone does that?!"

I bet, apart from the occasional night in with friends, Christmas and going on Holiday. I bet I don't have anymore than 1 pint a month. I can't understand the mindset of having a job and thinking, I can't wait to get home and have a drink... if I was thinking that, I'd be changing jobs. That ain't living.

Agree with what you're saying in the main, but with some people regarding jobs especially unskilled manual labour it isn't a realistic option of just changing jobs & if they did it would just be the same old s**t different day. People relationships with alcohol are very complex & varied individual to individual. Millions of people are stuck in dead end jobs without much hope of changing through circumstances & unless you get lucky on scratch card ect, it is what it is.

MRG wrote:Drinking Alcohol steals happiness off tomorrow and uses it today

Some really interesting replies and this above pretty much sums it up for me.

I've been going through a really tough spell recently and NOT having booze has definitely made it easier and prevented further problems.

To be clear I am one of those that would have 2/3 pints on a Friday or Saturday and maybe a binge every couple of months, so not necessarily an extreme drinker.

But the last month has taught me so much, but also taught me that many of my heavier drinking mates have not really been interested in seeing me. That's maybe because they seem my abstinence to be boring, but then so be it.

The worries about fat, sugar and legal highs, I think is always valid but alcohol is as bad (in terms of overall impact) as any of these.

I went to the sports club the other day and asked for a Becks. I've never asked for one before because I normally just have a pint and it lasts me probably 2 hours as I'm playing pool. They said they only have Becks Blue. Okay, I thought - I'll have one of those.

It tasted very similar to the standard Becks, but it's almost alcohol free. Had the label been ripped off and replaced with a 'normal' Becks label, I probably wouldn't have noticed the difference.

My point is, I often have a cold lager because it helps me relax. I'd love an alarm clock to go off when I'd had enough, but that's never going to happen. I think that's the problem with a lot of people, not just me. They start drinking and it chills them out. But then it becomes an automatic lifting procedure. They could be drinking a Becks or a Becks Blue, they wouldn't notice the difference. The difference comes 8 hours later when they're banging on their door trying to get into their house, even though the key is in the lock.

There's a serious issue with my home brew ;it stinks yet again of dog sh1t. Ill just buy it in future.

I'm a low/zero alcohol beer drinker these days. There's even the occasional "zero" alcohol wine that is OK.

Around 10% of beer bought in Spain and Portugal is zero alcohol. Also, highest growing drinks sector in the UK last year - though from a low base.
I'd make it a requirement of drinks license to always stock a minimum of 2 low alcohol beers - please, I don't just want a choice of Becks Blue or sparkling water.

Everything in moderation. If you need a drink every day you’ve a problem. If it’s helping someone relax it’s probably more benefit than harm. It also depends what you are drinking. A beer isn’t so bad but spirits are. A bottle of whisky would probably last me over 2 years. If you are needing to make a statement such as look at me I’ve done a dry January there could be a problem. Do what makes you feel good without the broadcasting.

the odd drink for pleasure is fine [and probably healthy from a psychological view eg when you work hard all week and looking forward to a well-earned drink keeps you going]. it's when the desire for alcohol becomes 'a need' the problems arise.

Do these low/zero alcohol drinks really 'hit the spot' as alcoholic drinks do? Isn't it the actual alcohol that gives the feelings that you want from drinking?

Yes

There is a serious issue with alcohol in this country.

I'm quite surprised at how many light/non drinkers there are on here.

I think a lot depends on the environment you grew up in. My family and their friends were all heavy drinkers, the conversation was often about how bad their respective hangovers were, and how many drinks they'd had the night before..... If you're a child that is 'normal'.

I would describe myself as a very regular drinker who rarely gets 'drunk' but drink practically every day. My Sister has had more of a problem with it.
I envy people who never started!.........We were given alcohol from a very early age, to keep us 'quiet'. And started drinking to intoxication at about 12 yrs old. So to answer the OP, from my point of view.....YES!....Oh and the thought of going a Month without is almost unthinkable!

Went to my mates funeral 4 months ago...he was only 48...turned into an alcoholic...in his younger days he was always needing drink and nothing else really mattered....recently I saw him walking to the earliest opening off licence to get his daily fix.....Alcohol is a dangerous thing...just like a car is if you drive too fast.....in east lancs its a big part of life...personally I have been suckered into drinking every night but rarely drink these days...will happily have a pint or 3 if out but dont feel the need to drink at home.

Taffy on the wing wrote:I'm quite surprised at how many light/non drinkers there are on here.

I think a lot depends on the environment you grew up in. My family and their friends were all heavy drinkers, the conversation was often about how bad their respective hangovers were, and how many drinks they'd had the night before..... If you're a child that is 'normal'.

I would describe myself as a very regular drinker who rarely gets 'drunk' but drink practically every day. My Sister has had more of a problem with it.
I envy people who never started!.........We were given alcohol from a very early age, to keep us 'quiet'. And started drinking to intoxication at about 12 yrs old. So to answer the OP, from my point of view.....YES!....Oh and the thought of going a Month without is almost unthinkable!

Crikey, very sorry to hear Taffy. Given alcohol to 'keep you quiet' is child abuse.

Giving up alcohol is not easy. It's like asking people who smoke to cut down on their cigs - not easy at all. It's asking massively overweight people to stop eating cakes and biscuits. It aint going to happen unless the mindset is there.

Jakubclaret wrote:Agree with what you're saying in the main, but with some people regarding jobs especially unskilled manual labour it isn't a realistic option of just changing jobs & if they did it would just be the same old s**t different day. People relationships with alcohol are very complex & varied individual to individual. Millions of people are stuck in dead end jobs without much hope of changing through circumstances & unless you get lucky on scratch card ect, it is what it is.

Many of the people I know who drink every night are educated, skilled and in what are considered ‘decent’ jobs.

Loyalclaret wrote:Many of the people I know who drink every night are educated, skilled and in what are considered ‘decent’ jobs.

I can easily believe that, alcohol doesn’t attach itself to 1 specified group it’s widespread & abused across all classes, the point I was trying to make is - the idea that work is a trigger for drinking post work as a relaxing tool which is true for lots of people especially people stressed with there jobs, more the notion that being the case that people can just easily change jobs & problems will be solved, it’s not that simple or straightforward.

If you are stressed in your job, then drinking does not help.

Exercise might like, but not drinking

Lancasterclaret wrote:If you are stressed in your job, then drinking does not help.

Exercise might like, but not drinking

It does for some people short term & helps them get by, call it a coping mechanism, not all people like exercise, somebody who has a deeply ingrained drinking problem, jogging ect won’t solve it. Something like this might, it helped me reduce my intake of units.
Alcohol Lied to Me: The Intelligent Way to Escape Alcohol Addiction https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1520344236/ ... vCbHPJC6HM" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If there's still a big problem with Alcohol then it's moved to home drinking rather than pubs, as pubs are closing down left, right and centre.

I have a few in pubs now and again but I was always out in my 20s. The big concern is the ones who drink moderately, if you're not drinking to get drunk then have a brew. There's not many nice tasting alcoholic drinks.

Short term, but you are doing long term damage.

I don't think its too bad when you are younger, but when you get to a certain age if you still need booze to deal with your job, then you need probably need to seek help.

I used to drink a lot when I was younger, but I'm a very light drinker (though still like a couple here and there) now.

You’ve got to die from something, it may as well be the booze.

Lancasterclaret wrote:Short term, but you are doing long term damage.

I don't think its too bad when you are younger, but when you get to a certain age if you still need booze to deal with your job, then you need probably need to seek help.

I used to drink a lot when I was younger, but I'm a very light drinker (though still like a couple here and there) now.

Nothing wrong with that, if you can control it & keep it to a happy level, lots can’t & therein lies the problem, I do agree with exercise after the person has received treatment or sorted themselves out depends on the extent of the problem. you need a strategy of certain days & golden rules after 7pm, if you don’t completely abstain.

And to be perfectly honest, having kids and having two bad sleepers made it impossible to drink or go out for about two years!

Defo broke any habits I had!

I was brought up in a family where nobody drank, neither parents nor grandparents aunts
or uncles, but it was never frowned upon. When I reached drinking age I was neither encouraged or discouraged
from partaking of the amber nectar. I have had my moments over the years through drink, mainly
in the very early days, but fortunately I have always been able to take it or leave it, unlike cigarettes
which I only managed to kick into touch 3 years ago.

So I understand the problem with something that is addictive, but I was genuinely shocked at the
documentary by Adrian Chiles and the amount and frequency of his alcohol use. I never got
anywhere near that amount of drinking.

Perhaps I shouldn't be shocked, who knows, and I'm sure there are many people who abuse alcohol to a
much greater extent than he does.

I like my real ale and still partake now and again but never drink at home.

Bertiebeehead wrote:You’ve got to die from something, it may as well be the booze.

Indeed you do, but personally I'd prefer something that didnt screw my family, my self-respect, my wallet and my brain.

GodIsADeeJay81 wrote:Yes there is, but many won't admit it, like most addicts don't tend to.

They become socially dependent on it, much like stoners are with weed.

Recently, some people I work with who originate from India/Pakistan asked me why I used to drink, why did I start and why other people drink so much.
I didn't have an answer to those questions and trying to explain it to people from a non drinking culture made me realise how daft drinking in excess can be.

As someone else has said, if you're not can't go a month without a drink by choice then you've got a problem.

I have a drink a couple of times a year, usually at social functions, I don't drink at home and my kids have only seen me drink a handful of times.

You must have been massively ****** when you were trying to pretend you were someone else on here.

Quick question to those who drink low/non-alcoholic beer: what is the range of beers available like? It seems to me that brands offer one option and most are lagers; are all tastes catered for e.g. a best bitter, IPA, stout etc? (I’m assuming it is possible to make low alcohol versions of these).