In Focus 🔎 | The UK’s relationship with booze is a troubled one, pushing many to drink to excess - or shame those who don't. How do we change it?
dependent on alcohol
However, it certainly wasn’t an easy road. ‘I found it difficult to socialise with friends who weren’t in recovery themselves,’ remembers Nicolle. ‘My sobriety was my priority so I stopped hanging out with friends who drank as I couldn’t risk picking up a drink.’ Speaking exclusively to Metro.co.uk, Professor David Nutt, professor of neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London, explains why it’s so difficult for us to change our attitudes when it comes to alcohol.
A few weeks later – and after meeting his first boyfriend who didn’t drink alcohol – Sam gave up for several years.. It was done as a ‘prank’ – something Sam admits that at the time he, along with his friends, found hilarious when he became tipsy.‘From that point on I continued to drink on our twice weekly nights out,’ Sam recalls. ‘A year later, my mother died and it was around this time when drinking at home began to feature.
For Nic Johnson, who works in marketing, not joining in with an alcoholic drink at work would often feel like he was missing out on career opportunities. Nic no longer drinks, but before giving up, he noticed he was close to the recommended weekly limit – which according to the NHS is no more than 14 units a week – every day.
With many professional events revolving around booze – from Christmas parties to client wins or hitting targets – positive psychology practitioner and workplace culture change specialist, Ruth Cooper-Dickson, says the impact on those who don’t drink can be significant. The organisation states that employers have a legal responsibility to look after their employees’ health, wellbeing and safety, and if there is a problem with alcohol or drug misuse in the workplace, this may indicate a wider problem of stress amongst the workforce.recently launched a specific service called Generis, dedicated to supporting workplaces with this issue.
Rites of passage – often known as hazing – are also seen as a big part of university life. But sometimes with tragic consequences. In 2016, 20-year-old Newcastle student Ed Farmer died from excessive alcohol consumption that had taken place during a uni initiation.His relationship with alcohol began at a very early age – he first got drunk aged just twelve, and as he headed off into the world of university, things ramped up a gear.
‘For example, one member of the group, with the support of others, has set up a sober society, to create and plan sober social activities, ensuring that nobody is left feeling alone simply because they don’t drink alcohol.’ In fact, in addition to drinking alcohol being a well established social ‘norm’, it is often glorified in many aspects of popular culture – with parenthood and work also being topics that seem to go hand in hand with boozy slogans.
In a bid to minimise the impact of alcohol on our lives, Alcohol Change are working to reduce the stigma of being sober, through their campaign tocalling on government to commit to a cross-party national alcohol strategy, to incorporate a better approach to pricing and labelling.