How To Kick The Habit

Lockdown means no booze and no cigarettes. Here’s help if you’re suffering from withdrawal

- Jacques Myburgh

It was a bitter blow for many South Africans. Asking people to stay home for another two weeks, that was one thing – but expecting them to do it without access to booze and ciggies was something else altogether.

Many drinkers and smokers had been banking on soon being able to restock their guilty pleasures but after President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the national lockdown was being extended these dreams of being able to take a drag of a ciggie or a sip of an icecold tipple of choice were cruelly dashed.

With the lockdown in place the ban on the sale of alcohol and cigarettes remains and so now many South Africans have no choice but to go cold turkey.

But how do you cope with those terrible mood swings after days without cigarettes, or those feelings of anxiety as sundowner time rolls around and you can’t unwind with a glass of wine?

It might be rough at first, says Dr Lize Weigh from Stellenbosch University’s psychiatry department, but lockdown is the ideal opportunity to focus on your health.

About half of all adult South Africans consume alcohol to a lesser or greater degree, says Professor Charles Parry, director of the SA Medical Research Council.

“But this number isn’t shocking,” he adds. “It’s actually fewer than most other countries. A third of this group are heavy drinkers, while 17-25% of heavy drinkers are alcoholics.”

It’s the heavy drinkers who will be suffering the most during lockdown, Weigh says.

“Physical withdrawal symptoms can include anxiety and difficulty sleeping, as well as tremors, headaches, excessive sweating and nausea.”