RETHINK THE DRINK

There's an increasing understanding about the negative impacts alcohol can have on mental health. So how can you cut back or quit completely if you think your drinking is affecting your wellbeing? Joe Minihane investigates

- Joe Minihane

"I have a history of depression and anxiety," says Ian Bilik. "Even now, as a non-drinker, I still suffer from anxiety, but it's barely noticeable anymore. Before, it was crippling, I wasn't able to go to work - I wasn't even able to leave the house."

Bilik decided that he'd had enough of drinking after a particularly heavy Bank Holiday weekend, when he woke up surrounded by empty bottles: "I just thought, Right, that's it. I'm done. I can't do this anymore. I've never been more determined to do anything in my life than I was the day I decided to stop drinking."

Bilik has a blog and forthcoming book called One Man And His Grog. He's part of a growing community of people who are either quitting drinking altogether or taking a radical approach to moderate their alcohol intake. The impact on his mental health, he says, was almost immediate.

"Stopping drinking transformed my mental health state entirely," he says. "I went from being a depressed, angry, anxious person to someone who was happy and bright and positive. It was incredible."

A nation of drinkers

There's no escaping the fact that Britain has got a drinking problem. Deaths caused by alcohol soared by 19% in 2020, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), with sales of booze jumping while pubs remained shut due to lockdown. Alcohol Change UK reports that the average UK adult consumes 18 units of alcohol per week, four units more than the government-recommended limit. Its research has also shown that higher earners are more likely to drink than those taking home less money, while men are more likely to binge than women. A recent Global Burden of Diseases report, published in The Lancet, found that any amount of alcohol was harmful to those under 40, with men between 15 and 39 most at risk. An astonishing 75% of harmful drinkers were found to be male.