Millions in UK drinking harmful levels of alcohol at home, experts warn | Alcohol

41 comments
  1. Yeah, dangerous. You can put your back out carrying too many bottles.
    Follow government advice, and use one of those wheely suitcases.

  2. Can you blame us? Constant anxiety and division of COVID, Brexit being a disaster, costs going up while our shower of shite government live it up in private jets and five holidays a year.

  3. Yeah I can definitely say that my drinking has gotten significantly worse over the pandemic. I drink until I pass out most nights now.

    I want to cut back, but I’m honestly scared that I won’t be able to cope

  4. I only really drank at home the first few months of covid when literally nothing was open or happening and the weather was fantastic.

    It was fantastic.

  5. Certainly binging less since I stopped being a student and didn’t have many opportunities to during lockdown. Have been drinking more often though. Only a beer or a glass of wine at the end of the day, but I do try and actively have a break if I’ve been racking up consecutive days

  6. I used to drink, I always needed another when others were leaving. It also opened up a pathway to much harder substances. Part of the problem here in the UK and much of the world, is that drinking forms a massive part of socialising, dating etc.

    A few beers would lead me to a bottle of whisky and a bag of coke.

    As others have said, the current climate of poor pay, failing healthcare, unaffordable housing, inflation and lockdowns will inevitably lead to substance abuse across the board. When GPs turn to antidepressants and anxiolytics for first line treatment, then society is sick. Ironically, social media has destroyed society, being honest about how you feel is treated with contempt, the constant need to validate yourself with fake internet points and clout all result in isolation and social facades that are impossible to maintain forever.

    I’m a year sober from everything now, but I still struggle when I sit in a pub as I still crave a single malt or some form of social lubrication. Its been ingrained in me to drink at social events, my family are drinkers, so social events were always about drinking. Sadly, many meaningful relationships deteriorated due to problematic boozing. Jobs were lost and partners left.

    Part of the problem is escaping the dull reality of life. Booze and drugs make things better, temporarily. Some people like temporary fixes. They then become a permanent fix. If your crutch is booze or drugs, you need to take a break from it. One thing I know for sure as a poly addict, alcohol is certainly one of, if not the most damaging substances available on the market.

    Find a purpose, get out and walk in nature and find someone who you can be 100% yourself with.

  7. More people are drinking at home, licensed venues were not open for a long time, so these people were drinking out before.

  8. Substance abuse addiction is a symptom of many illnesses; depression, anxiety etc, only thing is, they- the government,- have inflicted the anxiety and depression! The cheek to comment on the nations drinking habits when drinking and doing drugs is the only thing guaranteed to lift your mood in this capitalist hellscape …..

  9. Going for a winter walk earlier in the week and it was recycling day.

    The number of houses that had their boxes filled to the top with bottles was honestly astounding, not one or two, but the majority of houses on the streets I went through were over 3/4 full.

  10. 2 years of restrictions and pandemic stress,
    Brexit,
    Daily government scandals,
    Cost of living going up,
    Housing crisis,
    Climate crisis.

    Yep, think it’s fairly easy to see why people have been driven to drink a bit more…

  11. > Sinclair said patients were coming into hospitals in a “much more severe” state. “We’ve had more patients going into delirium tremens – the really kind of life-threatening part of alcohol withdrawal – who end up in intensive care,” she said. “I have seen more people in our hospital in that state [during the pandemic] than I’ve seen in the six years prior to that.”

    This bot does not make sense. That’s withdrawal, meaning they stopped drinking suddenly.

  12. Who could have forseen this consequence of putting us under house arrest for two years while expecting us to keep working.

  13. Comments here really show how unhealthy the nation’s relationship with alcohol really is.

    Without doubt these are hard times for all, however if you’re finding it impossible to cope unless consuming excessive quantities of alcohol, then you should consider finding help.

    The last thing anyone needs right now is serious alcohol related health issues, on top of everything that’s happening.

  14. Shocker.

    Almost 2 years of incompetent management of a pandemic and rules that dont make sense; it’s actually fine – no wait, it’ll kill you, just kidding it’s fine again; dont go to work, (unless you’re a labourer because we dont care about you guys) but school is fine.

    People self medicate with drugs when they are miserable and society isnt geared towards people being able to get themselves out of a rut. Plus it’s impossible to get an actual doctor’s appointment and statutory sick pay isnt enough for a single person to live off, let alone a family.

  15. Massively normalised in this country. Even the suggestion that needing to have a drink everyday is bad encourages hundreds of people to defend themselves as if youve shot their first born.

  16. at the beginning of the pandemic i was drinking about 5 or 6 beers a night as I was finishing work at 4 and just sat on the sofa drinking for the rest of the night. fortunately i got out of that quite quickly.

  17. Since I went full-time WFH I have been drinking almost every other day – either a bottle of wine or x4 of those 660ml bottles of beer … hitting around 60 / 70 units a week and have been for around 2 years now – its strange, I wake up fine and not crave it all day, even sometimes say to ‘myself nah not tonight’, then, something clicks around 4 / 5pm and I just go ‘yanno, why not’ …

  18. Well, I could drink less but the daily grind is such an immense chore it’s actually painful. So it’s either booze or develop a codeine addiction.

  19. This has been going on for decades. I’ve been dry for more than thirteen years and it was pretty grim back then. People were preloading at home – a bottle of wine getting ready, a bottle of gin or something similar when everyone turns up, maybe another cheeky bottle of short, then out to pubs and clubs for sherbets, mick mills and Charlie, then back home for a wind down session on lager.

    The rock pub days were better though. Beers, followed by a few bottles of dog, then a few beers, then a few JDs, then a few beers to level it out then beer and JD with weed and coke chasers.

  20. a year or two back I started using alcodroid to track my alcohol intake

    the recommended amount of 14 units per week is absolutely fuck all. I’ve been drinking ‘a dangerous amount’ for *years*

  21. I drink less! I’m a social drinker and normally will open a good bottle, (or two), of wine at a meal with guests. We had one of those last year. Just one in two years!!

    So if you’ll excuse me, I’ll have a whisky to drown my sorrow!

  22. Meanwhile our “masters” are wheeling in fucking wine fridges for “work meetings” even though they already have an actual fucking communal bar at their office.

  23. I mainly do it because I haven’t been had my antidepressants for 18 months, with emails and phone calls to my local general hospital reaching deaf ears (plus my GP quit) so I’m just in a grey area until it gets fixed

  24. So far, I’m 18 days without a drink. A quiet drink for me used to a be 1 bottle of wine, but I’d usually open a second, manage a glass before conking out, but on occasion could get through the second if I drank quickly enough, this is on school nights too, heavier in weekends.

    That was before lockdown. Much like with pringles, once I pop, I can’t stop.

    Over the lockdown my drinking got way worse, and my tolerance went up, to the point where on occassion I was knocking off a 75cl bottle of gin or rum, whether it started as a reasonable lunchtime bevvy in the sun or fast paced hard liquor drinking in the evening, that bottle would be empty, pouring 3 finger measures and going back for seconds within the half hour, if that.

    This Christmas I was easily exceeding the recommended weekly allowance on a daily basis, jumping between wine, port, and spirits and midafternoon snoozes.

    I can’t recall the last time I went for this long without a drink, easily 15 years or more. I feel so much better for it. I obviously have an unhealthy relationship with the booze, and if not for my own sake but that if my kids, I am super keen to maintain my distance.

    The last few years, if not longer have been, when I think about, a long consistent hangover, or comedown, with the occasional day of not feeling under the weather.

    18 days in, I’ve debloated, felt energised, less gloomy and generally in better spirits…

  25. I definitely became a problem drinker over lockdown one. I was furloughed and 4 pint cans of stella a day was pretty much routine. Put on masses of weight and felt like shit.

    Doing dry january now, have never felt better in myself. Think I’m going to turn a corner and cut down on drinking beyond the end of January, hopefully just once a week.

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