Online Alcoholism & Addiction Counselling

A recent survey by YouGov found that 33% of adults between 30 and 50 felt that alcohol had ruined a night out for them at least once in the past year.

They also pointed out how much more of an effect alcohol has on the body the older we get, our organs just can’t recover as quickly as they used to. So it’s no surprise that they also report that NHS admissions due to alcohol for over 35 year olds have increased by 50% in the last three years. This is all adding up to a big problem. What is going on in the UK right now?

Many people do not accept their own feelings - especially the negative ones. When you feel angry, you might tell yourself, “oh no, I shouldn’t feel angry about it”, or maybe “why do I feel so lonely, what’s wrong with me” ?

But the key to mental health (or suffering a bit less at least), is accepting your own feelings as they are, and not judging yourself for having them. That doesn’t mean they’ll suddenly go away, but just that you realise that its OK to be feeling them, there’s nothing wrong about them.

You need to recognise that you feel a certain way for a reason, so your feelings are valid. Most of the time we have very little (if any) control of our emotions - they appear within us without our choosing them, they are not our creations. So we cannot really judge ourselves as ‘bad’, or stupid for having them.

Nor can we judge ourselves if we’re finding it hard to deal with those feelings - we often think “oh why can’t I cope with this, I’m useless” etc. Well there’s not many people who can easily handle their emotions all the time. The truth is, we’re all struggling with our feelings, few of us really feels in control of them.

So there’s no easy solution for coping, but accepting who you are and what you’re feeling (however painful that might be) is a good start. There’s nothing wrong with you for feeling like you do.