Online Alcoholism & Addiction Counselling

This week the BBC monitored the drinking diaries of two typical professional people in their late twenties - both considered themselves to be health conscious and fit.

What emerged was a picture of what many people might consider ‘normal’ patterns of drinking in our culture. However, when their level of alcohol consumption was broken down into units it became apparent that both of them were drinking way in excess of recommended guidelines - 37 units for the woman and 112 units for the man.

They also demonstrated a significant level of ignorance about their drinking, and about the implications for their health. One of them actually said - “I don’t like getting drunk…” yet had consumed over 15 units per session on five days that week, and 25 units (as far as he could remember) on the Saturday! That’s about 8 pints of strong lager or nearly 3 bottles of wine. But he doesn’t like getting drunk - yeah, right!

However, a survey by YouGov also found that many people have no idea what the recommended safe alcohol consumption levels actually are (14 units per week for women and 21 for men), and very few were aware of the units of alcohol present in common drinks. [Here's a very handy units of alcohol calculator]

The thing which strikes you when you read the two diaries is that there are many people around drinking exactly the same amounts, yet believing that they don’t have a problem with alcohol.

Are you an alcoholic?

Focussing on negative thoughts as opposed to positive ones leaves you feeling depressed and unmotivated.

If you concentrate on how many mistakes you’ve made, or how you haven’t managed to stop drinking like you wanted to, maybe how you’ve ‘failed’ yourself and those around you, then of course you won’t feel good about yourself. Notice when you’re thinking these thoughts, and take control of them. Here’s where you need to make a choice to -

Concentrate on positive thoughts instead :

• What will improve in your life when you’ve cut down or stopped drinking?
• How much better will you feel?
• What improvements have you already made?
• Have you managed some slight reductions already?
• If so, what benefits have you started to notice because of that?
• Are you still essentially a good person, even though you’ve made mistakes?

The theory of ‘negative suggestion’ warns that if you focus on NOT doing something, it’s more likely that you’ll end up doing it, than if you were focussing on something else entirely. So if you find yourself thinking, “I must not drink, I must not drink” it’s a warning sign that you need to start concentrating on something else instead - distract yourself with another task, something absorbing. Just telling yourself “I mustn’t think about not drinking” is clearly still in that loop.

Likewise if you need to quit for a while, but you’re thinking, “Oh no, I’ll never be able to drink again“, then that will undoubtedly keep you focussed on the negative. Maybe you can drink again in the future; you don’t need to decide that now, focus on the present moment, and how good you feel about not drinking today.

Oh dear, the BBC reported today that UK police crime figures have shown a 50% increase in arrests of women for being drunk and disorderly over the past five years.

In certain areas of the country this rate was even higher - a 1200% increase in the West Midlands, and a 700% increase in South Wales.

Some people are blaming this on cheap alco-pops, while others suggest the opened up licensing laws. It seems to be more to do with our culture, women drink as much as men do now.

Where is this trend going, and what effect is it having on the health of the women in this generation?