As the weather gets warmer and the days get longer, we plan holidays, picnics, and dinners out where we might enjoy a drink or two with friends and family.
Although there’s nothing wrong with the odd drink, if left unchecked, excessive alcohol consumption can impact our mental and physical health, affect our relationships, and, in more serious cases, gradually spiral into alcohol dependency or addiction.
That’s why Alcohol Awareness Week is such an important week of the year in our wellbeing calendars. Coordinated by the charity Alcohol Change UK and taking place from the 1st to the 7th of July, this awareness week encourages us to think about, talk about, and learn more about our alcohol consumption and how it can affect our emotional and physical health.
Drawing on the key themes of Alcohol Awareness Week and exploring its relationship to our health and wellbeing, in this blog post, we’ll be discussing the real-life impacts alcohol can have on our minds and bodies, exploring why we may be drinking too much, and what steps we can all take to create healthier drinking habits.
Drinking Behaviours: Understanding Alcohol Consumption
What does it mean to have ‘one too many?’ and how can we identify patterns of dependent drinking?
A dependent drinker is someone who develops a strong physical or physiological dependence on alcohol, experiencing negative physical or emotional withdrawal symptoms when they try to cut back or go without their regular amount of drink. These can include tremors, sweating, anxiety, difficulty sleeping, and in severe cases – depression.
According to statistics from Alcohol Change UK, there are an estimated 602, 391 people with an alcohol dependency in England (only 18% of whom are getting help for this dependency). The UK Chief Medical Officers’ Low Risk Drinking Guidelines suggest that it is not safe to drink more than 14 units of alcohol a week. However, what is concerning is that the latest data from 2021-23 shows that a staggering 57% of UK adults are drinking at least 14 units per week, with 23% drinking much more. This means that the majority of adults in the UK are at risk of developing – or worsening – an unhealthy relationship with alcohol. But why are we drinking so much? Some common reasons include:
- Social behaviours, with pubs and bars being common venues for meeting up with friends, socialising with colleagues, watching a football match, or having a meal.
- Releasing stress and unwinding after juggling busy work routines, family responsibilities, and using alcohol as a form of temporary escape.
- Alcohol being affordable and easily accessible.
Of course, other reasons, including depression and other mental health issues, can trigger a dependency on alcohol as a type of coping mechanism. However, these common reasons highlight how easy it is for us to overindulge when our social engagements and opportunities for relaxation are often all too easily facilitated by accessible, affordable drinks.
When you’re surrounded by friends drinking at the pub, how easy do you find it to say no?
When your partner gets a new job or your child passes an exam, do you reach for the champagne?
And when you’re feeling stressed and exhausted after a hectic day at work, how much willpower does it take you to not swing by the supermarket on your way home for a bottle of wine?
The Dangers of Drinking Too Much: Effects on Physical and Mental Health
Understanding how alcohol can damage our health means educating ourselves about the many dangers it exposes our minds and bodies to. As with any addictive substance, safe drinking is about finding a balance and safeguarding ourselves against addiction and the illnesses that can be caused by alcohol. The physical effects of excessive drinking:
1. Liver damage:
The liver uses metabolic processes to break down alcohol, meaning that excessive drinking can put too much pressure on it, damaging its functioning. This can cause liver diseases like fatty liver, hepatitis, fibrosis, and cirrhosis.
2. Cardiovascular problems:
Heavy drinking can increase blood pressure by stimulating the body’s ‘fight or flight’ response. It also has a diuretic (dehydrating) effect that causes the body to retain sodium, further damaging blood pressure regulation.
3. Weight gain and obesity:
Alcohol is high in calories and drinking these calories makes it easier to go over our daily intake without quite realising it. The sugars in alcohol may also lead to the build-up of fatty deposits, contributing to weight gain, obesity, and making us more susceptible to health issues like diabetes via blood sugar dysregulation.
4. Sexual Health:
Alcohol dependence and chronic usage can impair sexual and reproductive functions by depressing the central nervous system and reducing sexual sensitivity. Over time this can reduce libido. Drinking alcohol during pregnancy can also cause serious complications and trigger foetal alcohol spectrum disorders.
5. Neurological damage:
Alcohol consumption suppresses the central nervous system, risking damage to peripheral nerves and cognitive impairments. Serious conditions such as Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome are also linked to alcohol dependency, where excessive alcohol consumption causes a deficiency of thiamine (Vitamin B1), resulting in confusion, physical coordination problems, and memory retention issues.
Excessive drinking also heralds many dangers for our mental health. These include:
1. Depression:
As a depressant, alcohol affects the workings of neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine, which are responsible for regulating our moods. Over time and prolonged alcohol misuse, these neurotransmitters can be severely impaired, triggering consistent low moods and prolonged feelings of sadness, ultimately resulting in depression.
2. Anxiety:
As a depressant, alcohol can calm feelings of stress and anxiety by toning down the functioning of the nervous system. Over time, however, this soothing effect means that we may become dependent on alcohol to drown out feelings of dread or anxiety, leading to increased anxious behaviours and even panic attacks during alcohol withdrawal – a vicious circle.
3. Sleep Issues:
We may feel drowsy after a drink, but high levels of alcohol in the body can actually adversely affect our sleep by compromising its quality. Having high amounts of alcohol in our systems means that we spend less time in the REM (Rapid Eye Movement) stage of sleep, leaving us waking up drowsy and tired. Alcohol also causes hangovers, further increasing feelings of tiredness and drowsiness.
4. Mood Swings:
The fluctuation of neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine between bouts of drinking can negatively impact our mood regulation. You might feel happy and relaxed one moment, excited and energetic the next, and then irritable or annoyed within an instant. The depression of the nervous system also means that you can feel numb and helpless.
5. Social Isolation:
A dependency on alcohol can mean that we prioritise drinking over our responsibilities and loved ones. For instance, someone dependent on alcohol may avoid a social arrangement to stay at home and drink excessive amounts in private. Over time, withdrawal from family members and friends can lead to isolation and loneliness, and a harmful cycle of using alcohol to escape from such feelings may continue.
By understanding the impact of excessive alcohol consumption, we can take proactive steps to manage our drinking habits.
Improving Our Drinking Habits: Managing Alcohol Consumption and Seeking Help
Habitual behaviours are hard to do away with, and excessive or unhealthy drinking habits are no exception. A better, safer relationship with drinking requires consistent effort and small, long-term changes that have a long-lasting impact. We recommend:
- Planning and setting limits on how much you’re going to let yourself drink at certain times. For example, if you’re cutting back from having a few glasses of wine a night, at first, you might plan to stick to just one glass of wine during dinner. After you’ve kept this up for a while, see if you can stick to soft drinks on certain days of the week and build this up from there. Challenge yourself!
- Keeping track of how much you’re drinking in an average week to make sure you’re within the limits for safe alcohol consumption. The units can easily add up, especially when you’re out or distracted, spending time with friends and family, or watching TV or a film on the sofa. An alcohol diary can help you see how much you’re really drinking and where you can cut down.
- Alternating your usual alcohol drinks with a lower strength drink or alcohol free-alternatives such as non-alcoholic champagne, wine, or beer, spritzers, sparkling water, mocktails, or juice.
- Planning alcohol-free days or weekends with social activities that don’t involve drinking, such as playing a sport, going for a long walk or run, reading, or visiting a museum or gallery.
- Avoiding triggers you know make you want to drink – including friends who persuade you to drink more than you feel comfortable with and social events that often revolve around heavy drinking.
- Staying hydrated with plenty of water to reduce the craving for an alcoholic drink.
- Speaking to others around you and seeking support from your family and friends by letting them know you’re trying to cut back on your drinking.
Most importantly, don’t be worried about seeking professional help if you think you’d benefit from an expert’s support. Mental Health charity Mind recommends reaching out to organisations like Alcoholics Anonymous, Alcohol Change UK, Change Grow Live, and Turning Point for help with alcohol addiction or concerns about recreational alcoholic behaviours developing into a serious problem.
In Summary:
It’s Alcohol Awareness Week, and there’s never been a better time for us to reorient our alcohol consumption habits and make the most out of summer while prioritising safe drinking and safeguarding our mental and physical health. Staying informed about risks and recognising harmful patterns is key to creating and managing a healthy relationship with alcohol. In keeping with the spirit of Alcohol Awareness Week, it’s important for us all to familiarise ourselves with the dangers of excessive drinking and alcohol dependency, how we can take better care of our bodies, and how to make a consistent effort to improve our drinking habits and seek support from our loved ones and health professionals on our journey towards healthier lives
