3 to 9 July is Alcohol Awareness Week. It is coordinated by Alcohol Change UK (a UK based charity) and is a week of awareness raising and campaigning for change. The theme this year is Alcohol and cost.
While some people chose to abstain, alcohol is a part of many of our lives. We use it to celebrate, comfort, socialise, wind down and perhaps for some to cope. Most societies treat it differently to other drugs – it’s legal, socially acceptable and is even encouraged. It’s interesting to think what would happen if it was discovered for the first time today. Would it be so acceptable or would it be banned?
It’s thought that in the UK one person every hour dies as a result of alcohol. Even if it doesn’t kill you it can harm you through mental health problems, liver disease, economic difficulties and much more. One of seven forms of cancer are alcohol related. And it doesn’t stop there, anyone who drinks too much is part of a family and a community. This can cause increased use of emergency services, drink driving, violence and neglect.
James Wolcott (American journalist) has spoken about the effect alcohol, and other factors, had on his childhood and later life. He said, “Being raised Catholic in a pressure-cooker household besieged by alcohol and bill collectors enforced and heightened a sense of sentry duty in me, the oldest of five children and the one most responsible for keeping everything from capsizing. Wild indulgence was for other people, the non-worriers”.
The total social cost of alcohol to society in the UK is estimated to be at least £21 billion each year. We as individuals spend £50,000 on average on alcohol over the course of a lifetime. Think what you could do with that money.
The personal costs could be far more significant with alcohol death rates increasing to the highest rate since records began. The cost of living crisis has also played a key role in causing some people to drink more than they’d like to cope with their problems. And with the current challenges we all face, millions more people are suffering from worsened mental and physical health every day as a result of harmful drinking.
Hypnotherapy can help with addictions of all types including alcohol. If you, or someone you know, is struggling with an addiction then contact me.