Alcohol Misuse

Do you fear you are misusing alcohol, or are you living with someone who drinks excessively?

• Are you secretly concerned about how much you drink, or finding it is out of your control when you try to stop?
• Are you finding that you can stop for a while when you need to, but it always seems to start again?
• Do you find yourself wondering if only you could move to a new town / start a different job / get out of a difficult relationship; then you might be able to stop drinking?
• Do you find you are hiding your drinking habits from others, lying about how much you have drunk or how often, hiding bottles, taking bottles with you to ‘top up’ in the pub, ordering extra spirit shots and drinking them at the bar out of sight of your friends because drinking at their pace isn’t enough?
• Do you find yourself drinking alone, drinking to change your mood, or to cope with uncomfortable feelings like anger, anxiety or grief?
• Do you find yourself drinking just to feel calm, feel all right, feel in control, or feel capable of doing or getting through things? Do you have unpleasant things happening in your life which you know are caused by excessive drinking?

There is a lot of stigma, shame and judgement around drinking in our society.

It is very normal and acceptable to drink in a certain way (in fact it is almost expected) and drink is everywhere around us. We drink to celebrate weddings and births and birthdays and Christmas. We drink at funerals. We drink to relax. But for some people, drink becomes a necessity, and they drink more often and in larger amounts than they know other people find acceptable. They can find themselves drinking at inappropriate times, and even when they did not intend to. It is very hard to talk about this even to people we know well, because there is so much judgement.

It may be that you are going through a difficult time -  for example, after a bereavement or a difficult life event like retirement, redundancy, a broken relationship or parent’s divorce. Or you may be one of those people who will always find it difficult to control or stop drinking once you have started. This can happen to anyone, at any age or stage of life.

It is not a moral issue. You are not a bad person, or even a weak willed person. There are solutions, and I can help you find the one that is right for you. Many more people have problems with alcohol than you may think, but it is rarely discussed openly and there is a great deal of ignorance and misunderstanding about alcohol problems among those who do not suffer them. Having a drink problem is not your fault – but you can choose to take responsibility for dealing with it by asking for help. Please contact me today for a no obligation chat.