Let’s talk about alcohol.

When I was twelve, I turned to my mother and announced that I would never get drunk, smoke or take drugs. To this day, I stuck to that little promise that I made as a child.

Growing up with a mixture of English, Irish and Japanese cultures - drinking alcohol is something that is wholly ingrained in all three cultures. Drinking in ingrained in a lot of cultures throughout the World - some with a more sensible attitude than others. I noticed early on the effects of drinking more than a couple and regularly on the adults around me and couldn’t make sense of why they would do it. As I have gotten older, my understanding on why people drink has deepened.

Alcohol has a different meaning for each individual. For me, it was something that I didn’t really want to partake in and will willingly admit that I am not its biggest fan.

As a teenager, getting drunk for the first time is a rite of passage and something that is seen as the done thing to do. From my teenage years all the way up to now, if some people hear that I don’t drink regularly or have never been drunk - it now becomes a conquest that has to be beaten. Regardless of why I don’t want to drink or more importantly that I don’t want to drink.

I had my first proper drink on my 18th birthday and initially felt excited - this is the moment when I will feel like a grown up. That’s what everyone else does. I drank it and wasn’t impressed, it tasted bitter and for want of a better word “icky”.

Over the years, I have tried many different alcohol beverages and very few tasted nice. The main thing that I noticed when I drank is that it affected my sleep that night, no matter how long I slept and when I woke up would feel as if I barely slept at all. Along with this, I would bloat and just not feel great at all for the following day.

Above is a photo of me with a drink. I drink maybe once or twice a year and mostly for a birthday or a special occasion. I have a sweet tooth and found that I only like alcohol if they taste like juice.

I’m sharing my story with alcohol with the hopes that it makes you think about how you consume alcohol and for what reasons. In researching the effects of alcohol on the body, I came across a statement “drinking has become the UK’s favourite pasttime” on Alcohol Change’s website.

Alcohol is something that can be hugely detrimental to your wellbeing and how your body functions. In a lot of circles, drinking regularly and heavily is often celebrated and encouraged. The attitude towards alcohol (unless someone has an alcohol dependency) is often not challenged or given too much thought about. It is rampant in popular culture, TV shows regularly normalizes it use for pretty much any situation and we now have celebratory cards, t-shirts and coasters that make light of people’s drinking habits.

We are yet to look at alcohol consumption in the same way as smoking but did you know in the UK excessive alcohol intake is the leading cause in 11% of cancers. To put it in perspective, smoking causes 13% of cancers. (Alcoholchange.org.uk)

I am not trying to put you off drinking forever but to have a good think about what your habits are around alcohol is.

For more information, you can visit alcoholchange.org.uk