The Slippery Slope of Alcohol Use and Where Intervention is Needed

“Hobbies” I scoffed. “What mid life woman who’s raising kids, working full time, and running a busy home has time for hobbies! And besides – I have my favourite hobby right here.” I reached for my wine, gave an over-the-top sniff, and took a generous gulp. I could feel my body and mind relax and switch off as the depressant effects of the alcohol took hold. All I wanted was a way to switch off and unwind, momentary oblivion from a life where it felt I rarely had a moment to myself, where someone always wanted a piece of me.

Fast forward a couple of years, and alcohol had become a more significant crutch in my life…

I didn’t define myself as having severe alcohol use disorder (culturally referred to as ‘alcoholism’) but nor was I a ‘take it or leave it’ drinker. I was using alcohol as a crutch to manage stress, to relax and switch off, my reward at the end of a busy and overwhelming day. I didn’t drink every day and I didn’t drink in the morning, my 2 self-imposed rules that meant I didn’t have a ‘problem’. Occasionally I took a month off just to prove to myself that I could. Another tick in the box that my drinking hadn’t crossed into problematic. But in all honesty, my drinking WAS problematic.

Alcohol was increasingly having a negative impact on my life and all my attempts at long-term change were unsuccessful…

I could take a month off, but when I returned to drinking it was at the same levels. And the impact on my mental and physical health was becoming more and more obvious. Alcohol was impacting my sleep causing regular 3am wake ups leading to me feeling tired, unmotivated, and unproductive the next day. My anxiety was through the roof, increasing to the point that I went to my GP in tears, sobbing to her that I felt like a shadow of my former self. Without even asking me how much I was drinking, she happily wrote me a script for anti-anxiety meds. I was putting on weight, my hormones were all over the place, my skin was bloated and blotchy and grey and myself talk was self-destructive.

But on the outside, no one thought my drinking was a problem…

This is classic ‘grey area drinking’ and its estimated millions of people sit in this category - where there is little support available to help create change. Grey Area Drinking describes the place between ‘every now and then’ drinking and ‘rock bottom’ drinking. It could also be described as mild or moderate alcohol use disorder.

The medical world stopped using the term ‘alcoholic’ years ago…

 That’s because it was deemed an unhelpful term. After all what level of alcohol consumption describes someone as an ‘alcoholic?’. Instead in the health and medical world, the term ‘Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) is used, and this is described as a continuum of mild, moderate, and severe which acknowledges that someone doesn’t wake up one day with severe AUD, they will likely pass through mild to moderate because after all, alcohol is named in the top 5 most addictive substances in the world.

So, where’s the support?

 Very little support is available for people who don’t meet the criteria for ‘dependence’. One of my clients was turned away from a medical rehab facility because she didn’t drink ‘enough’. She was drinking 1 -1.5 bottles of wine a week, approx. 80 units of alcohol which is 800% higher than the recommend amount for women of 10 units a week. She was simply told to ‘drink less.’

Where intervention is needed…

 As more and more statistics emerge about the negative impact of alcohol use at ALL levels (not only for people with severe AUD) it’s time Australia followed in the steps of countries like Ireland and Canada who are leading the way changing alcohol policies. In 2023, Canada was the first country to come out and say there is no safe amount of alcohol and changing their recommendations to no more than 2 units a week and Ireland will soon be issuing health warnings on all alcoholic drinks, directly stating ‘There is a direct link between alcohol and fatal cancers.’ By offering more education, information and support to people who sit in the mild range of AUD, we can prevent thousands of deaths, diseases, and pain.

Would you like to change your relationship with alcohol? Check out my programs here. Or order of a copy of my best-selling book beyond Booze here.