With summer slowly fading and autumn just around the corner, I wonder how many of us are worried about how much we drank over the last few months? Perhaps you’re counting down the days before you partake in ‘Sober October?’
Summer seems to provide so many people with the perfect excuse to indulge. Picnics, barbecues, pub lunches, a Pimm’s in the garden before dinner, an espresso martini afterwards. There’s always a reason to crack open a bottle of something.
And boy, can some people drink. I attended a brunch recently and most of the guests were legless by midday. Another friend just came back from Spain and when I asked how it was, he laughed and said: ‘No idea. I was bladdered the whole time.’
There is a hidden epidemic involving middle-class, middle-aged and retired people drinking too much (picture posed by model)
Does that sound familiar? It’s around this time of year that many people sober up from summer excesses and realise that they may well have a dependence on alcohol.
When we think about the problems that society has with drinking, we tend to picture youngsters binging on alcopops.
It conjures up images of hooligans brawling in the street, or girls barely able to stand, arms wrapped around each other while they stagger to the next cocktail bar.
And when we think of alcoholics, it brings to mind images of homeless men, a bottle in a brown paper bag, dozing on a park bench.
But there is another group that has a serious problem with alcohol, a problem that may well shorten their life. Yet this group manages to slip beneath the radar because they are far too respectable to appear drunk in any obvious or loutish way.
The hidden epidemic I’m talking about lies among middle-class, middle-aged and retired people. I see many men and women in this category in my clinic. When I ask them about their drinking, they often fail to see they have a problem because things haven’t (yet) reached the stage where they physically depend on it – when the body becomes reliant on alcohol and the shakes kick in if they go without it.
Some will have started using alcohol as a way of managing stress. For others, as their children grow up and they find they have more time on their hands, they start to use alcohol as a way of passing the time, of relaxing and unwinding.
It usually starts slowly – the odd glass with lunch as a treat, especially during the summer months. After all, there’s not much else on in the afternoon, is there? Then a few glasses turns to a bottle. Or perhaps that mid-morning G&T becomes much more gin than tonic. And then you pour yourself another one.
Wealthy, retired and bored is a lethal combination when it comes to drink. Studies have found that drinking among the over-50s has become a hidden phenomenon, and the higher somebody’s income is the more at risk they are.
According to NHS England, latest figures from 2022 revealed that 23 per cent of women in the 55-64 age category were drinking more than 14 units of alcohol a week. While these are only guidelines – and there is an argument that any amount of alcohol raises the risk of diseases such as cancer, so there really is no ‘safe’ amount – there is evidence that over 14 units the risks significantly increase.
One study examining this found people consuming one or two drinks four or more times a week had a 20 per cent higher risk of premature death, compared with those who drank only three times per week or less.
And don’t be fooled if you can go days or even a few weeks without alcohol. Many alcoholics kid themselves that because they can abstain for a short period they can’t be hooked.
One patient described it as like holding your breath under water – you know that eventually you’ll need to surface and take a breath of air. Similarly, you can go a while without alcohol, but eventually you know you’ll need to give in and have a drink.
It’s why fashionable movements such as ‘Dry January’ and now ‘Sober October’ worry me.
Reducing your alcohol intake is always a sensible thing, but if the first thing you do come the first of February or November is reach for the corkscrew then it’s a good indicator that a month off the booze isn’t going to fix things – and it could even be time to seek professional help.
So what do you do if you think you may have a problem?
People often feel, because they are functioning day to day and aren’t physically dependent on drink, that they shouldn’t trouble their GP.
But a good doctor will recognise that someone asking for help needs intervention now, before it escalates any further.
One of the ways doctors will screen for alcohol problems is via the CAGE system, which poses four key questions: Have you ever felt you needed to cut down your drinking? Have people annoyed you by criticizing your drinking? Have you ever felt guilty about drinking? Do you need to drink first thing in the morning to steady your nerves or lessen a hangover?
Answering ‘yes’ to two or more of these questions means there could be a problem that can’t simply be explained away as summer fun or rectified with Sober October.
In his damning report on the state of the NHS, Lord Darzi spelt out that the system was failing the elderly, something that’s long been patently obvious to those working in the health service. It’s shameful and I can’t help but blame it on ageism – there is no way we would be so blasé about such poor treatment of children.
The Prince and Princess of Wales announced that Kate has finished her chemotherapy course
Spare a thought for Wills
Over the past week there was been much admiration for the brave and dignified way in which the Princess of Wales has tackled her cancer diagnosis and treatment. Whoever you are, whatever your background, cancer is incredibly scary and chemotherapy is particularly arduous, exhausting and unpleasant.
But I do also want to spare a thought for Prince William because being the partner of someone with cancer is a highly challenging and stressful experience too. You love the person and hate to see them so vulnerable, anxious or upset. You long to take some of their pain and fear on for yourself, to halve their suffering, if only it were possible.
You too are scared, but must put on a brave face and be the ‘strong’ one, especially if there are young children to be shielded and to try and maintain a certain normality for – all while providing emotional support for a sick. Amid the perfectly understandable outpouring of sympathy and understanding for the cancer patient, it’s important that we don’t forget that the partner will be going through a very tough time as well.
I know I won’t have been the only one looking on with horror and fury as 1,700 criminals were released early from prison.
After years of working with both criminals and those in the justice system I know that a softly-softly approach rarely works, especially with those who have a history of violence.
We must have punishments that fit the crime, not just as a deterrent but also to keep people safe and so that the public feel confident that when someone is convicted, justice will be served.
Labour have always had a reputation as being the party that’s soft on crime, and I’ve often questioned whether that was fair or true. Yet here they are allowing hardened criminals out on the street when they’ve only served a fraction of their time, with many more set to follow.
The reality is we need to approach the law in the same way a good parent would when disciplining a child, when you set a clear boundary around behaviour and then enforce it. You spell out what punishments can be expected if rules are broken and you never waver from this. You can be kind and compassionate as well, but ultimately if you let people get away with things it sends out the message that you are weak, easily manipulated and that bad behaviour is no big deal. Every small child knows this – and now every criminal does too.
