As summer slowly fades away and fall is upon us, I wonder how many of us are worried about how much we’ve been drinking over the past few months? Perhaps you’re counting down the days until you participate in ‘Sober October?’
Summer seems to be the perfect excuse for many people to indulge. Picnics, BBQs, 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 was at a brunch recently and most of the guests were legless by noon. Another friend had just come back from Spain and when I asked him what it was like, he laughed and said, “I don’t know. I was under the bladder the whole time.”
There is a hidden epidemic of middle-class, middle-aged and retired people drinking too much (photo posed by model)
Sound familiar? It’s around this time of year that many people sober up from summer excesses and realize they may be dependent on alcohol.
When we think about the problems society has with alcohol consumption, we often think of young people stuffing themselves with alcohol pops.
It conjures up images of hooligans fighting in the streets, or girls barely able to stand, stumbling with their arms around each other to the next cocktail bar.
And when we think of alcoholics, we conjure up images of homeless men sleeping on a park bench with a bottle in a brown paper bag.
But there is another group who have a serious problem with alcohol, a problem that could shorten their lives. Yet this group manages to slip under the radar because they are far too respectable to appear drunk in an obvious or clumsy way.
The hidden epidemic I am talking about is among middle-class people, middle-aged people, and pensioners. I see many men and women in this category in my clinic. When I ask them about their drinking, they often do not see that they have a problem because the situation has not (yet) reached the point where they are physically dependent on it – when the body becomes dependent on alcohol and the tremors occur when they do without it.
Some will have started using alcohol to manage stress. Others, as their children grow up and they find themselves with more time on their hands, start using alcohol to pass the time, to relax and unwind.
It usually starts slowly – a single glass with lunch as a treat, especially in the summer months. After all, there’s not much else to do in the afternoon, is there? Then a few glasses becomes a bottle. Or maybe that mid-morning G&T becomes a lot more gin than tonic. And then you pour yourself another.
Rich, retired and bored is a deadly combination when it comes to drinking. Studies have shown that drinking among the over-50s has become a hidden phenomenon, and the higher someone’s income, the more at risk they are.
According to NHS England, the latest figures from 2022 showed that 23 percent of women aged 55-64 drank more than 14 units of alcohol a week. While these are only guidelines – and it is argued that any amount of alcohol increases the risk of diseases like cancer, so there is no ‘safe’ amount – there is evidence that above 14 units the risks increase significantly.
One study found that people who drank one or two drinks four or more times a week had a 20 percent higher risk of premature death, compared with people who drank only three times a week or less.
And don’t be fooled if you can go days or even weeks without alcohol. Many alcoholics convince themselves that they can’t get addicted because they can abstain for a short period of time.
One patient described it as holding your breath underwater – you know you’re going to have to come up for air eventually. In the same way, you can go without alcohol for a while, but eventually you know you have to give in and have a drink.
That’s why fashion trends like ‘Dry January’ and now ‘Sober October’ worry me.
It’s always a good idea to cut back on your alcohol consumption, but if you reach for a corkscrew first thing in February or November, that’s a good indication that a month without alcohol isn’t going to fix things. It might be time to seek professional help.
What should you do if you think there is a problem?
People often feel that they do not need to go to their doctor because they are just living their daily lives and are not physically dependent on alcohol.
But a good doctor will realize that someone who asks for help needs to intervene now, before things escalate further.
One way doctors screen for alcohol problems is through the CAGE system, which asks four key questions: Have you ever felt like you should cut down on your drinking? Have people annoyed you by criticizing your drinking? Have you ever felt guilty about your drinking? Do you need to drink first thing in the morning to calm your nerves or lessen a hangover?
If you answer yes to two or more of these questions, it means you may have a problem that you can’t simply dismiss as summer fun or solve with Sober October.
In his damning report on the state of the NHS, Lord Darzi explained that the system was failing older people, something that has long been obvious to those working in healthcare. It is outrageous and I can’t help but blame it on ageism – there is no way we could be so blasé about such poor treatment of children.
The Prince and Princess of Wales have announced that Kate has completed her chemotherapy
Think of Wills
There has been much admiration over the past week for the brave and dignified way in which The Princess of Wales has dealt with her cancer diagnosis and treatment. Whoever you are, whatever your background, cancer is incredibly scary and chemotherapy is particularly tough, exhausting and unpleasant.
But I also want to take a moment to think about Prince William, because being the partner of someone with cancer is also a very challenging and stressful experience. You love the person and hate to see them so vulnerable, so scared, so upset. You yearn to take on some of their pain and fear, to halve their suffering, if only that were possible.
You too are scared, but you have to put on a brave face and be the “strong one,” especially when there are young children to protect and for whom you have to try to maintain some normalcy — all while providing emotional support to a sick person. Amid the completely understandable outpouring of sympathy and understanding for the cancer patient, it is important that we do not forget that the partner is also going through a very difficult time.
I know I am not the only one who watched with horror and anger as 1,700 criminals were released early from prison.
After years of working with both criminals and people in the justice system, I know that a soft approach rarely works, especially with people with a violent past.
We need to use punishments that fit the crime, not just as a deterrent, but to protect people and ensure that the public can have confidence that justice will be done if someone is convicted.
Labour has always had a reputation for being the party that is soft on crime, and I have often wondered whether that is fair or true. And yet here they are letting hardened criminals walk the streets with only served a fraction of their sentences, and many more to come.
The reality is that we need to approach the law the same way a good parent would approach disciplining a child, where you set clear boundaries around behavior and then enforce them. You explain what punishments to expect if rules are broken and you never deviate from them. You can be kind and compassionate, but ultimately when you let people get away with it, you send the message that you are weak, easily manipulated, and that bad behavior is okay. Every little kid knows this – and now every criminal does too.
