How to change your relationship with alcohol forever

The normalisation of relatively heavy wine drinking is one of the reasons why people struggle to keep within Government guidelines.

Prof Nutt refers to the Hollywood show, Big Little Lies. At the start of each episode there is a warning about product placement. “Every meal, be it lunch or dinner, these women have a schooner of wine. We’ve made it so you can’t have a normal relationship with food unless you’ve got a bloody great glass of wine in your hand.”

Even the phrase wine o’clock is something that wouldn’t have been around 20 years ago. However, habits do change. 

Since reaching a peak in the mid-2000s, alcohol consumption has been falling steadily – especially among the younger generation. In fact, around 20 per cent of the population don’t drink at all and this figure is increasing among young people in particular. 

“In part it’s to do with not wanting to be like their parents or older siblings,” says Prof Nutt. “It’s also mobile phones; they don’t want to be embarrassed to death by people taking stupid pictures of them. And I think they are taking other drugs such as cannabis and nitrous oxide. Hopefully some of them are also more health conscious.”

Consumption among older people has not changed at the same rate. People aged 55-64 are more likely to drink at higher levels and are least likely not to drink at all.

“It may be that a generation that drank heavily in the 1990s and 2000s is continuing these habits as they age, with potentially serious consequences for their long-term health,” says Douglas Hiscock, a psychologist and behavioural health lead for SilverCloud, an online therapy platform which helps people manage their problems by encouraging them to change the way they think and behave.

The other likely reason for the generational divide is economic: Drinking is expensive. 

Keep a diary

When my mother gave up a long-standing smoking habit in the mid 1990s, she kept a diary of how much she’d saved, and after four months bought us a shiny new Dyson vacuum cleaner. It’s a tactic Prof Nutt says that applies to alcohol moderation too. Keep a record of what you’re not spending on alcohol and that will soon become a motivating factor in itself. 

A diary can also be a place for self-reflection and assessing your motivations. It’s the main method employed by Hiscock at SilverCloud. The big question is: Why do you consume alcohol? “Are you using it to cope with stress, numb emotions, or as a social lubricant?” says Hiscock. 

Once you’ve thought about that, you can think about the impact immoderate drinking has on your life, work, physical health and relationships. “Identifying negative consequences can motivate change,” agrees Vyas-Lee.

Make substitutes 

Prof Nutt likes a small single malt whisky before bed, sometimes. For the past three years however, his mid-week tipple has been a measure of Sentia with tonic water. This aromatic drink has been formulated by his lab team to include GABA, a neurotransmitter known for producing a calming effect. Alcohol is believed to mimic GABA’s effect in the brain

“I completely understand the value of drinking, but during the week I have work to think about. And we’ve got a new puppy. I don’t want to get up at 3am in the morning to take him out when I’ve got a hangover.”

At the weekend he tries to make a bottle of wine last through Saturday and Sunday. 

Forming this new habit has helped him halve his alcohol consumption: “I reckon that before I was drinking about 21-25 units a week.”

While there are plenty of beers and spirits on the market that are no- and low-alcohol, the wine industry is yet to come up with a convincing dealcoholised alternative. 

Harwood concedes that alcohol-free wine is indeed trickier than beer: “Particularly when drinking a real wine de-alcoholised to 0.0 per cent, like Eisberg. When there’s more alcohol to remove, there’s more work that the other components in the wine have to do. Also, wine is a very personal and passionate drink: we love to talk about wine, savour it, and pair it with food.”

Alcohol-free wine has some big shoes to fill, but he believes it absolutely can give you that mid-week cosy treat or the kids-in-bed reward. 

The bottom line

Committing to more moderate drinking habits can only have a positive effect on health. 

Our weight, blood pressure, stomach circumference and cholesterol levels are things we should all know, and be trying to reduce if necessary, says Prof Nutt. 

“And a way you can do that is how much you drink each week.”

If you are drinking more than the guideline amounts, every drink you avoid will have a proportionate health benefit. Particularly as there’s an exponential curve between consumption and harm. 

“If drinking a bottle of wine a day takes about 10 years off your life, try to get that down to half a bottle, and that [the damage] will go down to two years of your life.”

Helping us to find new, more measured drinking habits is a cause close to Prof Nutt’s heart – and his liver. 

“Alcohol is the most prosocial of all drugs, that’s why we’ve carried on doing it for probably a million years. We just need to do it right.”