Why do we have such an unhealthy relationship with alcohol?

15 comments

1. we have a strong drinking culture and easy access to alcohol in all major retailers. Also people are stuck in the belief that alcohol is the best way to have fun due to sports culture as well

2. Compared to other EU countries, we’re not that bad. But where I think there is a difference, is that the British seem to think it is acceptable to include alcohol in every single activity they are involved with. I’ve been to kids sports events and the club house is usually full of people shoving it down their necks. In the cinema you can now buy wine with your popcorn. And there’s nothing worse than a British stag do, like it’s quite okay to pitch-up in some quaint European city, wear cuntish t-shirt uniforms, and puke all over the streets in the middle of the day. Fucking disgusting.

3. Bread and circuses

4. A lot of cold and temperate European countries do.

5. I don’t.

6. Self medication

   I was furloughed for a year almost during covid…
   I just stopped drinking without noticing..

   When it ended, and I was chained to a screen 40 hours a week .. I needed a beer soooo bad!

7. I personally made the decision to stop drinking last year, and to be honest my biggest issue is the lack of good non-alcoholic alternatives. It’s either very sugary or just water, it makes me feel like a kid. Some places are better and offer interesting non-alcoholic drinks like kombucha or iced tea or good mocktails. But I am pretty sick of drinking lemonade all the time! I wonder if that contributes to it, there’s often not a respectable adult focused non-alcoholic drink.

8. I’ve got 2 kids. That’s my excuse.

9. For me, a factor (not the only factor) is because i find it hard to switch off after work. Doing a 12 hr shift of chaos then back to it in another 12 makes it really hard to shut down. Sometimes ill have a couple drinks after work to just turn off a little. Or even vice versa, if ive had an extremely slow but long shift, i feel under stimulated but tired so will have a drink

10. I actually think the dreary weather in this country doesn’t help. Raining? Run into a pub. Cloudy? Stay in with a wine and watch a film. And on the rare days it is actually sunny and warm, beer garden cos we deserve it.

11. I lived in Italy and they chuck it back from breakfast onwards.

    But we have this wierd British inbuilt guilt thing, puritanical teetotalers who will label eveybody alcholics and the NHS guidelines are set so low having a glass of wine with your dinner each night technically means you have a ‘drinking problem’.

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    Before all of this our guidelines went along the lines of ‘5 and drive’. Meaning the acceptable drink drive limit was 5 pints. We’ve massively cleaned up our act as a nation, but the memory of real drinking culture is only a generation behind.

12. Define unhealthy? I’ve been drunk plenty of times but I’ve never been violent, never ended up in hospital due to alcohol. Yes there are people who don’t know when to stop and some do get violent, but don’t tar us all with the same brush

13. It’s every where, if you stop drinking you notice how much it’s shoved in your face… I’m 32 & have had (technically Always will have) a problem controlling what I drink, Iv now got it down to a few beers on a Friday & Saturday night.

14. I think some issue comes from this exclusion policy until “x age”. I have Belgian family and the children there have been drinking alcohol since 5.. it’s just a normal drink. Not a big deal, drink it socially, small quantities, enjoy the taste and social aspect.

    InBritain we get to being mid-late teens and suddenly you’re apparently meant to get twatted. Alcohol is for getting drunk in the U.K., and not to be enjoyed in many other aspects.

15. My theory is that everything’s so expensive, they only we can enjoy activities without caring about our spending is to do it drunk.

    Realistically though, its much simpler. Fun activities for days out aren’t particularly accessible unless you live in a city – most of us don’t.

    The local high streets/Towns etc are filled with charity shops for the elderly, primark and pound shops for mum’s in the day and mcdonalds for the teenagers, and boozers for everyone else at night.

    Then when you go to cities, there’s a boozer on every street.

    I’m personally abstaining from alcohol atm, and its only now, that everything I do ends with someone offering a beer.

    Got the day off work – someone suggests pub.

    Go to brands hatch, everyone heads to the bar.

    Suns out? Needs a nice cold pint.

    And the tragic thing is, transport costs a lot.

    So its cheaper to go to the pub and spend £50-100 on beer on a friday night, than it is to get a taxi or train and book an activity.

    Any day out, rock climbing, go karting etc. costs £30min per person. Then add in taxis for 30 min drives costing £40-60 2x over, then food etc.

    People don’t have expendable income, and travel is unaffordable, so the only place people can consistently go to be social is the local boozers.