This Alcohol Awareness Week (6th-12th July), Mental Health Expert Noel McDermott looks at how alcohol is costing us more than just money. Alcohol is a drug and one that creates physical dependency and drinking too much creates health problems. Everyone knows that and maybe tells themselves they will stop if they have negative health consequences. But, are we truly aware of the cost of alcohol? It’s a complex drug where the negative consequences can and do affect us even if we are abstinent from it.
Noel comments: “The consequences of alcohol use and misuse are multi-factorial, in the public health lingo and affect families, workplaces, and neighbourhoods. While alcohol is a common part of social life, its broader impacts are often underestimated”.
Alcohol consumption during the World Cup
Right now, during the World cup consumption of alcohol will have skyrocketed. Where can you watch footie these days? In pubs mostly. It’s not an accident. Figures produced contemporaneously to this one show consumption of alcohol in pubs increasingly up to 157%*. There are immediate and negative consequences to people from this binge behaviour - accidents, violence in the pubs and streets and domestic violence skyrocketing. The most negatively consequential way of drinking alcohol is to binge large amounts at events. Police up and down the country are swamped by the increase in intimate partner violence during these events fuelled but not excused by alcohol consumption. There is a direct one to one relationship in alcohol and violence globally** due to reduction of inhibition in the person drinking. Also, alcohol affects and distorts for example facial recognition whereby a smile becomes a snarl. Many high streets on a Friday night are almost literal war zones at closing time.
The economic cost of alcohol related problems
Alcohol related problems are estimated to cost the NHS £3.5billion per year***. That’s coming out of your pocket if you drink or not. Some people complain about the amount of tax on alcohol, it’s arguably not enough. In the criminal justice field alcohol is part of 50% of all violent crime, about a third of child abuse crimes, estimates say alcohol costs the public purse in criminality between £11-21billion annually****.
As a specific health issue for the individual which is generally how we measure if our behaviour is harmful or not, it’s useful to know that currently the world guidelines on safe levels of alcohol use is zero. The World Health Organization stated that “Alcohol is a toxic, psychoactive, and dependence-producing substance and has been classified as a Group 1 carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer decades ago – this is the highest risk group, which also includes asbestos, radiation and tobacco. Alcohol causes at least seven types of cancer, including the most common cancer types, such as bowel cancer and female breast cancer. Ethanol (alcohol) causes cancer through biological mechanisms as the compound breaks down in the body, which means that any beverage containing alcohol, regardless of its price and quality, poses a risk of developing cancer.”
There is medically no level of safe alcohol use*****. Ireland, yes, you got that right, Ireland has now put warnings on alcohol similar to cigarettes******. It’s clear now we need to ask, is alcohol costing us more than money? What do you think? Is it?.
Mental health expert Noel McDermott is a psychotherapist and dramatherapist with over 30 years’ work within the health, social care, education, and criminal justice fields. His company Mental Health Works provides unique mental health services for the public and other organisations. Mental Health Works offers in situ health care and will source, identify and co-ordinate personalised teams to meet your needs – https://www.mentalhealthworks.
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