Brits have a huge problem with alcohol

[SteveLpool]

AIBU to think that this country has a particularly acute problem with boozing, alcohol, drinking (whatever you call it) compared to our peers in Europe and the rest of the world?

I've worked and travelled abroad quite a lot and i never had the issues i am having now being back at home in the UK with regards to being the odd one out at a bar or a pub just because I'm not having alcohol.

Sometimes a few of us will get together after work and I'll have a diet coke or even a soda water and lime.. when my choice of drink is known ("is there vodka in that????") there becomes an aura of uncomfortableness (if that is even a word) like I've committed a crime.. soon afterwards the comments come..

"what's in that?"
"why arnt you drinking"
"are you a lightweight"
"just have a couple"

I have a theory of why this is for Brits in particular.. We as a people are quite emotionally & socially reserved therefore inhibitions MUST be lowered to have any form of good time..

The med countries for example like Italy and Spain have more of a coffee wine bar culture because they are quite outgoing and introverted.

For the record I'm not against alcohol, I'm big on my fitness and gym and I'm not prepared to ruin my gains for a few hours in a dingy British pub.. I save my boozing for when i go away on holiday.

OP, I totally agree with you that Brits have a very unhealthy drinking culture, especially compared to our European neighbours. I’m not sure why that is - your theory is interesting though! YANBU.

I think it's not just British reserve, it's also misery and poverty. Alcohol is cheap. The UK has one of the highest levels of socio-economic inequality in Europe. Not a good mix.

That might be true in some areas, but my circle is fairly comfortable middle class, a s drinking is an enormous part of our home & career culture.

I wish it wasn't.

Having lived in other European countries...

In the UK people seem to have a problem with just limiting themselves to one. Or taking issue with someone not drinking. Alcohol = getting drunk.

Germany... alcohol was everywhere. It was easier to get beer (to drink off premises) on a Sunday than milk for example. Teenagers could buy beer at 16. It was served at all times of the day.
But it was small glasses (.125 for wine or .33 for beer, maybe 0.5l). And people would happily have just one.

Funnily enough i was speaking with an Italian just yesterday with exactly the same theory.

In all honestly though, I think the drinking culture is changing, certainly compared to the way it used to be when I could be bothered to go out of a weekend.

I think the heavier drinkers are more likely to be 35+. Younger people are growing up with different ways to interact and socialise. I don't see them going to pubs in the same number as we did when I was teenage/20's. But obviously I can only compare what I know - other areas might be different. I'm not saying it doesn't still happen, young people going out for a night 'on the lash' - of course it does. But when I was that age, it was damn near every weekend. I'm not seeing that happening in the same way nowadays.

I think there's less of a stigma to being drunk in the UK. But weirdly there is still a massive stigma to being alcohol dependent. It's the worst of both worlds. (Can you tell I was married to an alcoholic?)

@Mummieslncorporated it's definitely changing. I have three DC - one doesn't drink at all, the other two drink very rarely. In their circles there is no pressure to drink, it's just accepted that some people don't.

I agree.
It amazes me how “funny” we find drunk people and/or people with hangovers. We have so many words for being drunk and most are not derogatory at all. In Spanish for example there may be other words for it but I only know one and it’s not meant as a compliment.
The peer pressure to drink alcohol is ridiculous as well, I was never a big drinker but I gave up completely for about a year for health reasons and I have never been offered so much alcohol, people seemed to find my non drinking an insult. I even had my drink “spiked” with alcohol several times.
DH is German so we go often, they serve alcohol in more places there and are more lax with age limits but you just don’t see drunk idiots like you do here. We have been to actual beer festivals there with the dc and never had an issue with drunk people. Someone falling over drunk just isn’t seen as funny there and in many other countries

I'm not sure I agree it's just a British problem. On holiday in Croatia last year I was buying croissants from the local shop at 7am and the local village men were starting on their beer already.

Ireland had a really strong drinking culture when I visited. It seemed like the whole village was in the pub on the weekends.

The under 30s in our family do not drink the way I did as a teen in the 90s. We need this change. My over 40 friends and family drink far more. I dislike it.

Think the younger generation are definitely more sober & less interested in alcohol. Maybe it fits in with healthy choices, vegan diets, smoothies rather than pub based social lives. Very different from when I was a student when it was all based around the uni bars. Also YP now doing a lot of their socialising online and in their bedrooms.

But were those Croatian men passed out in their own vomit by lunchtime?

The attitude to alcohol here is incredibly unhealthy.

Middle class middle aged women are especially guilty of drinking excessively but it’s ok as it’s a ‘good’ bottle of red and not cheap cider. And don’t get me started on ‘wine o’clock’.

I find it worse in Ireland tbh.

Russians drink a lot.

I don't think it is a purely British problem. Also think it varies, maybe in different areas and circles. I go out with friends and colleagues, some drink, others don't drink at all, and nobody would ever comment on someone not drinking. Nor does anyone ever drink to the point of being drunk - the most I've experienced in recent years is people a little "jolly".

I think it's because we're a grey little island and need cheering up.
FWIW I don't drink and my 16yo isn't interested either. I think that now he can talk to his mates all evening while gaming then there's no need to hang around in parks or at parties drinking. They go out in the day and are home for food in the evening.

Irish living in Ireland, huge drinking culture here. I'd say definitely as bad if not worse than UK. It's

This, plus it's harder for younger people to get booze nowadays as everywhere is Think25 and clubs are more expensive.

When I think back to the days you could go out and buy shots or a bottle of alcopop for £1.50, use fake ID or not even be asked for ID at 16/17 and it was widely more accepted for young people to be in pubs in general as they were seen as adults. Nowadays, even 18 year old are seen and treated as kids!

Yes I've lived in a few other places with a much healthier attitude to alcohol and I used to think it was because it was more freely available there so you weren't drinking against the clock. That was years ago though when most bars closed at 11. Obviously it's not the case anymore and we still have the same problem so now I'm not so sure.

The biggest problems here are:
1- people can't accept they can't hold as much liquor as they think they can
2- it's a competition to get smashed basically. If I was incoherent and pissed in the middle of the road while flipping middle finger at passerbies where I grew up, I would have to move for embarrassment

I thought that and then someone directed me to stats:

www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/els-2020-750-en/index.html

Latvia and Austria have the highest level of alcohol consumption, with over 12 litres per adult, followed by the Czech Republic, France, Bulgaria, Lithuania and Luxembourg, with over 11 litres per adult

Men and women in Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, the Czech Republic and Estonia were more likely to report episodic heavy drinking, with the proportion reaching over 40%. Heavy drinking is on the rise in many countries among young adults and women especially.

I think the Russian figures are skewed by old men killing themselves in their apartments on bottles of vodka

I spent a few months in St Petersburg in 2018 and i tried to go for a pint in a pub in the afternoon.. the place was dead. The barman said normal people wouldn't be seen dead in a pub before 5pm when everyone finished work. A single bloke would been seen as loserish and shameful and would rather feed his habit at home.

Here the pubs are steadily busy all day from opening in the morning. Mostly middle aged and old men wasting their lives and health away spending their pensions, dole or disability allowance.

I had a 12hr stopover in Budapest once.
Our group travelled into the city centre to do a whistle stop bit of sightseeing. Around 4/5pm, the parks started to fill up with youngish adults (20/30's) and they all had bags of alcohol with them.
But the most bizarre thing happened after an hour or so.

Everyone got up and went home.

I remember thinking (I was about 20 at the time) that you couldn't have that here because if we were permitted to drink openly in parks, we'd take the complete piss, likely myself included.

Still sticks in my mind nearly 15 years later.

Denmark has massive issues with drinking in the home and domestic violence. European countries (of which the UK is a group of btw) are not nirvana