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.

@OutForBreakfast Not drinking, nope, fuck that! Don't get me wrong - take my kids for an afternoon and I'd love a couple of pints in a quiet pub. But we'd be out of there and home for dinner.

To be fair... in the last few years I've also gotten into Only Connect, 70's folk music and composting so I think I've skipped my 30:40's and gone straight to retirement 😆

I agree that socialising whilst not being a drinker is difficult. I lost all friends and have had no social life whatsoever since I stopped drinking at 20 years old. Which has since meant that alot of people have asked or assumed I was an alcoholic... I wasn't I just didn't enjoy it and felt it was damaging my mental health.
Some of those people have now got drinking and drug problems.

I remember staying in a, mainly, German hotel and many of them were drinking cava at breakfast.

It seems that people think ‘fun’ is synonymous with being drunk. And cannot imagine a fun night without it.

I have never drunk alcohol and have had some very good times. As well as being taxi driver for my friends and husband ;-)

It is irritating to be accused of being boring if you don’t drink though. Surely if you have to drink to be entertaining company, you are more boring ;-) ?!

As an aside, the university students I know seem to still be very much embracing the Wetherspoons experience…

Apparently it's OK if it's cava. Special brew on the other hand!!

I don't drink much for a variety of reasons - medication, tolerance has dropped off and I hate feeling drunk/hangovers. I often have no alcohol at all when out. I agree about the culture of pressuring people to drink, but for me the answer is to be very open and unbothered about it and ask for non-alcoholic drinks loud and proud. As in "what alcohol-free lager options do you have?" "I'm not having alcohol tonight, do you do herbal tea, I'd love that if you have some?" Even if they don't have what I want, my attitude cheerily implies that they should, and I'm reasonable to ask for it, and I don't give a flying fuck who thinks drinking is cool. I often find it encourages others to join me and ask for similar, as some of them are only drinking because of the pressure.

I'm also amazed how much a lot of older people drink! My mum drinks wine like squash.

Well anyone who goes to Temple Bar in Dublin deserves to pay that and more for the torture of it. Pure paddywhackery for the tourists, and I am Irish!

The thing that gets me is that there is absolutely NO escape from alcohol socially. Wedding, christening, birthday, hen party, sporting fixture, going out to dinner, etc. Hell it's everywhere and it must be really hard for those in recovery to have any kind of a social life without temptation in their face like that.

I know there are alternatives, but then it becomes a drinker/non drinker type of venue and if your friends like to drink and you don't it can be a very boring night in the pub.

Most heavy and addictive drinking is done at home out of sight. Binge drinking is a huge feature at weekends for many of the younger (and not so young) crowd, but that seems to be waning a bit so that pre drinks first in someone's house then on to a club for god knows what substance. But we were all young once!

The big issue is behaviour, and the acceptance of crazy antics as being ok. You just have to look at A+E on a weekend and see that drink/drugs are a huge feature and their behaviour often results in them being seen first to get rid of them. Not good. That kind of acceptance leads to more bad behaviour and on it goes. Wouldn't be tolerated in Med countries, well I haven't seen it anyway.

So enjoy your drink if that's your poison, but keep your knickers on and your fists down and you'll be alright.

Agree OP. Britain has a bad relationship with alcohol.

You are a social pariah in a lot of circles if you aren't drinking.
british reserve, boredom, lack of interesting hobbies and crap weather is what I think of

If you look again, the number of deaths has quadrupled in 30 years. That's just deaths of users. Not taking into consideration the number of crimes committed in order to get money for another fix.

My whole life I've always shaken my head in dismay at the UK's enjoyment for getting rat-arsed. Thankfully I've always been surrounded by non-drinkers. I avoid pubs.

Herein lies the problem.
🤷🏻‍♀️

British drinking culture is definitely bad - especially with the peer pressure. However, I don't think we're the only ones. We went skiing in Norway on Easter weekend and there were hundreds of apoplectic twenty something's hurtling down the slopes - it was terrifying

I Iive in Spain and can assure you the Spanish drink a shit load more than you think. Morning, noon and night. I will see loads of workers having a beer at 9am .... coffees with brandy even earlier.

www.statista.com/statistics/755502/alcohol-consumption-in-liters-per-capita-ineu/

UK is not very high up in this list

I am told that the young drink less. If that's true, then great. I hate alcohol. I honestly think it's one of the most overrated things in the world. It does nothing for me – just makes me feel groggy, heavy-headed and depressed. It also has a generally terrible effect on people: either making them aggressive, or tearful, or boorish and idiotic. I hate being around drunk people. Time and gain some drunken idiot will spoil a night out, either starting fight, or trying to grope a woman, or just causing a nasty atmosphere.

I once had an American friend over to visit and we went into my local town (this was back in the '90s). I have never felt so ashamed to be British. It was a Saturday night, and the behaviour was awful – girls screeching and urinating in an alley, guys yelling and fighting...just horrible.

The worst are ignorant, oafish men with zero personality and nothing to say. They use alcohol (and encourage/shame others into joining them) to hide the fact that they are boring. Deep down they know it.

ortonym, yes but statistically the number of users of class A drugs has gone down as of last year and the percentage of users to begin with per population is arguably not huge.

www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/articles/drugmisuseinenglandandwales/yearendingjune2022#:~:text=Any%20Class%20A%20drug%20use&text=In%20the%20year%20ending%20June%202022%3A,the%20year%20ending%20March%202020

I’m not going to deny alcohol is a problem in the U.K. but I’ve also seen a lot of excessive drinking in Scandinavia and Austria.
I’m not sure we’re better or worse than elsewhere.

I think it depends on the industry too

Work nights in the US or Europe for the industry I work in (beauty) are quite alcohol heavy

Uk is better for not driving after drinking - quite scary how many US colleagues think one or two drinks are fine to drive after

I haven't noticed UK drinking culture to be significantly worse than elsewhere in Europe. Nordics and Baltics also like to have a drink.

I wish the 'young people aren't into drinking' were true. Certainly, drinking hard among students is pretty prevalent - 'traditions' like the Otley pub run in Leeds show no sign of going away and are no longer just a Freshers' week event, but every Saturday. It's much more common to take a bottle of vodka to a party than a 6 pack of beers. I am hopeful that, as gym membership, buying protein drinks and vitamin supplements and other signs of health consciousness are up, that the drinking is just a phase.

There is a direct relationship between the dominant local form of alcohol and drinking culture. If you look at geographical Europe the wine making Mediterranean countries have the healthiest relationship with alcohol. It is associated with sitting down and having a leisurely meal with extended family. Consumption tends to be more moderate etc. Then the beer making countries Britain, The Netherlands, Germany etc have the marauding drunks who go out and get smashed together. Then lastly there are the vodka countries where alcoholism is a more silent and deadly affair.

They do indeed. However they seem to drink smaller measures per sitting like a cana for instance and have a carajillo on their way to do some hard work. the difference is they appear to just have the one and go, maybe two at a push.

The price of alcohol is very low in Spain compared to here, even so, the younger people don't seem to fancy bars so much as a botellon, well their weather allows it and it seems to be a very enjoyable activity. I realise it can be noisy street drinking like that, but the Spanish are not renowned for having quiet voices anyway!

Yes other countries drink, ie the French drink a lot of wine with their meals etc, but the UK seems to have a really bad yob culture that accompanies the drinking here!

That's the number of people reporting . Do you think they're going to admit it? It's illegal y'know.