Drinkaware's annual monitor has been released, shedding light on the nation's attitudes towards alcohol. It's found 56% of us think we have an unhealthy relationship with having a tipple or two, but only one in ten are concerned about their own drinking habits. To reveal more about the data, here's Drinkaware's Karen Tyrell.
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00:00 It's a national survey that we do every year and this year we talked to around 10,000 people
00:08 across the four UK nations and we asked them lots of different questions about when and
00:14 where they are drinking and what is going on for them when they are having those moments
00:20 with their friends and family.
00:22 The annual State of the Nations survey that provides an insight into the UK's drinking
00:26 habits has found a large percentage of the population are concerned about the nation's
00:31 relationship with alcohol.
00:32 66% in Scotland and 63% in Northern Ireland, while it's 56% in England and falls to 38%
00:40 in Wales.
00:41 Yeah, so what was really interesting this year is that actually more than 56% of the
00:47 UK think that we've got a bit of an unhealthy relationship with alcohol as a country, but
00:53 actually only one in 10 people think that it's them that has an issue with alcohol.
00:58 So there's something interesting going on there and I guess what we would encourage
01:03 people to do is start to have a bit more open conversations with your family and friends
01:08 about your relationship with alcohol because of course as we know if you are drinking more
01:13 than the Chief Medical Officer's guidelines of 14 units a week you could be putting your
01:18 health at risk.
01:19 The Monitor, which surveyed over 10,000 people, found 59% don't think our society is understanding
01:26 of people with drinking problems, rising to 65% in Scotland.
01:30 However, when it comes to acting on a concern they have for someone else's drinking habits,
01:35 20% haven't done anything about it.
01:37 Think about when you want to have that conversation.
01:40 That might be going for a walk together, it might be on a car journey.
01:44 So try and pick a time and have it in a relatively non-judgmental way if you possibly can.
01:50 We've got some advice and guidance on our website to help you get started.
01:54 I think also if you're planning ahead for the festive season, think about a low or a
01:59 no alcohol product.
02:01 So maybe you could be taking some zero alcohol products if you're going around to friends
02:05 and family, to their house, and that just means everyone's got a bit more choice and
02:09 we're giving people that opportunity to not be drinking alcohol at all if that's the right
02:14 thing for them.
02:15 Karen believes that massive steps have taken place in recent years with people opening
02:19 up about their mental health, and that the same can be done with drinking.
02:23 With Christmas and New Year just around the corner, there's never been a better time to
02:26 take stock of our alcohol consumption.
02:29 We've seen people being able to open up about anxiety, depression, those sorts of things,
02:35 and rather than it being a terrifying subject we can't talk about it, it's something we're
02:39 able to be a bit more open about.
02:41 And that is the conversation that we want to see start shifting for alcohol and for
02:45 drinking as well, so that it's not those people over there that have the issue, actually this
02:52 is something that we all could be talking about a bit more, and we could all be taking
02:55 some small fairly simple steps to keep an eye on how much we're drinking and try and
03:00 bring it down to that lower risk level of 14 units a week.