Begin Again Moments: Alcohol Awareness Week

0:00Davina McCall:Honey, what are you listening to? Mom! Your teen might not share everything with you, but teens share everything with each other. And certain everyday behaviors, like sharing food, drinks, or kisses, could mean sharing bacteria that can cause meningococcal disease, known as meningitis. Although meningitis is uncommon, about 1 in 10 who develop it will die. Ask your teen's doctor about missing meningitis vaccinations. Learn more at meningitis.com. Vaccination may not protect all recipients. Sponsored by GSK. I'd really love to talk to you about when, what's the moderate drinking? Moderation. Moderation.

0:37Yeah.

0:38Davina McCall:So, like, this is a really interesting and important thing for people to be able to learn to do. You can go from drinking a lot to moderate drinking. Or do you, in your opinion, would you have to stop? how did you start drinking again and what made you realize you could I think if you are if you have my kind of nature call it an addictive nature or an alcoholic nature or whatever you want to call it there's always it's a slippery slope always will be I think the difference is

1:24responsibility and you know all of the good work that you do yeah I think you know me going out and destroying myself for days on end is gonna is gonna get in the way of my business gonna get in the way of my career it's gonna get in the way of my marriage it's gonna you know it's not a good example for my children I think having kids makes quite a big difference you know my kids have never seen me drunk you know and they never will hopefully I had a lot less on I had a lot a lot of turbulence in my mind before. I was lazy as well. I didn't try. I didn't push myself. I didn't have the aspirations I have now.

1:59I used to drink probably at my worst when I was bored, you know, like between TV shows. I wouldn't go and meet my agent and think, right, what can we be doing? How can we make more money? How can we, you know, better? I would just get pissed yeah I was pretty loose you know I was just spiraling kind of all the time and you think it's fun but it's not you know and I think you know have firstly what we spoke about earlier you know wanting to show up for Vogue wanting to prove to Vogue that I wasn't some you know drunk loser was important to me then you know I wasn't sober for long before starting a business and then all of a sudden your plate's kind of full and you're busy so you don't even really feel like drinking much because you you have a new addiction in my case then and again with that came responsibility to not be out drinking and drunk right and then you have children and then it's it's all it all layers on top of you know each other I think if I was the kind of person that now went out and had a couple of pints of beer and and couldn't stop then I wouldn't have the beer You know, I'd have the experience to just go, what's the point in any of this?

3:17The fact is I can have the occasional drink. Sometimes the occasional drink leads to several drinks in a night. But, you know, my relationship feels more normal now.

3:26Davina McCall:Yes. You know, and I think I read Dr. Anna Lemke's book called Dopamine Nation, which was just fantastic. If you've not read it. I haven't. So thank you. Oh, it's wonderful. And it's quite, you know, it's neuroscience-y, but it's also an easy read. yeah and it's not that you know but honestly right up my for me i mean like you know i'm obviously not a scientist so for me uh it was a welcome read because i i was so fascinated by it i flipped through it in kind of no time and uh it's all about kind of um you know spikes in dopamine and and and how uh toxins and alcohol make you feel but actually the the result of uh what drinking actually does to your to your brain and you know i think the more educated i've become about it the less keen I am to be involved with it in in that big scale anyway this is alcohol I mean because um realistically and I'm sure I'm not ringing any alarm bells here it's it's it's really bad for you you know and I'm very interested in my health so you know in the same way that I'll have a fried chicken sandwich every so often I might also have a beer every so often it's not it's not a very big deal to me and if it did feel like a big deal I would stop so you know I am conscious of it though like very conscious of it you know um and i wouldn't i wouldn't ever want to threaten where i've got to and i don't mean that in a kind of success scale i just mean so much good work has been achieved in the last few years and i know that you know drinking could destroy that if i let it so i think just being aware of it has been helpful i'm like fascinated by um this kind of idea of semi um like just being able to have a couple of drinks though it's it's really interesting that and what's really nice about it is it's not making me think oh you could do that i think for the first few years of not drinking i really missed it um but it's been decades now and i i don't miss it at all yeah i think it's become habit to not drink for me it's i'm still discovering bits and bobs about it i wouldn't be surprised if i ended up completely total to be honest um i don't see an issue with it but it's but i think it i think it quite easily could be you know i need still stints of extended periods of time off it so can't wait for january i'll do three four months without a single drop you know then i'll probably have a few beers in the summer and then i'll go off again it's it's i try not to think about it too much it's not it's not really in the forefront of my mind ever i don't walk past a pub or a bar and go i'd love a drink you know which i'm i think i'm quite lucky you know um in that regard but alcohol is a truly destructive thing for me and i haven't forgotten that yes you know what i mean it's quite a good memory to have really i think you know it's always it's like if you've ever been really hurt by someone you know you might you might choose to move through it but you don't forget it yes um same thing with alcohol for me you know i'm fully aware that if i allow myself oh yeah like you know i'm just not going to drink monday to wednesday but you know thursday to sunday i'm going to yeah i'll be that's so dangerous see you later yeah i'm gonzo you know so i just need to be conscious and careful around it i suppose but you know i have to say that it doesn't feel like a current issue you know i'm not i'm not walking around wondering if it's safe i i to be honest don't really think about it.

7:02Davina McCall:I've partnered with Do Health for this episode and I want to tell you why. 46 % of Do Health members showed signs of hidden cardiovascular risk after doing their blood test. 46%. And do you know what? They had absolutely no idea, no symptoms, no big dramatic warning. And look, I get why people put this stuff off because results can feel really scary. You know, you think, what if I find out something I can't? Oh no. But finding things early can change everything and that's what's great about what Dr. Rangan has done with Do Health. This app gives you something clear enough to question, understand and then act on.

7:43Davina McCall:It checks your blood three times a year including lots of things many of us have never even been tested for and then it explains what your body is telling you clearly and calmly and then gives you a weekly plan with an in-app coach so you know what to do next. Not more worry, it's a way forward. Go to dohealth.co slash beginagain and use code BEGIN AGAIN to lock in early access pricing. Were you an alcoholic? Well, let's just check in on a couple of things here because this is a complicated answer. So first of all, the term alcoholic, That is an older term not used by the scientific community today.

8:31So what we use now today is alcohol use disorder. And if you're asking if I had alcohol use disorder in my life, absolutely. Most people who binge drink have alcohol use disorder. It ranges from mild, moderate, severe.

8:49Davina McCall:You said binge drink specifically. Not just binge drinking, but also daily drinking, all of those kind of things. Absolutely. So do you want the exact definition of alcohol use disorder? So the specific, because I can't do them all, we'll do it through here. So mild is to have two of these, to consider two of these. Moderate is four. And then more than that, you have severe alcohol use disorder. Craving beverages containing alcohol. Okay. Continuing to use these beverages, even though your drinking affects your relationship with your family, friends and colleagues. Drinking more than you intended or for longer than you intended.

9:28Everyone's been there, right? At some point. Spending lots of time obtaining and drinking these beverages or recovering from hangovers caused by drinking. This is starting to just sound like life in London right now. Repeatedly trying to reduce how much you drink every weekend. Repeatedly failing to meet work or family obligations because you're drinking. Giving up important social work or recreational activities because of alcohol. Using alcohol in physically hazardous situations. Continuing to drink when you have a medical condition or mental disorder that gets worse when you drink. Side note here, most mental disorders get worse when you drink.

10:07Having a high tolerance for beverages containing alcohol. having alcohol withdrawal symptoms or drinking to avoid alcohol withdrawal symptoms. So the definition now has changed from what was. And is the question, did I have what in society might call today a problem with alcohol? Well, no, I wasn't waking up in the morning pouring whiskey on my cornflakes. I was never during days and days and days on end. I was never what you might, the society might consider as an alcoholic. But as an oil broker in London, I mean, IP week, I could be drinking from Monday morning at nine o 'clock for the entire week and getting a few hours sleep and all the rest of that.

10:51So A is the change in definition, but to give people the context of where I was, I'm just a typical party boy social person. I was always first in and I always last out. And I got all of my energy from being the most outrageous, wild, unbelievably crazy person. And so I loved the party. I loved that. And alcohol in my 20s also led to drugs. I did a lot of party drugs when I was younger. So despite having this relationship with alcohol, and also it being part of my job as an oil broker, there were some things. And I think you know, the things I didn't really realize, I didn't really link them to the alcohol consumption.

11:38I didn't realize that alcohol was causing these other things that I was trying to sort out. And I would say that when I did actually finally change my relationship with alcohol, that's when you look back and you go, oh, wow. You know, I didn't realize that I was not that bad, but that it was having that impact on me.

12:00Davina McCall:What were the things? So let's look at it from the other perspective. So it's hard in the moment to see what impact alcohol is having on you because of this sort of, not just its brainwashing, but society's expectations and also the ignorance and things like that. So what happens when you remove alcohol? Well, I mean, the lights go on, you know, the sudden increase in energy, clarity, productivity. IBS a decade of seeing doctors Chinese health medicine You've got IBS taking medication disappeared Right, so psoriasis gone. So depression anxiety significantly reduced So there were all of these things that I wasn't really attributing to this regular alcohol consumption And even at the time it was only two maybe three times a week drinking probably binge drinking sometimes heavily.

12:58And that still today is pretty normal. That's what normal drinking behavior looks like. And yet I had all of these benefits. And talk about the other benefits, right? Relationships significantly improved, happiness levels higher, just doubled my business in the first 12 months of changing my relationship with alcohol. So instead of us looking at it like, what problems is alcohol causing you? Let's have the conversation of what is alcohol robbing you of that you are not being? And I have a little thought here in this whole world is that actually the truth is, is that alcohol is a life not lived.

13:46Okay. And what I mean by that is for many, many, many people, they're consuming alcohol because they are numbing out the feelings of their life. They're numbing out the toxic relationship that they haven't really sorted out. They're numbing out their shitty job with their boss that they hate. They're numbing out the poor health, all of these feelings, thoughts, difficult situations. Do you know what? I'm just going to switch it off by having a drink. But the truth is, that's a life not lived. who are you being if you remove that and you start improving those relationships if you start finding that job that you feel is most amazing if you start making these positive changes in your life and so i want to change the conversation to be let's go to war go to war on lives not lived you know our whole focus here and what i'm trying to do in the world is to help people really address.

14:44Because like I said, if I take somebody who's regularly drinking alcohol and they are like, well, my life's great. I'm fine. Absolutely great. And I can think of one particular individual, a very well-known, no more hints, a very well-known entrepreneur, hugely successful in the UK. And he came on the program and he said to me after doing the program, he said, Ruri, I have built multiple businesses, been hugely successful. I have all I've wanted, all of that wonderful stuff. And yet coming through this program, you have made me realize that I have spent the last decade operating on 80%. I don't know what that's cost me, but it's millions.

15:24Now he wasn't even a big drinker. He's just like, you know, there's lots of networking events. There's this is, Oh, well, let's have dinner. Let's have that. A couple of drinks here. And he had a 20 % performance uplift. What does that do to the bottom line. The cost to the UK economy estimated at$52 billion a year, and the vast majority of that is from loss of earnings. All of those sick days, all of that. So I think this is where the big shift that we are trying to continually pioneer is instead of following the rhetoric of, if you have a problem, you need to go over here and you're a problematic drinker and everyone else is okay, let's actually look at the gray area of drinking, that ultimately any amount of alcohol is toxic for you.

16:16Any amount of alcohol is toxic for the brain, toxic for the body. And what happens if you choose to change your relationship with it? What are all the things you're missing out on?