Know your limits in battle with the booze

Cutting back on alcohol use has been life-changing, writes Jackie Hallam

IWOULD like to share a personal story that hopefully resonates with you, or someone you know. In doing so I hope that this shows that there are complexities around the issue of alcohol.

Alcohol affects people differently, most people can use it with minimal consequences, around a fifth of us use it to levels that can lead to risk.

Let’s begin with the story, I work full time, enjoy my job, have two children and life is pretty good generally. In the last year I have managed to make a fairly big lifestyle change.

I have lost 20kg in the past year just by cutting down my alcohol consumption and taking regular breaks. Doing that has allowed me to regulate my appetite and given me space to hit the gym. It is incredible how much time alcohol takes away from other things.

I have gone from being a regular binge drinker to an occasional drinker, one who has a regular 3-4 week break between beverages.

The tipping point to change was recognising that the negative effects of alcohol outweighed the positive effects. It just wasn’t worth it. Alcohol is not that good to withstand all of the problems that come with it.

Let’s get them out of the way – hangovers, hangover-induced anxiety, weight gain, injuries, low mood, workplace absenteeism and sometimes feeling like I have been a bad parent.

Let’s be clear though – I’m not giving up, I am just drinking less. It is highly unlikely that I will ever be abstinent.

To this day I still like selecting alcohol for an occasion and drinking it. So I’m in the middle ground where alcohol is not bad but not good either.

Thinking back to the wider population, not everyone who is in the high risk category is ready to change or stop, while some people who drink minimally want to reduce their intake.

Australia has had a policy of minimising the harm from alcohol use since 1985 – which means we acknowledge that people will continue to drink while also trying to reduce the harm that can come from it.

It is a balancing act and it has ‘individual liberty to drink’ on one side of the scale with ‘social responsibility to each other’ on the other. In order to get closer to reducing the harms we need to acknowledge that everyone has their own relationship with alcohol.

The way we think about it and the steps we take can depend on many things.

Alcohol is unhealthy though, there’s no doubt.

It’s a toxin that acts as a central nervous system depressant. It can make you feel great in the moment and then bad when you’ve had too much and the next day. Bad as in physically and mentally.

The National Health and Medical Research Council has some very good evidence-based guidelines that give us a great idea of limits.

They may seem a bit restrictive but they are: “To reduce the risk of harm from alcohol-related disease or injury, healthy men and women should drink no more than 10 standard drinks a week and no more than four standard drinks on any one day.”

For obvious reasons (think body mass) women should drink less than men too.

All of the above said, I am intending to sample Tasmania’s finest this festive period.

You may see me at Tasmania’s Taste of Summer with a serious look on my face as I form an opinion about a new Tasmanian gin. But this time, I will drink lots of water, pull up earlier than I may have in the past and also have a bunch of days when I don’t drink.

The way we think about alcohol doesn’t have to be all or nothing.

It’s healthy to ask yourself questions.

Does it work for you?

What impact does it have? This is how our services operatethey ask you a bunch of questions to find out the role alcohol plays in your life. Start now by asking them to yourself.

The more comfortable we are talking about alcohol without being worried if we come across as wowser, the better we will be.

Across this festive period, have the best time, and look after yourself, family and friends.