How to tell if your drinking has become a problem
Are weekend splurges now nightly ones? Some tips for healthy consumption
We’ve seen all of the drinking memes making light of drinking culture in the current climate, and we’ve heard that alcohol sales have skyrocketed during quarantine, but how can you tell if your drinking is problematic?
LCBO sales during COVID-19 are up and although events serving alcohol are down, there are also factors at play to increase drinking, said Dr. Leslie Buckley, chief of the addictions division at CAMH.
“What Covid has created is a perfect storm for substance abuse. People are so stressed, so stress is a factor,” Buckley said. A study looking at the causes of increased drinking found that for men it was boredom and for women, stress. “People are having extra financial stresses. People are isolated. Interpersonal dynamics in the household are accentuated by being in close quarters, and then, there’s structure. We can feel discomfort when we don’t have structure in organizing ourselves or organizing our day,” Buckley said.
Not to mention, she says, that blurring of what’s a weekend and what’s a weekday and the blurring of what’s work and what’s leisure. “If somebody is already having a bit too much and all of a sudden doesn’t have to work all day and who is suddenly thinking about alcohol a lot, they may be a little at risk,” Buckley said.
“We should all think about our relationship with alcohol just like we are all encouraged to think about our relationship with nutrition. Be mindful,” Buckley said.
Some warning signs to look out for: If you find yourself setting limits which you exceed; if your friends mention that they’re worried about your alcohol intake; if you seem to be making your plans around alcohol and not doing things that don’t involve alcohol. Finally, if you find yourself reaching for alcohol anytime you’re stressed.
She suggests checking out the Canadian Low-Risk Drinking Guidelines, which gives you actual numbers: 10 drinks a week for women, with no more than two drinks a day, most days. Fifteen drinks a week for men, with no more than three drinks a day most days. “You can’t fool yourself with numbers. It’s a good step to count the number of drinks you’re having,” Buckley said.
She suggests having days where you don’t drink anything — which the guidelines also suggests to avoid developing a habit — and not pairing alcohol with ordinary activities.
“It’s challenging for all of us to take away things that are giving us pleasure. People are partaking and wanting to not think it’s a problem. The lowest drinking guidelines are amazing. Look at the numbers and see where you are with the actual consumption that Canada puts forward,” Buckley said.
So how can you decrease your alcohol intake? She says it’s great to alternate drinks, so for example for every drink you have, follow up with water or soda. She also suggests having a less potent drink than you’re used to. So if you drink strong beer, switch to light, or even switch to an alcohol you like less.
“If you like white wine, switch to red wine, because that doesn’t go along too easily,” Buckley said.
Buckley suggests using tools to implement constraint and suggests avoiding day drinking altogether.
“If you start early, you’re more likely to have more. It’s one more way to put a constraint on. If you have to drive, then you have a constraint. Or only drink on the weekend. It’s tools that help us and some tools just help us to organize so we don’t overdo it,” Buckley said.
Criteria to consider that suggests problematic drinking is asking yourself: Do you have withdrawal? Are you dedicating a lot of time to it or recovering from it? Does it have consequences? Psychological consequences? Interpersonal consequences?
Jillian Levick, 28, is a Torontobased publicist who noticed her drinking started increasing as soon as lockdown began. She says that wine was already featured prominently in her social life, but it was always associated with going out.
“Once lockdown hit and there was nowhere to go, making elaborate meals and drinking nice wine to go with them was the only fun thing that could be done that resembled regular life,” Levick said.
She says stress and boredom definitely factored into it, too, but mostly it was a way to hold on to an aspect of regular life that could still be preserved. She says to her, wine was selfcare.
She became aware very quickly that wine consumption was rising.
“It used to be pretty much limited to weekends and Friday nights — I very rarely drank on ‘school nights’ as it were,” Levick said.
“Once I started working from home and could get up later, not have to commute, etc., it quickly became easier to justify drinking on weeknights, which I normally wouldn’t do.”
She decided to implement dry days.
“I felt that it really wasn’t good to get into a habit of drinking almost every night, for my sleep, physical health, etc. I think it also started to take the enjoyment out of a well-deserved glass of wine after a long week, when it wasn’t a special thing anymore,” Levick said.
April Wozny, 34, lives in Toronto’s west end and will be celebrating five years of sobriety this August. Last month, she took to social media to check in on friends.
“In emotional situations, I used to always hit the bottle and I’d use it as a source of comfort, coping mechanism, soothing tool. I was thinking about that when lockdown happened and then I started seeing articles about how alcohol sales drastically increased,” Wozny said.
She thought about people who don’t have a drinking problem, but have upped their drinking recently, and what that must feel like. She wanted to remind people that, yes, we are in a global pandemic, but to watch out for their drinking.
“Alcohol is a depressant. Do you really want to get depressed during a global pandemic?” Wozny said.
“That’s not setting yourself up for success.”
She says her post wasn’t intended to shame anyone, but instead to remind people to keep an eye on their consumption.
“Alcohol is sinister and alcohol can be deceiving, so we don’t realize how much we’re consuming and sometimes we’re in denial about it as well,” Wozny said. “I was in complete denial about my alcohol consumption and it wasn’t until I took a step back and realized how much I was consuming. It’s easy to get into the habit of guzzling.”
Wozny says that despite not going out to socialize, there always seems to be an excuse to drink.
“You’re happy you drink, sad you drink, you got a promotion, you drink, going through a breakup, you drink, — there’s always something to drink to,” Wozny said.
“We’re such a drinking society and now we’re all stuck at home, you guessed it, drinking. Be mindful and be realistic if you need to reach out for help,” Wozny said.
“Alcohol is sinister and alcohol can be deceiving, so we don’t realize how much we’re consuming and sometimes we’re in denial about it as well.”
APRIL WOZNY SOBER FOR FIVE YEARS