Boozing regrets, but many don’t seek help

Many Kiwis who want to cut back on their drinking aren’t seeking help to do so.

Just under a third (32.4 per cent) of Kiwi drinkers who took part in the Global Drug Survey (GDS) planned to cut back over the next 12 months, but only one in 20 (4.9 per cent) had , even though one in five of them would like help.

More than 100,000 people from over 21 countries took part, including 3404 New Zealanders.

Over one in five (23.5 per cent) said others had expressed concern about their drinking. One in 10 (11.8 per cent) reported at least monthly feelings of guilt or regret after drinking.

New Zealand Drug Foundation executive director Ross Bell said the results were consistent with other research about drinkers seeking help.

‘‘Often people don’t to go looking for help or ask for help because of the stigma we create in society around alcohol or drug dependency,’’ Bell said.

‘‘The view people have is that if you can’t drink there’s something wrong with you. You’re not a real man, what’s your problem, can’t you handle your piss? When everywhere you go your mates are getting pissed, it can be quite hard for people with a problem.’’

Andrew Hearn of the Health Promotion Agency said their promotions campaigns (No More Beersies and Yeah, Nah) had a pronounced effect on those seeking help. ‘‘We start off with the ads and the help services will see an upsurge of incoming calls and request for help,’’ Hearn said.

Problem drinkers were also targeted with ‘screening and brief intervention’ measures, where medical workers would ask certain patients for details about their drinking and offer them help.

‘‘There are sort of tripwires laid out where people trigger the kind of services they need,’’ he said.

Bell said the ads were a ‘‘drop in the glass’’ of messaging around alcohol.

‘‘We have all of the alcohol producers marketing their products as, you know, ‘The only way you can have fun is with my product’.

‘‘To have fun you have to be drinking. When a baby is born we celebrate with a drink, then right through to when someone dies we commiserate them with a drink. That’s the culture we’ve created,’’ Hearn said

More than 100,000 people from over 21 countries took part in the GDS, including 3404 New Zealanders. The survey was web-based and selfselecting so the results are not representative of the national population.