‘Help is there’ - Ant opens up on addictions
TV star Ant McPartlin has highlighted the importance of seeking help for addictions at an event hosted by the Duchess of Cambridge.
Kate Middleton, patron of the Forward Trust charity, delivered a keynote speech at the Bafta headquarters in London to launch the Taking Action on Addiction campaign.
The initiative aims to improve awareness and understanding of addiction, and its causes and scale in society, to enable more people to ask for and receive help.
The duchess spoke to Geordie duo Ant and Dec, who compered the event, about McPartlin’s former addiction problems.
Ant told Kate: “I found that myself. By the time I asked for help, it was bad, but as soon as you opened up to people, problems have got to disappear. It gets better and help is there.”
McPartlin struggled with a two-year addiction to super-strength painkillers following a knee operation in 2015.
He crashed his car in 2018 while more than twice the alcohol limit, before entering rehab.
Dec also added to Kate: “You get so many people who say ‘Things didn’t change until I hit rock bottom.’
“If we can stop people hitting rock bottom, wherever that is, and get help much earlier, it will make such a difference.”
Speaking at the launch, the duchess said: “Addiction is not a choice. No one chooses to become an addict. But it can happen to any one of us. None of us are immune.
“Yet it’s all too rarely discussed as a serious mental health condition. And seldom do we take the time to uncover and fully understand its fundamental root causes.
“The journey towards addiction is often multi-layered and complex. But by recognising what lies beneath addiction, we can help remove the taboo and shame that sadly surrounds it.”
She also described how the Covid-19 crisis had affected addiction rates, with some 1.5 million more people facing problems with alcohol, and almost one million young people experiencing an increase in addictive behaviour.
“The pandemic has had a devastating impact on addiction rates. And families and children are having to cope with addiction in greater numbers than ever before,” she added.
“We know that over one-and-a-half million people across the UK who did not have substance misuse prior to lockdown may now be experiencing problems associated with increased alcohol consumption.
“Around two million individuals who were identified as being in recovery may have experienced a relapse over the past 18 months.
“And almost one million young people and children are showing an increase in addictive behaviour since the pandemic began.”
Kate called for society to start with compassion and empathy and to value and prioritise care and support, adding that there was hope and that she had met “many incredible people who have lived through the harsh realities of addiction” over the last decade.
“Through their own hard work, and with the help from communities and charities, such as the Forward Trust, lives really are being turned around,” she said.