I had previously written a blog post whilst we were in the depths of pandemic explaining my fears that with Covid-19 and the strict lockdown measures in place, this could have an awful impact on people who either already have an addiction to alcohol and for people who start to drink to cope with the stresses that the last 14 months have caused. You always hope that perhaps it won’t be as bad as feared, however, the latest ONS report on alcohol related deaths show an awful truth that alcohol-related deaths are at the highest they have been in over 20 years in 2020.

I believe from speaking with people within my Facebook support community along with members in my quit alcohol programme, that the lockdown has had a devastating impact on people’s mental health, not just here in the UK but across the globe. This blog is not a political rant and I am not against the measures that were taken during the depths of the pandemic. I am solely looking at what the last 14 months has caused and unfortunately, there does seem to be a link between lockdowns and increased alcohol consumption. This could be for a number of reasons, such as boredom-related, stress-related along with being able to hide behind closed doors with not being able to socialise and home-working. It may a case where you were concerned about your level of alcohol consumption before the pandemic, but now looking back over the past 14 months, it’s became blatantly clear that your relationship with alcohol has gotten completely out of control.

My first words to you are you are certainly not alone and the awful ONS report indicates that alcohol addiction and alcohol-related deaths are a serious increased problem. If you have found my website because you are looking for help for yourself or for someone that you care about, then I am really pleased that you have found me. I am going to list below a number of fantastic resources to help get you kick-started on your sobriety journey. These have been mentioned in previous blogs, but I thought it would be useful to put them altogether in one place for your ease.

Support Communities

With the rise of online social networks, gone are the days where you have to meet in person with others to get fantastic support if you are battling an addiction to alcohol. Whilst face-to-face groups are still present and available, if they do not appeal to you, but you know you would benefit from being able to speak to other people who are starting on their road to recovery or have been in recovery for a period of time, then going online is the perfect option.

I previously created a blog reviewing some of my own personal favourite online support communities which you can access HERE.

YouTube

Personally, when I first started out on my sobriety journey, I found YouTube to be such an excellent free resource to gain as much information and guidance as possible to get me kick-started. It really was life-changing for me and it is one of the reasons why I decided that I must create my own YouTube Channel to be able to help others who are dealing with an addiction to alcohol.

Along with my own YouTube channel, there are also a number of other sober coaches and individual people who are regularly creating videos to help people with an addiction which you can find easily on YouTube by searching for ‘alcohol addiction’. You can also click HERE to visit my YouTube Channel which I add new videos to weekly.

Sober Blogs

Blogs are free and there are plenty out there online to start reading from people who have walked in your shoes of alcohol addiction. The addiction recovery blogs you will find online may be from sober coaches and they are also from individuals who have benefited greatly from documenting online their progress along with their thought processes with dealing with their addiction and are really insightful. I also find it really comforting to know that I am not alone and others have gone through similar things as well when having an addiction control their lives.

If you would like to check out some sober blogs online then click HERE to see a break down of some of my all-time favourites.

Quit Lit

Being an author of ‘quit lit’ myself, it will be no shock to read that I strongly advocate the power of books to help kick-start recovery. Not only are they excellent for quickly taking in tips and advice with how to successfully recover from an addiction, but they are also a great boredom-breaker. If you are finding yourself with time on your hands and your mind is wondering toward booze, then picking up a book and escaping for a period of time into someone’s journey really can be life-changing for you.

You will be pleased to hear that there are a number of established quit lit authors out there who have published books that have gone on to be major successes and ‘must-reads’. I have composed a list of my absolute essentials for you HERE.

The above is only a small list of the help that is available out there that is completely free of charge. My best piece of advice is, if you are worried about having an alcohol addiction and you want to stop drinking all together, then to plan and take it step-by-step. Don’t try to think of everything that you need to do in one go as it will become too overwhelming for you. Stopping drinking is a major life-style change and you need to arm yourself with the information to help you succeed and I firmly believe that the resources I have mentioned above will help you on your way to adopting a life without alcohol in it.

The statistics from the ONS make for truly awful reading and the past 14 months have been unprecedented for everyone, but please remember that it is never too late to make a positive change to your life.