One in four young Brits are turning teetotal… We investigate what’s driving the sober revolution
CAT Meffan will always remember the exact date she decided to stop drinking.
“It was August 29, 2015. I’d been to a friend’s wedding the day before, and as much as everyone said I was great fun, I knew I’d acted like a fool,” she remembers.
“I mean, who does forward rolls in smart trousers and a gold top by the bar at a mate’s wedding? Or runs over to the bride, sloshing a glass
of red wine everywhere? During my hangover the next day, I said to my partner: ‘I don’t ever want to feel this rough again,’ and I’ve not looked back.”
Cat isn’t alone in her desire to quit alcohol.
A growing number of Brits are choosing to sit themselves very firmly on the wagon, with 27% of 16-24 year olds defining themselves as teetotal*, while over a third of people aged 18-21 saying they’d rather binge on TV than booze.**
And it’s not just the under-25s – a survey last year found that women over 34 are more likely to give up the bottle than their male counterparts,
with 23% of them being teetotal compared to 14% of men.***
Psychologist Professor Richard Hammersley explains that one of the reasons we’re going off alcohol is the growing awareness of just how dangerous it is to our health.
MOST READ IN FABULOUS
“Over the past 20 years, we’ve seen a very worrying rise in liver cirrhosis deaths among young people,” he says.
“But with this knowledge comes a change in attitude, as people are finally realising that alcohol can be severely damaging – and even fatal.
They’re aware of its negative implications, such as causing weight gain, short-term memory loss and even cancer, so are starting to turn away from it.”
Psychologist Arthur Cassidy agrees, adding that social media and the wellness movement has played a huge part in this booze backlash.
“For a long time women tried to keep up with men in the drinking stakes. It was a way of showing they were equal,” he explains, referring to the ladette culture of the ’90s, which saw women hitting the bottle in a bid to match their male friends.
But while it may have seemed fun at the time, shockingly, research has since shown that women born in the ’70s are more likely to die
of alcohol-related illnesses than any generation of women before them.
“But the rise of social media has had a massive impact on this,” says Arthur.
“Health promotion and marketing means women are more encouraged to take care of themselves which, in turn, has facilitated a move towards drinking less alcohol.”
It’s something 29-year-old blogger and jewellery designer Cat can relate to.
“I was never a big drinker, but did like to booze at weekends, often having vodka, wine or prosecco.”
While her wedding faux pas was the final straw, Cat says she’d been thinking about quitting alcohol for some time.
“The hangovers were making me feel so lazy and sluggish,” she remembers.
“Not only was the alcohol full of toxins and sugar, but my hangover food choices would be hugely calorific, as I’d crave huge roast dinners or bacon sandwiches washed down with full-fat cola.”
But Cat admits there was a more worrying reason to quit drinking – the dangerous mind-blanks she’d suffer after a big night out.
“I’d get memory loss quite badly when I drank,” explains Cat.
“With most big nights out, there would be a section or two that were pretty hazy. On a couple of occasions I’d wake up the next morning at home, but scarily have absolutely no recollection of the night after 9pm. Fortunately, I have very good friends who would make sure I got home safely, but now when I think back I can see how dangerous it was.”
When Cat did decide to give up alcohol, she started gradually.
“At first, I tried only drinking at a few social events rather than at every single one, but that was hard because some friends didn’t understand and would get offended if I wasn’t drinking at ‘their’ night out,” she says.
“In the end, I decided to attempt quitting altogether. Thankfully, I never had any kind of issue with alcohol in terms of addiction and I’d never really liked the taste of booze, so it wasn’t too difficult to give up in that respect.”
But it did affect Cat’s confidence.
“I was definitely someone who used booze as a confidence booster,” she reveals.
“At first, I felt like I had to prove to people that I could be fun without alcohol, and it took about five or six months to get over that. These days, I don’t care what anyone thinks, and I’m certainly just as confident holding a soda and lime on a night out as I used to be with a glass of fizz in my hand.”
Another reason the new generation of teetotallers are finding it easier to kick the habit could be because there’s less of a stigma attached to giving up alcohol these days.
Going sober doesn’t necessarily have to equate to signing up to Alcoholics Anonymous, thanks to far less imposing support organisations out there such as Club Soda, which has an almost 8,000-strong community of people who help each other to change their drinking habits.
It’s the brainchild of Laura Willoughby MBE, who quit drinking almost five years ago.
“I could easily polish off a bottle of wine or two with mates in the pub,” she says.
“I’m a pretty argumentative person when sober, but would row even more when I was drunk. And I used to lose things all the time, like my house keys and cash cards, which was so annoying.
“Booze turned me into the worst version of myself, and the regret and shame that the hangovers brought was a driver for change. On top of that, I was in a job I hated as a policy advisor for local government and was drinking every other night. I realised that if I carried on, I would never have the motivation to escape the job, and my drinking would get worse. I had to do something about it, so one day in May 2012, I told my mates that I was giving up booze and stocked up on alcohol-free drinks. It was the best decision I ever made.”
Two years after quitting alcohol, Laura, now 42, launched the Club Soda website.
“From my experience, I realised there wasn’t anything informal out there to help people change their drinking habits,” she says.
She started the club, which says 60% of its members are women, in January 2015 with her friend Jussi Tolvi, 43, who had also successfully moderated his drinking.
“Our aim was to build up a community of like-minded people who could support each other both on and offline,” explains Laura, who lives in east London.
“Now we run webinars, social events like lunches, 0% alcohol beer tastings, boot camps and online programmes. We also connect members to professionals who can help them further, and members recommend books to each other.”
Number crunching
- 58% of 18-24-year-olds quit to feel in control
- 21% of people say they cut back because of the high cost of alcohol
- The number of under-25s boozing now is 40% less than in 2005
Laura lists the main reasons people give for joining the club as: “to lose weight, improve their overall fitness or to improve their mental health.”
And, like Cat, the club’s members have realised that hangovers are no longer the badge of honour they used to be.
“They ruin your weekends and stop you being present for the fun things life has to offer,” says Laura.
“Who you get sober with is as important as who you would go to the pub with. Club Soda is full of kind and supportive people. It is not judgmental. People get p**sed together, so why should you get sober solo?”
And Laura’s group isn’t the only one of its kind. Even universities are getting in on the act.
The University of Kent, for example, has an Are You Not Drinking Much? society.
They state: “The society challenges the perspective that to have a good social life at university you must drink. We understand that not everyone drinks, either due to religious, medical or personal reasons, so as a society we aim to provide students with an opportunity to attend socials and events at university that don’t focus around drinking.”
Of course, it’s not always going to be easy, but for anyone thinking of joining the sober revolution, John Larsen, director of evidence and impact at Drinkaware has some advice.
“In order to stop, you’ve really got to put some time and thought into why you’re doing it,” he says.
“Consider what motivates you and identify what your triggers are. Set goals. Think about how much you want to cut back and how often. In weak moments, remind yourself why you’ve decided to cut back. And make a note of how you feel – you may find that you have more energy and are sleeping better, or that you’ve lost weight. Use that as motivation, too.”
Cat adds that keeping life normal has helped her stay on the wagon.
“Now I’m completely sober, I still see my friends and go to all of the nights out that I want to,” she says.
“I can dance with the best of them without drinking. If I have friends to stay, we chill out watching a film or go for a long walk and a pub lunch. I really enjoy cooking, so I invite people for dinner and will always have a bottle of wine or some beer for them. I’m not at all against my friends enjoying it. I just opt for a non-alcoholic drink instead.
“I don’t ever feel like I’m wasting my time any more, which was where the hangovers got in the way for me,” Cat adds.
“Going sober has made me so much happier with who I am, inside and out. There’s no need to hide behind a glass of wine. Life is just as fun without it.”
Need more convincing? Meet the 10 celebrities who have gone teetotal.
Sources: *ONS **Drinkaware ***The Grocer.
For more info visit: , .