Latest Post, including some facts and figures on alcohol, MUST READ very eye opening

Habit is Habit, and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed down-stairs one step at a time - Mark Twain

This is my latest blog post, first of all lets do a quick update.  So since I wrote my last post i have become single again, me and the new GF just didn't work but again I've managed a disappointing break up without a drink so thats a good thing.  I have now come to the conclusion that the best route forward for now is to concentrate on me and my recovery and build myself into a shell of self happiness without seeking love and to simply let fate take its own action in good time, if indeed there is a girl out there destined for me and my crazy ways.  Also in my last post I was debating wether I should come off the Antabuse medication......I did.....I stripped away the comfort pillow.  I still have not had a drink so that is now 26 weeks and 3 days I have been sober.  I will not however be going back to drinking I am to remain sober, i know I'm not the sort of person who can just have 1 or 2 casual drinks and walk away so its better not to touch it at all and maintain sobriety.  

No one’s happiness but my own is in my power to achieve or to destroy- Ayn Rand

In todays blog I'm going to list some facts, figures and stats that i have researched about the extent of the drinking problem that we have in the UK at the moment.

• More than 9million people in England drink more then the recommended daily limits
• Alcohol is 10% of the UK burden of disease and death, making alcohol one of the 3 biggest lifestyle risk factors for disease and death in the UK, after smoking and obesity
• An estimated 7.5million people are unaware of the damage their drinking could be causing 
• Alcohol misuse costs England around £21n per year in healthcare, crime and lost productivity costs
• Alcohol is 61% more affordable then it was in 1980
• Alcohol is a causal factor in more than 60 medical conditions, including mouth, throat, stomach, liver and breast cancers, high blood pressure, cirrhosis of the liver and depression
• In the UK in 2012-13, there were 1,008,850 hospital admissions related to alcohol consumption where an alcohol-related disease, injury or condition was the primary reason for hospital admission or a secondary diagnosis.
• In 2012 there were 8,367 alcohol-related deaths in the UK
• Males accounted for approximately 65% of all alcohol related deaths in the UK in 2012
• Alcohol now costs the NHS £3.5bn per year, equal to £120 for every tax payer
• In England and Wales, 63% of all alcohol-related deaths in 2012 were caused by alcoholic liver disease
• Liver disease is the only major cause of mortality and morbidity which is on the increase in England whilst decreasing in other European countries
• Deaths from liver disease have reached record levels, rising by 20% in a decade
• The number of older people between the ages of 60 and 74 admitted to hospitals in England with mental and behavioural disorders associated with alcohol use has risen by over 150% in the past decade, while the figure for 15-59 year olds has increased by 94%
• Only 6.4% of dependent drinkers access treatment in the UK
• For every £1 invested in specialist alcohol treatment, £5 is saved on health, welfare and crime costs
• Alcohol-related crime costs £11n per year (2010-11 costs, England)
• A fifth (20%) of all violence in 2010-11 took place in or around a pub or club. This rises to 30% for stranger violence.  More then two thirds (67%) of violent offences occur in the evening or at night and 45% at the weekend
• Nearly a fifth (19%) of all adult binge drinkers reported committing an offence in the previous year compared with 6% of other regular drinkers and 3% of those who occasionally or never drank alcohol.
• There were 9,930 casualties of drink driving accidents in the UK in 2012, including 230 who were killed and 1200 who suffered serious injury
• Victims believed the offender(s) to be under the influence of alcohol in around half (47%) of all violent incidents, or 917,000 offences
• Men and Women prisoners who reported drinking daily drank an average of 20 units per day
• In 2012, 43% of school pupils (aged 11-15) said that they had drunk alcohol at least once
• 193 Males and 121 females between 15 and 34 years of age died from alcohol-related causes in 2011 in the UK
• The number of alcohol-related hospital admissions of 15 to 24 year old male patients increased by 57%, from 18,265 to 28,747 from 2002 to 2010
• The number of hospital admissions of 15 to 24 year old female patients increased at the faster rate of 76% from 15,233 in 2002 to 26,908 in 2010
• In a sample of over 2000 15-16 year olds from the UK, 11% has had sex under the influence of alcohol and regretted it
• Almost 1 in 10 boys and around 1 in 8 girls aged 15 to 16 have unsafe sex after drinking alcohol
• Every year in the UK, more than 10,000 fines for being drunk and disorderly are issued to young people aged 16-19
• Almost half of young people excluded from school in the UK are regular drinkers

I think some of these facts are quite shocking really, and i think it highlights not only that we need to address this drink problem which i will go into further in future posts, i.e the advertising and prices or alcohol and many more issues.

I think one major thing that we need to do is increase the amount of eduction done on the use and risks of alcohol and substances, especially as early as the 6th year of eduction, because i believe that we now live in an age that once kids hit secondary school the chances of experimenting with alcohol and substances especially through peer pressures is alot more common then it used to be say 10 or 20 years ago.  I not saying we should go in with a ‘just say no’ attitude as when kids are that age the more you tell them something is bad and not to do it, the cooler it will seem and they will naturally rebel.  We should instead simply offer them facts, figures and case studies, bit of shock and owe pictures and videos to simply give them the tools to make there own educated decision on what to do and also make them aware that if they run into problems there is help available and it is ok to reach out for it.

I will write more in my next post, for now share this blog around and spread the word if you would be so kind, take care

The chains of alcohol are too light to be felt until they are too strong to be broken