Humans have been consuming alcohol since, well, before there were humans.
Scientists have found that our primate ancestors had enzymes to break down alcohol as long as 7-21 million years ago, well before any human species walked the earth. Through phylogenetic research, they found that the enzyme ADH4 was present in our ancestors, which are also the common ancestors of chimps, bonobos and gorillas. It isn’t present in all primates; orangutans, baboons, gibbons and some other primates lack the enzyme.[i]
Now obviously our hairy ancestors were not sipping on a cheeky Merlot but rather were probably picking up fruit from the ground that had started to ferment.
The earliest evidence of deliberate consumption of an alcoholic beverage comes from 7,000 BCE in China from an analysis of residues in a clay pot. So we humans have been making and drinking alcoholic drinks for at least 9,000 years, and probably much longer than that.
Our ancestors did not just rely on alcohol as their only psychoactive substance. Analysis of organic chemical residues from ancient pottery, combined with studies of ancient texts and imagery, has shown us that alcohol was perhaps the mildest substance consumed by our forebears. Brian Muraresku, in his excellent book, The Mortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion With No Name, describes the wealth of evidence that psychedelic drugs were widely used in religious ceremonies by ancient people. For example, there is strong evidence that the Eleusinian Mysteries, a highly secretive ritual undertaken by initiates in ancient Greece (including Plato, Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius), involved drinking a ‘kykeon’, which may well have included psychedelics such as DMT, psylocibin or some LSD-like compound derived from ergot. Muraresku makes a good case (building on work by earlier scholars) that early Christian rituals may have included psychedelic substances.
Nevertheless, we can see that alcohol has been embedded into our culture for a very long time indeed, and in most countries, it is the most powerful psychoactive drug available legally. In most parts of the world, except states where it is proscribed for religious reasons, it is used at our most important ceremonies. It is part of the Christian Eucharist; in Judaism, festive and sabbath meals start with the ‘kiddush’, where wine is blessed before being passed around; newly-wedded couples are toasted with it and it would be an unusual baptism or funeral where alcohol is not consumed.
Here in the UK, the pub plays a central role in our communities as a meeting place for friends to gather. I worked in pubs as a student and know that pubs provide a very valuable service, particularly to older people for some of whom the pub is their only social link with other people in the community.
Alcohol acts as a social lubricant, many people enjoy the taste of it and, if the participants get their consumption just right, people can enjoy convivial occasions and have fun.
So, what’s not to like?
Well, quite a lot, unfortunately.
Approximately 260 people a year are killed in accidents in the UK where at least one driver was over the legal limit, and more than 6,000 were injured. In England and Wales, alcohol is thought to play a part in an astonishing 1.2 million violent incidents per year, which is about half of all violent crimes. An estimated 19,000 alcohol-related sexual assaults occur each year in England and Wales and alcohol is estimated to be a factor in a third of domestic violence incidents.[ii]
Alcohol is a risk factor in seven cancers, including breast, mouth and bowel cancer. Around 1 in 10 cases of breast cancer are caused by alcohol, which is about 4,400 cases a year in the UK.[iii] Alcohol is a risk factor for hypertension, which may cause strokes and heart attacks.
However, I am sure you are aware of this and the focus of this blog isn’t on the extreme cases of harm caused by alcohol, but rather on the effect that the place of alcohol in society has on the majority of drinkers.
As TNMI Coaches, we know about this impact, firstly because we have all experienced it, and secondly because we see the impact on our clients.
Firstly, let’s consider the impact of alcohol marketing on society. The alcohol industry spends an estimated £800 million on advertising alcohol in the UK and some £1 trillion worldwide.[iv] Think about the advertising you have seen for alcoholic drinks – does it tell you that the drinks being marketed taste wonderful or have any tangible benefits for the drinker? I can’t think of any advertising that does that. Everything I have seen is projecting an image of what the drinker is like or will become if they drink the advertised beverage. It is an image of glamour and sophistication and shows beautiful people having the time of their lives.
Now you might say that obviously, drink marketers are not going to show people vomiting into the bushes on their way home or having a drunken argument with their spouse. Still, although we can’t blame the advertising agencies for glossing over this rather inconvenient side-effect of their product, the net effect is to create a sense that it is normal to drink, it will make you glamourous and attractive, and if you don’t drink you will be missing out.
Although the alcohol industry has deep pockets and spends a fortune on advertising, in truth, a lot of their work is done completely for free by film and television studios. With a few deliberate exceptions, such as Denzel Washington’s brilliant portrayal of a drunk pilot in Flight, alcohol is consistently portrayed in a positive light. Film and TV characters have riotous parties drinking neat spirits from a bottle and shrug off their hangovers in a minute with a cup of coffee. You don’t see the protagonist missing a day afterwards because they have spent the whole day puking, or spending the night in A&E because they have fallen over and broken something (I’ve done both of these, sadly). If people are a bit sad, they go to a bar for a drink and have a comforting chat with the barman. I watched a TV series recently (Bloodline) and there was barely a scene in which someone wasn’t drinking. Apart from one scene where one of the female protagonists embarrassed herself after a drinking binge, the characters were seemingly completely unaffected by their prodigious consumption of beer, wine and spirits, happily driving themselves around the Florida Keys and getting on with their lives.
Why does this matter?
It matters because, for those of us who develop a drinking problem, all of this above and below-the-line advertising makes it feel like life is impossible without drinking. We know it is harming us and that we would be better off without it, but the FOMO is just too strong.
There’s also a cognitive bias at play here called the Fading Effect Bias. The FAB is a psychological bias in which memories associated with negative emotions tend to be forgotten more quickly than those associated with positive emotions. So we remember the good times drinking more than the horrific hangovers, arguments and drunk-texting our exes. When that is combined with the formidable effects of advertising, TV and films, it creates a completely unwarranted rosy picture of what drinking is like.
There is good news here though. Knowledge is power. Like one of those optical illusions where you stare at it trying to see the thing that is supposed to be there but is eluding you, once you have seen it, you can’t unsee it.
Once you have seen it, you can start to question some of your fundamental assumptions about alcohol and get really curious about what it does and doesn’t do for you.
I remember sometime during the year that I read This Naked Mind, I was still drinking and one evening I finished work on a beautiful sunny evening. I was staying in a hotel and had the thought that it would be lovely to read a book in the sun with a pint of beer. The first pint went down nicely so I got another. After a few minutes, I realised that because the alcohol was affecting my concentration, I lost interest in the book. After a few more minutes, I realised that I was thoroughly bored and realised that had I ordered a soft drink, I would still be sitting in the sun and enjoying my book.
That’s just a tiny example of how your perspective can shift once you start to question whether alcohol is really doing what is advertised. Once you’ve seen through it, you realise that it is all an illusion. Not only can you experience joy and fun without alcohol, but you get to enrich your life and have more chances to experience the emotions and thoughts that bring true peace and contentment.
There are signs the tide is turning. The number of young people that drink has been falling in the UK at least since 2003. For example, the number of school pupils who say they have ever had an alcoholic drink fell from around 60% in 2003 to less than 40% in 2014 (the survey question changed in 2014 so we can’t make more direct recent comparisons, but the recent trend with the new question is still downwards) [v] ONS surveys have found similar results. Since 2005, the overall amount of alcohol consumed in the UK, the proportion of people reporting drinking, and the amount drinkers report consuming have all fallen. This trend is especially pronounced among younger drinkers. [vi]
Forbes has reported that the no-alcohol drinks market surpassed $11 billion in 2022 from $8 billion in 2018 and is expected to continue at a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of at least 7%.[vii]
So if you are deciding to cut down or stop drinking, you should know you are part of a movement. Enjoy it, you trend-setter!
Paul
Commentaires