Adrian Chiles – Drinkers Like Me

Introduction

In this intimate BBC2 documentary, Adrian Chiles takes a hard look at his relationship with alcohol. He wants to understand why he and many others don’t see themselves as addicted, even though they struggle to enjoy life without drinking. Adrian, who drinks nearly every day, starts a diary and quickly realizes his intake is well above the recommended limit. Hoping to understand the roots of his habit, he visits his parents and reflects on how underage pub visits were more about friendship and belonging—a social draw that’s stayed with him since his teens.

After years of heavy drinking, Adrian Chiles gets his liver checked, and the results are a wake-up call. Speaking with an addiction therapist, he begins to see that change is necessary. But should he quit entirely or just cut back? To help decide, he turns to old friend Frank Skinner—once a morning drinker who gave up booze 30 years ago. Frank’s advice, however, takes Adrian by surprise.

See also: Adrian Chiles – Britain’s Drink Problem

Quotes

“Just because you’re not waking up in a shop doorway at 4:00 in the morning or not waking up with a complete stranger, or not drinking sherry in the morning, just because you’re not any of those things doesn’t mean you’re not alcohol dependent or have got some kind of dependency issue with alcohol.”

“A third of the people coming into the liver unit with alcohol-related liver damage do not meet the criteria for alcoholism … they’re just drinking more than they should. We’re trying to get a conceptual change now on how we view alcohol and we’re looking at this idea that it’s heavy use over time for a drug like alcohol – the more you use, the much greater impact. So, any reduction is good.”

“Research suggests that 16 to 24 year olds are now drinking less – it’s people of my generation with the real problem. Alcohol-related deaths in the over-50s have risen sharply since 2001.”

“The NHS defines binge drinking as, drinking lots of alcohol in the short space of time or drinking to get drunk.”

“With a Fibroscan score of 8.9, we would classify that as a mild or even moderate fibrosis of the liver and on top of that you’ve got significant liver fat, which we call hepatic steatosis, which is something that we also see with heavy alcohol consumption … You can’t carry on like this – you’re at risk of disease progression.”

“You associate those good times with alcohol and actually, until you know of stop and go back and start changing some of those beliefs, then you’ll always do the same thing.”

“The question is now, do I have to abstain completely or can I drink more responsibly, to use the world’s most boring phrase. Can I do it and still get the joy out of drinking while drinking a lot less?”

“You think you need beer in order to carry on your social life … for some strange reason you need some sort of handrail in your social life, something that takes you somewhere that makes you a person that you aren’t or you don’t feel you are normally. That’s the question you’ve got to ask.”

“I envy your relationship with alcohol – it may be a bit above the norm but it’s near enough to the norm not to sacrifice all the good stuff.”

“A lot of people … one of their fears about giving up drinking completely is, how will I be able to socialize, I’ll never be able to enjoy myself, I’ll never be able to do this, I’ll never be able to do that, and that’s what stops them taking that final step but it’s simply not true. [SMART Recovery Group]”