United Kingdom - Addiction & Mental Health Resources

April 24, 2025

Categories

What Makes Ecstasy So Dangerous? (VICE: High Society)

British people take more MDMA per session than anywhere else, averaging 420 milligrams—twice as much as Germans. While ecstasy remains one of the safest drugs, ecstasy-related deaths hit a decade-high last year, bringing it back into the spotlight. Some blame drug dealers for selling dangerously strong, adulterated pills, while others criticize the government for failing to curb the supply and adopt effective harm reduction strategies. It’s also possible that British drug users need reminding that a great night out isn’t measured by how much of your tongue remains. In this episode of High Society, they explore why ecstasy is becoming more dangerous and how its risks can be minimized.

April 23, 2025

Categories

The Ketamine Time Bomb (VICE: High Society)

Ketamine has emerged as a defining drug for a generation of young Brits. A report from November 2020 revealed that 1-in-30 young people had used ketamine in the past year — the highest rate ever recorded and significantly higher than in other European countries. Current data ranks ketamine as the fourth most commonly used drug among young people, following cannabis, ecstasy, and cocaine. There’s a striking contradiction at the core of what's been dubbed "Generation K": ketamine is both dismissed as a bizarre, almost comical horse tranquiliser and feared for its very real, dangerous effects—including the risk of severe bladder damage and addiction. As its popularity has surged, so too have cases of ketamine-related health issues, including users developing conditions that cause them to urinate blood. In this report, Matt Shea dives into the world of Generation K to explore how a party drug can spiral into something far more harmful.

April 23, 2025

Categories

Alcohol: Adrian Chiles – Drinkers Like Me

In this revealingly intimate documentary for BBC2, Adrian Chiles takes a long, hard look at his own love of boozing. He wants to find out why he and many others don’t think they are addicted to alcohol despite finding it almost impossible to enjoy life without it. Adrian, who drinks almost every day, decides to start a drinking diary and soon finds out his intake is way over the recommended limit. He decides to visit his parents to find out what it was that motivated him to start drinking as a teenager and reveals that sneaking into pubs underage was all about friendship and being part of something, and that the allure of the social side of drinking has never really left him since his teens.

April 23, 2025

Categories

Alcohol & The Brits – Drinking for England

This BBC2 documentary depicts the drinking culture in Britain in the 90s and the bond that Brits have with booze. It follows people who drink heavily and use poetry and song to describe their tragic, yet sometimes amusing, relationship with alcohol. They include a man who drinks a minimum of ten pints of beer a night, a fashion model who drinks until she collapses, and a woman receiving detoxification treatment in a private hospital.

April 23, 2025

Categories

Alcohol at Home – Britain’s Secret Drinkers

It is commonly believed that binge drinking culture in Britain is their most serious drinking problem. However, experts in this short video, featured on the BBC programme ‘Tonight’, discuss a different concern – at home drinkers. According to a study discussed in the video, more and more people are regularly drinking alcohol at home, sometimes every night of the week. For some, it’s seen as a reward after a long day at work, and for others, it’s a way of relaxing. Unfortunately, many people appear unaware of the consequences of such behaviour.

April 23, 2025

Categories

UK Drinking Culture: A Royal Hangover

This documentary provides insight into the United Kingdom’s reliance on alcohol and the history of their binge drinking culture. In comparison to other countries, binge drinking is more socially acceptable in the UK. Unfortunately, they spend about 21 billion pounds every year because of this problem, with about 1.6 million people being dependent on alcohol. Russell Brand used to be one of them and you’ll hear his speech on this topic, including his own experiences with substance abuse.

April 20, 2025

Categories

Britain’s Drink Problem (UK Drinking Culture)

Adrian Chiles wants to “know why this multi-billion pound industry [Britain’s alcohol producers] is allowed to regulate itself – make up its own rules.” He discusses with others, both professionals and average people, the profound impact that alcohol is having on the country. This includes the rising number of alcoholics needing a liver transplant, the community’s confusion around ‘a standard drink’, and the hard-to-read designs that the alcohol industry uses for their warning labels.

April 19, 2025

Brought Up by Booze (George Best Documentary)

Categories

Parental Alcoholism: Brought Up by Booze

Calum Best is the son of one of the greatest footballers of all time, George Best. He is also the son of an alcoholic. In this intimate and challenging BBC Children in Need special, Calum confronts the harsh realities of growing up with an alcoholic parent. Meeting some of the 1.3 million children who are growing up with parental alcoholism, and sharing with them intimate tales of his own upbringing, Calum begins to accept that his life continues to be affected even now by his father’s drinking. Brought Up By Booze takes Calum across the UK to meet young people who share stories of chaos and neglect, but also inspirational stories of determination not to end up like their parents. What does George’s addiction mean for Calum’s future and will he ever understand the illness that killed his father? In this raw and often distressing journey of a son still reaching for his dad, we see first hand the devastating effect that drink can have on alcoholics’ children. [Taken from YT description]