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The publication of last week’s report by the Office for National Statistics will have seen a few agitated expressions on the faces of finance directors and other senior personnel who are in denial about their problems with alcohol consumption.

It found that those in managerial and professional jobs drink far more than those in routine and manual occupations and that those in the very highest income brackets tend to be the worst offenders. 

Convenient shield 

This is why financial journalist Edmund Tirbutt and his wife Helen, co-authors of “Beat the Booze”, feel it is time to forget the word ‘alcoholic’ and replace it with ‘drink problem’.

They argue that most people with drink problems are capable of presenting a convincing case for why they are not an alcoholic, and regularly do so to their family and friends.

They can point out that they only ever drink in the evenings, for example, that they never drink spirits, that they can give up for short periods, or that they can’t remember the first time they drank alcohol – not because they are currently drunk but because they have heard that all alcoholics can.

The term alcoholic can therefore act as a convenient shield for someone in denial about their drinking to hide behind.

As long as they have not actually sunk to the level of the tramp they see swigging Tennents Extra every day near their local train station, they will take comfort from the fact that they do not consider themselves to be an alcoholic.

Delay equals deterioration 

This can perpetuate denial and self-loathing for longer than is actually necessary. However mild someone’s drink problem, their alcohol intake will gradually increase as their body becomes used to current levels and requires more to create the same effect.

“Delay therefore equals deterioration, and problem drinkers have a straight choice between doing something about their drink problem now or spending the rest of their life worrying about it,” the Tirbutts say.

They warn that there is no middle ground because failure to confront the problem is effectively taking the latter choice.

Many problem drinkers have only a psychological addiction, which means that they may be able to revert to controlled drinking again in the future if they give up for an initial period and tackle their underlying issues.

Classic signs of a psychological addiction are if you drink at the same times every day or if you start putting drink before other priorities.

Physical addiction 

A psychological addiction can eventually lead to a physical addiction, however, which is when the drinker will start to experience significant withdrawal symptoms if they don’t drink.

Anyone who has reached this stage should not try to give up without taking medical advice as doing so could result in serious memory loss or brain damage or could even prove fatal.  

It is not just people who are out of work who fall into this category. It is quite possible for someone with a physical addiction to go through the entire working day without drinking.

When they arrive home after work, however, they will typically down alcohol within fifteen minutes of walking through the door and will continue drinking until they go to bed.

“I only have a couple of drinks in the evening” is the classic defence, but most people who drink heavily underestimate their drinking by at least half when talking to others.

“A couple” can easily mean three or four and each “glass” can easily amount to three or four times the standard pub measure.   

Mind over matter

Alcohol experts are adamant that any drinker who has had a physical addiction should never touch another drop because, even if they have abstained for 30 years.

Their brain’s response centre is likely to have changed permanently when dealing with alcohol and this will cause them to start drinking again at their former levels immediately after they have the first drink.

It is not a question of mind over matter because the matter has changed – the brain has been permanently damaged.

“It should nevertheless be stressed that being teetotal does not have to involve endlessly craving alcohol or feeling that you are missing out in anyway,” Edmund and Helen Tirbutt add.

They say that an automatic pilot normally kicks in somewhere between one and two years of being dry, so that it becomes a habit to say ‘no’ to a drink in the same way that it used to be a habit to say ‘yes’.

“We are not aware of a single case of someone who has become a long-term teetotaller who doesn’t claim to be happier than they were when they were drinking,” the couple claim.

They feel that alcohol abuse is definitely a workplace problem that finance directors and HR directors cannot afford to ignore.

With the ability of employees to achieve maximum performance becoming increasingly key to a company’s overall success, any employee with an alcohol problem should be regarded as a significant threat top the bottom line.

Edmund and Helen Tirbutt are the co-autors of “Beat the Booze”, published by Harriman House Publishing. Copies can be ordered from the website below at a 33 per cent discount.

Related links 

• Beat the Booze
• Office for National Statistics: Men drink twice as much as women