Young people are drinking less than the generations before them and older age groups are also looking to a drier lifestyle too – you only need look at the boom in low and no-alcohol drinks market 🖋️ By kiaelise1
Today, Gen Z are drinking less than generations before them – a large-scale 2019 UK study found 16-to-25-year-olds were the most likely to be teetotal, with 26 per cent not drinking – and other age groups, many of whom who have enjoyed alcohol for decades are increasingly opting do ditch the drink. You only need to look at the boom in the low and no-alcohol drinks market to see the appetite for this sober living. And people are finding unexpected joys in a life without booze.
Author and photographer Zachary Small, 36, started drinking aged 13 and became a binge drinker who struggled with having only a single glass. He drank for around 20 years until 7 July 2020 when he made a decision to try sobriety. “[I was] tired of being tired, gaining weight, stressed out”. Since losing alcohol from his life his family relationships have improved and a new element has been added to his relationship with his wife – who also chose to stop drinking.
Many find when they stop drinking alcohol is the money they save. According to 2021 polling, the average UK household spent £916 on alcohol each year. Piper, who is also the CEO ofDrug and alcohol practitioner Darren Lacey, 44, sought help from The Forward Trust in November 2018 after developing a daily drinking problem. For around 12 years, Lacey would drink a litre of vodka and multiple pints of lager per day. In February 2019 he gave it up.
“I discovered that I love being active and spend my time cycling, sea swimming, and hill walking,” he says. Lacey, who has run a half marathon, has lost over eight stone since he stopped drinking daily but the most important aspect for him is accepting himself. “I am able to say proudly that I am a gay man,” Lacey, from Dover, tells“That’s something I struggled with my whole life and was the main contributing factor to my drinking. I was trying to deal with the guilt and anxiety of it.
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