Notes from Under the Table Pt 2

Notes from Under the Table 2; One woman’s attempt to beat her drink problem

My name is Cath and I am an alcoholic. We did this bit, right? Sorry,
it does get to your memory.

Today, good reader, we are going to talk about how much the Department
of Health says its ok to drink, and where that sits with what I drink,
and, maybe, what you drink.

Here’s the officialese you’ve probably seen the recent Know Your
Limits Campaign, about watching the number of units of alcohol you
drink. You can find out what how units add up and what it means
here:-

http://units.nhs.uk/

So, the maximum safe drinking levels are 14 units a week for women
and 21 for men.

But seriously, unless you already accept you have a drinking problem
who the hell thinks about that when they’re in the pub? How much
impact is a big old billboard on the Humberstone Road going to have on
someone who does most of their drinking alone, or with a group of
people all of whom are problem drinkers, and therefore there is no one
to act as moderator. Do the Department of Health REALLY think people
are sitting in pubs going, well, that beer’s 5.4%, and a pint is
568ml so if I have three pints that’ll be 9.2 units, I’ll make sure I
tot that up for my weekly total. I mean PLEASE.

If you’re a man, a couple of pints of Stella a couple of nights after
work, then treat yourself with five pints on Friday and two more after
football on Sunday? That’s 31 units in a week sir, 50% over the safe
limit.
If you’re a woman, have half a bottle of white wine with your dinner
every evening? That’s 31 weekly units too, madam and as you’re lucky
enough to be female, that’s twice the safe limit.
OK, so who recognises themselves and wants to stop reading now?
Go right ahead. That’s called denial. We’ll talk about that another
time. I’m something of an expert.

When my drinking was at it’s worst, I was drinking between 120 and 150
units a week. The average for a male street drinker is around 200
units. As a woman, keeping this undetected and holding down a day job
has got to get me some sort of Best Supporting Actress nomination
doesn’t it? My current consumption is roughly half that. So, still
five times the safe level. Breathtaking, isn’t it?

But in my 100+ units a week days, who noticed? They were desperate,
desperate days, waking up feeling like absolute hell every day, going
to work having rinsed with the strongest mouthwash money can buy and
having a packet of extra strong mints for breakfast to take the tang
of sour, stale alcohol off my breath. Marinading in perfume to mask
the same coming out of my pores. Spoken to at least twice for
smelling of alcohol the morning after (I never drank at work) by
people who knew I had driven to work that morning but chose not to
identify that, or me, as a potential problem.

Anyway, I’ve thrown lots of health facts at you at not talked much
about myself on this outing. Some days are harder than others for
talking about it. I will aim for more stuff about me next time out.

Love,

Cath

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