End This Madness

On this tiny island alone, in the next fifteen to twenty minutes (and every fifteen to twenty minutes after that), there will be two drink-driving convictions and two emergency medical admissions, one admission to a psychiatric hospital and one death due to alcohol. As I write this line in this updated version of the book in September 2010, the Daily Mail had the headline ‘ Drinking puts 1,500 in hospital every day.’ The article reports on a new study from Liverpool John Moores University which states that in 2008/9, 606,799 people were admitted to hospital with drink related problems. Some were treated more than once, leading to 945,469 total admissions. It is worth noting that visits to casualty units were NOT included in this figure. This would have taken the toll to way over one million people! Between 2006 and 2008, liver disease alone claimed the lives of more than 11,000 men. Cirrhosis has increased tenfold since the first edition of this book was published and in 2009/10, alcohol was responsible for nearly half a million crimes in England. The report also says that alcohol is now responsible for around 15,000 deaths a year but there is no question that the real figure is even higher. Professor Mark Bellis, one of authors of this damning report, is quoted as saying: ‘The price we pay for turning a blind eye to the real extent of alcohol abuse across England is reflected in the new Local Alcohol Profiles for England and it is a price that is paid especially by

the poorest communities.’ He also adds: ‘It is time to recognise that we are not a population of responsible drinkers with just a handful of irresponsible individuals ruining it for others.’ It is said that it’s those who abuse alcohol who have the problems but nobody ever abuses alcohol; alcohol always abuses its victim as well as its collateral victims. Any form of drug addiction physically and mentally abuses its victim; it is never the other way round.

Alcohol probably kills well over a million people around the world every year. Nobody knows the exact figure as it is so hard to gauge. Every day it destroys millions of lives in so many different ways. In 2009 our own government earned over £8.7 billion from a disease we know kills 9,000 of its own people every year and destroys the quality of life of millions of others. The industry is allowed to spend over £200 million every year advertising this drug in the UK. Alcohol is responsible for more suicides, more murders, more rapes, more beatings, more physical and verbal violence, more sexual abuse, more divorces, more financial ruin and a general reduction of quality and length of life both for the addict and those around them than any other drug in the world. What is more, it is legal. Even our children’s lives are being shaped by passive drinking as we speak.

Alcohol drags society down in ways that have never truly been understood until now. It is the biggest confidence trick to fool mankind ever and it must be stopped.

You will now do your bit to help just by being free. You are literally at the start of a massive shift in society’s perception of alcohol. You are one of the elite, one of the few who can now see alcohol for what it really is. You are the new advertising campaign. We are only just beginning to change our perception and attitude towards the world’s most used and accepted drug. You can help me to help others become aware of the trap they are in, so they too can be free and it is not just accepted that future generations will become dependent on the drug. It should not be the ‘norm’ to drink alcohol but the other way round.

Just by gaining your freedom, you will be helping to shift attitudes to alcohol in the same way as happened with smoking. Smoking was also seen as ‘cool,’ ‘big,’ sociable and an adult thing to do for many years. The perception of smoking is now very different. At one time over 60 per cent of the population was smoking; it is now 30 per cent and dropping. Alcohol needs to go the same way because passive drinking destroys more lives than passive smoking ever did. Alcohol does nothing but destroy people mentally and physically. I am just a normal person who has found freedom but I believe I am the most passionate person in the world about this subject, and I will do everything in my power to help as many people as I can to break free from this slavery. My vocation is to cure the world of this disease.

What is the best way you can contribute? It is simply by being you – going out as usual, enjoying meals as usual and doing all the things you always did. When others

see that it is possible to be free, when they see that you can easily enjoy life to the full without alcohol and they see that you don’t need it, when they see you looking better and feeling better, they will realise. When they see that you have more confidence and, more courage , that you are more relaxed and that your life has improved in every single area, they will want to be part of it too. It’s contagious.

Do not become a ‘holier than thou’ ex-drinker as there really is nothing worse. Always remember that you were there once so do not be too quick to judge. Anybody who is getting drunk around you is not choosing to drink; they have to drink. Just because they believe it’s their choice does not change the reality. This is why prohibition did not work and never could work. You cannot solve the alcohol problem by banning it or trying to pretend it is not there. Once you have been deluded by alcohol, insecurities inevitably follow. The addict is then duped into thinking that they cannot enjoy or cope with life without alcohol. Choice does not come into it which is why it is no good giving drinkers an ultimatum like ‘Either the drink goes or I go.’ The poor addict will pick the drink, not because they choose to but because they have to. They feel as though coping without you would be less painful than coping without their crutch. If you ban alcohol, drinkers will want it even more as it becomes the CAN’T syndrome on a massive scale or the forbidden ‘gone off’ fruit.

All you need to know is that most drinkers you meet, whatever the situation, will secretly envy you. They will

want it even more when they see just how happy you are to be free. Some will expect you to get uptight about not drinking and expect you to mope around or at least whinge a bit. However, they will realise that you are not opting out of life but going out and enjoying yourself just as before. They will think that you are incredible, unique, special and superhuman. The most important part is that you will be feeling these things yourself.

The drinkers around you will want to be part of it. I am seeing a change around me all the time. People who before wouldn’t even have contemplated giving up drinking are now either stopping or at least questioning their drinking like never before. They may not say publicly that they want to be free for fear they couldn’t achieve it but the effect you will have on those same people will be contagious. Everyone will soon want to know how you did it. You can start your own revolution.

It may take time for society to make this shift in attitude but it will happen. When it does you will know that you have helped in that process. You will help others realise that people just do not need alcohol. Then, instead of them dragging you down, you will lift them up. However, you cannot force anyone to stop. There are still members of my family who drink (they haven’t read this book yet!). This is painful for me as I can see they are in a sinking ship and missing out on the juice of life. Yet, if I were to throw them a life jacket I know they would simply toss it back to me. It is not that they are being difficult; it’s because of the fear and insecurity created by the drug that keeps them hooked. It takes a

lot for people to read this book or come to my clinic for a session. I admire you for overcoming your fears, reading the whole book and making the concrete decision to break free for the rest of your life.

You now realise that there is no reason why anyone should find it difficult to stop drinking. It is so easy when all the brainwashing and illusions have been removed but please remember that others may not understand – yet. So, if you were to turn into an evangelist , you would not be helping them, nor does it help to pressure them. Simply be yourself and enjoy your freedom. They will soon pick up the book and, like you, be in a position where they can finally take control of their own lives and experience a full and enjoyable …