This Alcohol Awareness Week, we are calling on everyone to break the silence, shame and societal indifference to a national crisis hiding in plain sight: alcohol addiction.
Alcohol harm is growing, not quietly, not marginally, but rapidly and with devastating consequences. Lives are being lost, families torn apart, and our health system is buckling under the weight. Yet still, we look away.
At Taking Action on Addiction, we believe it’s time to face the truth. And more importantly, to take action.
Alcohol and the Workplace
This year’s campaign, run by Alcohol Change UK, focuses on the vital relationship between alcohol and work. Whether it’s hidden dependency, high-functioning addiction, or the silent struggles that impact productivity, wellbeing and safety, alcohol use in the workplace is too often overlooked or misunderstood.
Many people continue to struggle in silence, fearful that speaking up could cost them their job, their reputation, or their dignity. We must build workplaces where people feel safe to ask for help, and where support, not stigma, is the response.
We live in a culture where alcohol is ever-present, in times of celebration, stress or sorrow. For many, it’s a casual habit. But for hundreds of thousands across the UK, it has become something far more serious. Addiction.
Our latest research confirms what frontline services and families have known for years: alcohol is the most common form of addiction in the UK. Among those who have personally experienced addiction, 49% said their dependency was with alcohol.
Behind this number are stories of people. People struggling to stop, trying to cut back and failing, hiding their drinking, living with shame, and enduring the physical and mental fallout.
Alcohol addiction and dependency isn’t a marginalised issue in society. It runs deep and spreads wide. People are living with addiction all around us – and it is getting worse.
Around 10 million people in England regularly exceeded the Chief Medical Officers’ low-risk drinking guidelines, including 1.7 million people consuming alcohol at higher risk and around 600,000 dependent on alcohol.
The health and mental health consequences ripple across wider society. There are almost 950,000 hospitalisations relating to alcohol every year, representing 6% of all hospital admissions.
Our own research found that 3 years after the pandemic lockdowns were lifted, 31% of people with personal experience of addiction say their consumption of alcoholic drinks is higher than before March 2020. For some, drinking is now part of their daily routine. This isn’t a phase. It’s a pattern, one that we cannot afford to ignore.
The Price of Inaction
The latest ONS stats released in February this year revealed that in 2023: 10,473 deaths from alcohol-specific causes were registered in the UK, the highest number on record . Over 10,000 lives lost in one year. This is not a blip or a background problem. It is a national emergency.
But alcohol harm doesn’t begin with death, it begins with decline. With relationships strained, health deteriorating, jobs lost, families torn, and self-worth eroded. Among people affected by addiction, whether personally or through someone close to them, more than half (54%) say their physical health has suffered, and 53% report emotional or psychological distress.
And what keeps this crisis so hidden? Shame. According to our research, 62% of those who have personally experienced addiction or dependency who were in work admitted that they would feel uncomfortable speaking to an employer about this problem.
Addiction Is an Illness. Recovery Is Possible.
Too often, alcohol addiction is misunderstood as a weakness, a failure of willpower, or something people bring on themselves. This belief is not only wrong, but also dangerous. It stops people from getting help. It isolates families. And it costs lives.
This Alcohol Awareness Week, we must stop looking away. This issue is not happening somewhere else, to someone else. It’s happening here. In every community, every workplace, every family.
Help Is Out There
- If you’re struggling with alcohol dependency or worried about your consumption, support is available. You are not alone. Visit our support page for confidential help.
- If someone you know is struggling, don’t turn away. Listen, learn, and offer compassion.
- If you can influence change, in policy, healthcare, media or community, now is the time to act.
At Taking Action on Addiction, we are campaigning to end the stigma, to change the narrative, and to make recovery visible and accessible to everyone. Because addiction affects everyone, but recovery is possible.
