This article was originally published in The Mercury.
Drinking alcohol can worsen sleep, mood, stress and energy levels. Yet a recent survey of Tasmanians found that 1 in 3 don’t know there’s a link between alcohol and mental health. The survey, commissioned by the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE), also found that 1 in 4 Tasmanians want to cut back on their drinking, with the number rising to 1 in 3 among people aged 25-44.
To find out more, the FARE team had a chat with the community about how they manage their mental health.
What do you do to improve your mental health?
Social connection, time outdoors and regular exercise emerged as common strategies for maintaining good mental health and wellbeing.
Jackson, 29: I practice a lot of mindfulness and take time out for myself. I go for a stroll, or go for a run, because I find when I’m running I can’t engage in activities that might stress me out or cause me to be less mindful of myself and my surroundings. It stops me from using social media, it stops me from playing online games.
Amy, 38: I like to go for walks, and the sunny days help as well.
Nerida, 51: I try to get lots of exercise and have as balanced a life as possible.
Chanelle, 37: I go to the gym, that’s about the only time I get to myself. We don’t have family here, so trying to get a spare minute away from the kids is kind of hard. The gym has a creche so that’s important each week. That’s a big thing for my mental health: doing something for myself that I enjoy doing.
Janani, 29: Going on walks after work. We live near the water. It’s a lovely way to destress, chat about the day, get things off my chest with my husband. That’s really nice. We’re Christian, so I think our faith also plays a huge role with our mental health. We have a community where we can talk about our problems with each other.
Jasper, 24: Exercise is a really good one – weight training, running. Meditation helps a lot, and journaling. Eating nutritious food, getting sunlight.
Jasper finds that meditation, exercise and journaling help to maintain good mental health.
How does alcohol feature in your life?
Many Tasmanians shared that their alcohol use had changed over time. Some drank less after having children. Others said they had reduced their alcohol use, after noticing that it had had a negative impact on their wellbeing.
Jackson: From a young age, I was exposed to people drinking. I saw the drama that can happen with alcohol. At a young age, before 18, I thought ‘Alcohol is not for me’. As I got a bit older, I thought ‘Ok maybe I’ll drink a little bit, but not go too crazy’. I’ve stepped in and been the one who is at big parties, when I was at college, going ‘I’m the sober one, I’ll go and get someone a glass of water when they need it’.
Amy: I’m not drinking this month. It was affecting my health and I feel much better, I’m two weeks in already. I was drinking too much on the weekends and thought it wasn’t really helping. I’d wake up in the morning and feel worse about myself, so I thought ‘Hey, let’s take a month off’. I’m feeling much better already, so I might even go more than a month. Who knows.
My anxiety was super high, but now I’m feeling much calmer and better about life. One of my friends was very supportive and said she would join me.
Amy is taking a break from drinking alcohol.
Nerida: It’s not part of mine, but my partner’s a big drinker and he has mental health issues. In a way, I think he drinks to deal with mental health issues, but at the same time it makes his mental health issues worse. It’s a two-edged sword.
Chanelle: Pre-kids, yes, we lived in London so there’s a huge culture there for going out and drinking. Since moving back home and having the kids, not so much anymore. I think I’ve had two drinks in the last six years. I don’t need alcohol to have fun and I don’t really want to wake up with a hangover the next day, especially having to look after three kids. Alcohol’s not really a part of my life, and I feel good about that.
I think it’s really important to be able to have fun without alcohol. It is important to have conversations about alcohol and mental health, because it’s so prevalent in the community. Back when I was growing up, it wasn’t really spoken about, if you were depressed or had anxiety you were expected to sweep it under the carpet. Now we’ve community awareness, people feel more open to talk about it with their friends and family.
Janani: In recent years, I’ve thought to myself, ‘What is the real point of drinking?’ I enjoy the taste of a cocktail, so I’ve realised, instead of taking those chemicals in, I could just have a mocktail and still enjoy that sugary taste. In the last year or so, I’ve stopped drinking alcohol. I think when I was younger and in uni, I felt the peer pressure if I went to a party, to drink. Now I feel like if I don’t want to, I don’t have to, and that’s been quite liberating. I feel a lot healthier, I feel like I don’t need to rely on that to have a good time. It’s definitely helped with my mental health.
Janani used to feel peer pressure to drink, but these days she prefers to order a mocktail.
Jasper: I decided to quit drinking alcohol. Over time, drinking takes such a huge toll on your body – you start to experience more anxiety and depression, and that has a snowball effect. You notice the benefits when you quit drinking.
What made me decide to quit was I was drinking too much. I realised that I didn’t want my happiness and confidence to depend on anything outside of myself. It was getting to a point where I was drinking too much, and there were more negatives than positives. It was hard to say to myself ‘I’m going to quit forever’, (so I decided to) test one year and see how that goes. That was really beneficial because I learned how to live life without alcohol.
Want to find out more about alcohol and mental health?
The Be Nice to Brain campaign, a partnership between the Tasmanian Government and FARE, encourages Tasmanians to reflect on their alcohol use, and access evidence-based strategies and resources that can support them to make a change.
To learn more visit Be Nice to Brain.
If you live in Tasmania and would like to share your story about alcohol, please reach out to the FARE team at campaigns@fare.org.au.
