“I Was a Lager Drinker-Not an ALCOHOLIC (I Was Wrong)

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:01]You must have said to yourself a thousand times, "Alcohol won't harm me.

[00:00:06]I don't drink as much as him."

[00:00:10]I used to say that. I used to drink lager and beers really.

[00:00:14]Never any spirits, wine. Didn't like them.

[00:00:17]>> [snorts] >> "It'll never happen to me.

[00:00:20]Nah, I'll be fine.

[00:00:22]Mainly water, isn't it? You hear my parents say that.

[00:00:25]"You'll be okay."

[00:00:27]Don't sell yourself short.

[00:00:29]You don't realize how serious this is until you get a problem with it.

[00:00:35]And once you do get a problem with it, then it's a big battle to get back on track.

[00:00:41]And that's what I'm trying to put out here.

[00:00:44]Now, >> [snorts] >> many of us are disillusioned by it all.

[00:00:48]Have a two or three drinks, two or three times a week. If you're a problem drinker, that's not going to happen to you.

[00:00:53]>> [snorts] >> You're going to have more than that.

[00:00:55]It's going to get out of control.

[00:00:57]It's going to get out of control quickly.

[00:00:59]Your life will spiral downhill so fast, you won't believe it. Your life travels fast anyway, isn't it?

[00:01:07]You know, once you get into your late 20s, 30s, kids may come along, relationships, job change, all that sort of thing.

[00:01:12]>> [snorts] >> And alcohol's fed into your system all the way along the line, isn't You get used to it. Soon it's institutionalized.

[00:01:19]Pubs everywhere.

[00:01:21]People drinking at every occasion.

[00:01:23]Births, deaths, christenings, marriages, every every occasion there's booze, isn't there?

[00:01:27]It's so easy to get trapped by it.

[00:01:29]We don't take it seriously enough.

[00:01:33]Society doesn't [snorts] take it seriously enough. Especially in the UK.

[00:01:38]I want to talk about the UK UK because that's where I'm I'm in at the moment.

[00:01:40]I've been in other countries.

[00:01:42]Traveled quite a fair bit.

[00:01:44]It doesn't seem to be such a problem >> [snorts] >> as it does in the UK.

[00:01:48]We don't take it seriously enough.

[00:01:51]It's a very progressive disease, alcoholism.

[00:01:54]It kills so many people. So prevent Well, so preventable, isn't it?

[00:01:58]Now, I always used to say to myself, >> [snorts] >> I'll be all right.

[00:02:05]You do when you're young, don't you?

[00:02:07]When you're 20, you never think you'll be 30, and so on.

[00:02:10]And then soon you're 40.

[00:02:12]And this is where you get your problems.

[00:02:14]Your body starts to slow down a bit.

[00:02:17]It's feeling quite so chipper.

[00:02:18]>> [snorts] >> Energy levels drop.

[00:02:21]>> [sighs] >> Everything around you seems a little bit distant. Faded.

[00:02:26]Cloudy.

[00:02:27]It's gone out of I've got out of the window. You've no mental clarity when you drink too.

[00:02:30]Even just a few drinks.

[00:02:34]One or two drinks even, you still feel a little bit rough the next day, don't you?

[00:02:37]A bit edgy, a bit tired, cuz you don't sleep properly.

[00:02:41]You don't eat properly. You don't relax.

[00:02:43]Don't get fooled by this >> [snorts] >> I'll never happen to me.

[00:02:48]Cuz if you keep drinking on a regular basis, or heavy basis, it will happen to you.

[00:02:54]It'll take years off your life.

[00:02:56]Lots [snorts] of people, including me.

[00:02:58]Oh, I don't care.

[00:03:00]If I die when I'm 62, 63, 64. I do now.

[00:03:04]Jesus Christ, yeah.

[00:03:06]Cuz that's what age I am. But I'm still fit and healthy.

[00:03:09]Mainly because I stopped drinking for a while. Unfortunately, I stopped again.

[00:03:12]Started again, sorry.

[00:03:13]But I've been off it in the last 20 years.

[00:03:17]For 15 years, I was sober in two spells.

[00:03:21]You got to be careful of the relapse as well.

[00:03:23]The reason I'm here today is because I stopped for a long period. Simple as that. If I'd carried on, past 2019, when I was told by the doctor, you know, no more. This is the end, basically. If you do drink again, you'll be dead in 6 months.

[00:03:37]That's the reason I stopped. Now, you've got to stop way before that. Way, way before they tell you you're going to die. It's really It's what happened to me. That was the message, basically. You drink again, you'll be dead.

[00:03:46]And he said, "The state of your liver is a right mess.

[00:03:49]You've got decompensated liver disease."

[00:03:52]>> [snorts] >> I didn't even know what it was.

[00:03:55]Decompensated.

[00:03:56]I'd heard of cirrhosis and I was always frightened by it.

[00:03:59]I thought, "Oh, that's for whiskey drinkers, spirit drinkers, wine drinkers, meth drinkers, people are drinking at 6:00 in the morning."

[00:04:06]And when I spoke with one of the consultants, he said, "Oh, your damage was done when you were young."

[00:04:10]I said, "When I was young, I was fit, I was busy, I was in the police service.

[00:04:13]Never had any problems with alcohol. I drank lagers, beers."

[00:04:17]He said, "It doesn't matter.

[00:04:18]You were drinking regularly.

[00:04:20]So, even if you just having four or five pints regularly, your system is never getting a break from it.

[00:04:26]Even after night shift, we used to go to the pub at 7:00 in the morning.

[00:04:30]Because it was a habit.

[00:04:32]And after that, I used to go home with a couple of cans of beer.

[00:04:35]In Tesco in Epping, I used to remember they opened at 8:00.

[00:04:39]And I'd go in and get four eight cans of Stella.

[00:04:42]And some bacon and eggs. And they'd say, "Oh, how are you doing?

[00:04:46]Early breakfast again?" I don't know [snorts] what they thought I did for a living. But I remember that.

[00:04:51]Sitting outside, you know, I had a little beautiful garden there. And so many times sitting out there at 8:30 in the morning having a fried breakfast.

[00:04:58]And [snorts] and a few cans of Stella before I went to bed. Slept reasonably well, I thought, in those days off nights, cuz night duty. But if you weren't on any shifts, it's hard work. So, I was just happy as Larry, happy as the proverbial.

[00:05:11]Having a few drinks, a few more on my days off. Didn't have kids at that time.

[00:05:16]Life was good. Had a bit of money.

[00:05:19]Worked hard.

[00:05:20]And a lot of it went on beer, mate. You should have seen the beer tokens at the uh the beauty salons, the cash machines.

[00:05:27]It's incredible how you don't notice it creeping up on you.

[00:05:31]>> [snorts] >> But you'll see other people who don't drink as much and think, "Well, they're a little bit better than me, a little bit thinner, a little bit fresher.

[00:05:37]A little bit more ambitious. Where's my ambition gone?"

[00:05:39]When I was young, I was very ambitious.

[00:05:41]I am now. I'm sober now.

[00:05:43]It kills your personality off.

[00:05:46]You don't see many alcoholics or alcohol-dependent people who are happy, do you? They're a miserable bunch of sods.

[00:05:54]All you got to do is go to the local pub, nearly Wetherspoons.

[00:05:57]I know I keep mentioning them, but I think they're causing a lot of harm to British society. That's my view only.

[00:06:03]And you see them in there, £1.69 a pint it is.

[00:06:08]Or £1.99 for Ruddles County they drink.

[00:06:11]You know, 10 pints for £20.

[00:06:14]Crazy, isn't it? Every day, same place, same table. They're in there doing the same thing day after day after day after day after day. Doing the cycle, you see?

[00:06:23]The habit, the cycle. And it's going to kill them.

[00:06:25]One lad died, but there you go.

[00:06:28]Called Harry. I used that [snorts] word I used that as his name.

[00:06:31]Maybe he's called Harry.

[00:06:32]However, he was drinking bowls of brown ale most days. Never looked well. You have to count the scratches all over his face, bruises where he'd fallen over.

[00:06:40]He had a successful business one time, had to sell a lot due to booze. Then he went into the gambling.

[00:06:46]Got himself in a mess, wife left him, usual thing, kids didn't speak to him.

[00:06:50]I think he was about 62, passed away.

[00:06:52]Bleed on the brain. That'll be high blood pressure due to alcohol. He was told many times to get off the booze, many, many times, and he didn't. He didn't stop. He didn't have the wherewithal to stop. Whether he wanted to stop or don't know. A lot of people don't want to stop. Let's just hope this isn't for any of us. And let's hope they're at peace.

[00:07:10]Well, I live as near as one of the large hospitals in the past in the second.

[00:07:15]Anyway, I was in a few of those 2019 onwards when I was back and forth hospital with what was classed then as severe liver disease.

[00:07:24]It was called ARLD, alcoholic liver disease.

[00:07:29]Decompensated cirrhosis. I never thought I'd get back to walking again. I was in a wheelchair.

[00:07:34]I was in that hospital for 2 and 1/2 years. I had various issues with it.

[00:07:38]Nearly passed away. I was in ICU twice.

[00:07:40]Sodium level dropped. The list goes on and on and on.

[00:07:44]Fortunately, I had a little thing called a TIPS put in my liver to open up the portal vein cuz when your liver gets cirrhotic, it shrinks.

[00:07:53]And you get what's called portal hypertension.

[00:07:56]And that causes all sorts of issues including the sight, you see fluid build up in your stomach.

[00:08:00]Uh the peritoneum gets full of um hor- horrendous fluid which can turn into sepsis. And I was just bordering on that. So, you know what a mess I got into. I think I mean, I was um taking the pub, having a few lagers every night. No good at all. Don't be fooled by this.

[00:08:17]Alcohol is a very dangerous, sneaky substance. It'll take you down so quickly. And in the end, it'll take your life.

[00:08:23]If you need any help, get in touch with me. I do one-to-one mentoring.

[00:08:26]I'm coaching. I've got an ebook out. I do a lot of live shows as well, live streams 7:30.

[00:08:32]And you know, be happy and be healthy cuz you're only here once. And do not live it in a permanent hangover.