“I have a history of depression and anxiety,” says Ian Bilik. “Even now, as a non-drinker, I still suffer from anxiety, but it’s barely noticeable anymore. Before, it was crippling, I wasn’t able to go to work – I wasn’t even able to leave the house.”
Bilik decided that he’d had enough of drinking after a particularly heavy Bank Holiday weekend, when he woke up surrounded by empty bottles: “I just thought, Right, that’s it. I’m done. Ican’t do this anymore. I’ve never been more determined to do anything in my life than I was the day I decided to stop drinking.”
Bilik has a blog and forthcoming book called One Man And His Grog. He’s part of a growing community of people who are either quitting drinking altogether or taking a radical approach to moderate their alcohol intake. The impact on his mental health, he says, was almost immediate.
“Stopping drinking transformed my mental health state entirely,” he says. “I went from being a depressed, angry, anxious person to someone who was happy and bright and positive. It was incredible.”
