Today’s question is: How bad is your drinking compared to other people? How much are you drinking alcohol in comparison to others? What are the consequences of that? Should you be worried? Should you seek help? If so, who can you get help from?

First of all, why would you compare your drinking with other people? What does it matter? It only matters, how alcohol is affecting you.

When you look at other people, you could be looking at a male or a female. You could be looking at somebody who’s young, or somebody’s who’s old. You could be looking at somebody who’s normal weight; or obese, for their size. You could be looking at somebody who has health issues or doesn’t have health issues. So, alcohol is going to affect different people, at different times.

One of the big reasons why people want to compare their drinking with other people is because they want an excuse. They want to say, “In comparison to him, I’m drinking the same amount as him and he looks okay.” Or, “I’m drinking the same amount as her.” Or, “All of my friends here, we drink the same amount, so we compare each other to everyone else and when I look at them, I don’t see them as having a problem.”

It’s easy to make the comparison and go, “Well, look at them over there! They’re drinking much more than me.” It’s easy to find somebody else, who has got a worse alcohol – ‘worse alcohol’ – problem than you have. You’ve got to look at it from that perspective.

What are you asking this question for? When we started out first – when you started out drinking first – it was those comparisons, making those comparisons with other people, with your friends and stuff that lead you to the peer pressure, that started you out probably drinking alcohol.

You’re comparing yourself to other people and you’re going, “Well, I want to be like them. I want to taste what they’re doing.” That’s the thing that got you into the problem in the first place, so why would you compare?

So, stop comparing, look at yourself, look at your own drinking and make your own decisions.