Tom Holland has opened up about the benefits he experienced after giving up alcohol, revealing he ‘feels the happiest I’ve ever been in my life’.
The Spider-Man star, 27, explained candidly about his relationship with alcohol before giving it up.
He became ‘really worried’ that he had a problem with alcohol and decided to make a change after he tried Dry January - a month in which people are encouraged to give up alcohol.
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Holland said he had realised he was ‘obsessed’ with drinking during an appearance on the On Purpose with Jay Shetty podcast, which was released on Monday (10 July).
The young star said he did Dry January last year but the month of sobriety has since lasted a year and a half.
“I didn’t one day wake up and say, ‘I’m giving up drinking’. I just, like many Brits, had had a very, very boozy December. [It was] Christmas time, I was on vacation, I was drinking a lot and I’ve always been able to drink a lot,” he said
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Holland said he was struggling with his drinking, explaining that he ‘couldn’t think about anything but having a drink’.
This worried him, so he decided to abstain from alcohol for two months but after two months, Holland was still struggling. “All I could think about was having a drink. That’s all I could think about. I was waking up thinking about it. I was checking the clock, ‘When’s it 12pm?’
The Uncharted actor explained: “It just really scared me. I just was like, ‘Wow, maybe. Maybe I have a little bit of an alcohol thing’.
"So I sort of decided to punish myself and say, ‘I’ll do February as well. I’ll do two months off. If I can do two months off, then I can prove to myself that I don’t have a problem’.
“I felt like I couldn’t go to the pub and have a lime soda. I couldn’t go out for dinner. I was really, really struggling and I started to really worry that maybe I had an alcohol problem.”
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After two difficult months without having an alcoholic drink, The Crowded Room actor then decided to challenge himself to be sober until his birthday, 1 June to ‘prove to myself that I don’t have a problem’.
Holland found that, by the time he reached his deadline, he was ‘the happiest I’ve ever been in my life’.
“I could sleep better. I could handle problems better. Things that would go wrong on set that would normally set me off, I could take in my stride. I had such better mental clarity. I felt healthier, I felt fitter,” he explained.
“I just sort of said to myself, like, ‘Why? Why am I enslaved to this drink? Why am I so obsessed by the idea of having this drink?’”
The Hollywood star also said being an avid fan of rugby involved drinking a lot, which meant he had to ‘distance’ himself from the sport.
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“I just felt so much pressure, and this is one of the [reasons] why I’ve sort of distanced myself from the rugby community, because so much of it is about how much can you drink,” he shared.
“Let’s get you as drunk as possible… It’s honestly been the best thing I’ve ever done.”
If you are concerned about your alcohol consumption, please visit The American Council on Addiction and Alcohol Problems website here.
Topics: Celebrity, Tom Holland, Health