Before you start

This is a short book. You can read it in two or three evenings.

It's about one belief. You drink most days, or most weekends, and you'd say it does you good in two particular ways. It relaxes you at the end of the day, and it makes you easier company when you're out. A life without it looks tenser and duller, with a stiffer version of you living it.

I'm going to argue that the glass gets credit for work it didn't do. A good share of the relaxation comes from what else happens when you pour. Work stops, you sit down, and you've told yourself you're off duty. A good share of the confidence comes from believing you've had a drink, and from the twenty minutes that pass at any party. Researchers have run experiments that pull these things apart, and I'll describe them.

The title overstates the case, and I'd sooner say so now than have you catch me at it. Alcohol is a drug with real effects. It sedates you, it narrows your attention, and in company it makes strangers smile and talk a little more. Chapter 5 sets out what's real. "The drink did less of that than you think, and sent you part of the cost the next day" is more accurate. It wouldn't fit on a cover.

I won't spend pages on your liver. You've seen the posters in the surgery. Health comes up where it bears on a decision, and that's all.

I won't ask you to stop drinking before you've finished reading, and I won't ask you to carry on either. The book also doesn't assume you'll never drink again. It builds towards an experiment, a month without alcohol in which you do everything you normally drink for, and then a decision that's yours to make. The practical chapters are 12 to 14.

Three cautions before we start. The first matters most.

If your body has become dependent on alcohol, stopping suddenly can be dangerous. The NHS says withdrawal symptoms begin within 6 to 12 hours of the last drink. The milder ones include anxiety after waking, sweating, a tremor in the hands, a racing heartbeat, trouble sleeping, and feeling or being sick in the morning. If you get any of these when you go without a drink, or you need one in the morning to feel steady, see your GP or a local alcohol service before you cut down or stop. They can arrange medicine that makes withdrawal safe. Hallucinations, confusion, severe shaking or a seizure are an emergency, and the NHS advice is to call 999.

This book wasn't written as a treatment for dependence. Its argument may still be useful to you, but medical help comes first and the book comes second.

The second caution is about medicines. Alcohol interacts with a long list of them. If you take anything regularly, your pharmacist can tell you where you stand, and it costs nothing to ask. Nothing in this book is a reason to change or stop a prescribed medicine.

The third is about mental health and pregnancy. If you drink partly to manage anxiety or low mood, chapter 8 is written for you, and the short version is that both are treatable and deserve better than wine. If you're pregnant or trying to be, the NHS advice is not to drink at all, and your midwife or GP can help if that's hard.

One more thing. I think understanding helps, and this book is an attempt at it. It doesn't replace the help that's been shown to work. A conversation with a GP, an alcohol service, a support group and, for dependence, prescribed medicines can all be used alongside it.

The notes at the back give the studies I've relied on and their limits. The rest is my own reasoning, and I'll say so where it matters.