PSYCHOLOGIST Debra Rickwood says there’s often a downturn in people’s mental health during the holiday period. 

“There’s quite a few reasons for that,” says the professor of psychology at the University of Canberra. 

For a lot of people, if they’ve got family disruption, family separation or if they had lost someone in the last year, the holiday period highlighted loss, loneliness and grief, she said.

This decline in mental health often led to a higher consumption in alcohol. 

“In our culture, it is pretty much expected,” Prof Rickwood said.

“There’s umpteen end-of-year… parties… then there’s Australia Day. 

“We’ve got a good six-weeks of ‘reason’ for drinking.

“I don’t think there is one particular demographic that is affected, I think it’s pretty much across the board.

“Although, there is a positive trend amongst young people of not drinking being more acceptable.”

Debra said this represented a good change in Australian drinking culture, as young people were particularly vulnerable to problems with their mental health.

“Firstly, alcohol itself is a depressant so the immediate effects are to feel more relaxed, less inhibited, more social and then that wears off and what happens is people tend to feel depressed, they might feel angry,” she said. 

“That often moves into anxiety.

“We talk about ‘hanxiety’, which is how you feel during a hangover, which can often have a really big anxiety component.

“That is a physiological reaction to alcohol.

“I don’t think people realise how little it takes, in terms of how much we drink, to be drinking at a risky level. 

“You can drink at a risky level very easily for the whole of the holiday period.

“If you are trying to limit your drinking, which I think is the main thing, set yourself a limit and say ‘I’m going to have three drinks and that’s it’, and count your drinks. 

“Make sure you count your drinks and don’t let people keep topping up your drink. 

“You have no idea how much you have drunk if someone keeps topping up your glass with champagne or whatever it is. 

“Alternate your drinks with non-alcoholic alternatives or try and sit on one drink for a while.

“Also, you don’t have to just drink water, there are non-alcoholic beers, there is really tasty stuff.

“These can be particularly good if you’re with people who think everybody should be drinking, if you have a drink that looks like an alcoholic drink, they will probably leave you alone because it doesn’t look like you’re just sitting on iced water all night.

Prof Rickwood said there were many things that encourage drinking and make it easy for us to drink alcohol. 

“You have to think about the reasons when you drink, who are you with? What are you doing? What is that pattern? What are some ways that you can behave differently?” she said.

“If you really have a problem with alcohol, and are using alcohol to cope, getting professional help is important, so is reaching out, talking to your general practitioner and seeing what professional help you can get.

“It’s difficult to do on your own.”