A TV programme featuring sports presenter Adrian Chiles talking about his drinking habits revived memories of his own gruelling battle with the bottle for one Ceredigion man.

John F, who attends Alcoholics Anonymous weekly meetings, warned people about the dangers of drinking too much alcohol after the acclaimed documentary Drinkers Like Me was aired and in the same week that the Lancet medical journal stated that any amount of alcohol consumed carried a health risk.

“I got so addicted to alcohol that it affected me physically, spiritually and ultimately morally,” John told the Cambrian News.

“It eventually took everything away from me and I couldn’t understand why that was – basically, I was in denial.

“I came from a drinking family and from a very early age liked the idea of a drink because it changed the way I felt.

“I worked in a brewery for 19 years where there was no stigma to having a few drinks at lunchtime, but I gradually found I was drinking more and more.

“I repeatedly tried to cut down but found that I became very restless and discontented because the drinking had become a lifestyle.

“Looking back I was never a normal drinker but in the end I started to hate myself – I just couldn’t see any further than the next drink.”

Having been sober for 20 years, John says alcohol abuse is evident in his native Cardigan.

“Being a rural area, people are perhaps less open and less inclined to discuss their drinking,” he added.

AA meetings are free and available to anyone who has a desire to stop drinking.

Meetings are held in Aberystwyth; at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church, Pontfaen Road, Lampeter; and HUTS, Newcastle Emlyn, on Wednesday evenings; in the hall of Aberaeron’s Holy Trinity Church in Bridge Street on Thursdays; and in the vestry of Our Lady of Taper Roman Catholic Church, Cardigan, on Fridays.

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