"Remote Work Destroyed My Life: Consuming Up to 30 Bottles of Wine Monthly" - OK! Magazine

Squinting through another blinding headache, Adriana Cloud shuddered when she spotted the empty wine bottle on the floor. As she stumbled to her feet she realised she’d passed out on the sofa yet again and was consumed with guilt and shame.

The editorial project manager, 43, from London, knew that in just a few hours she had to appear bright and business-like for an important Zoom call, but her colleagues wouldn’t be able to smell the alcohol on her breath and with her office now in her living room she could conceal her drinking easily.

She explains, “I was knocking back a bottle of wine a night, seven days a week, sometimes even two and my hangovers were getting worse. It’s horrifying to realise I was drinking at least 30 bottles of wine a month. I wanted to stop but every night I fell back into the same old routine.

“With no commute home, I was pouring the first glass of wine earlier and earlier, and staying up later drinking. I went to the shops to buy wine every day, sometimes twice a day. I spent hundreds of pounds, running into thousands, on alcohol and all I thought about was drinking – it was ruining my life.”

Sadly Adriana’s story is not unusual. Figures from the Office for National Statistics show deaths from alcohol are now soaring in the UK. In 2022, there were 10,048 deaths from alcohol-specific causes registered in the UK, the highest number on record. That’s 32.8% higher than the 2019 figure of 7,565.

Experts believe the shocking increase is due to a change in drinking habits following the lockdowns and more people working from home. The blurred lines between work and home life became a massive lockdown issue that continues today.

Dr Deborah Lee says that home working can be isolating and that alcohol could be seen as the solution at the bottom of a bottle. The expert from Dr Fox Online Doctor And Pharmacy says, “It calms anxiety and lowers stress. Being at home facilitates drinking alcohol which probably would not happen at work. Drinking while working at home could be just an occasional glass but might mean drinking a full bottle of wine.”

Dr Lee explains that, “Over time, the person can become tolerant to alcohol and need to drink greater volumes to get the same feelings of relief from stress and anxiety.

“Eventually the person is addicted to alcohol and can’t live without it. Those who are dependent on alcohol experience intense alcohol cravings and unpleasant withdrawal symptoms when not drinking.”

Adriana had always enjoyed a drink, but began leaning on alcohol much more during lockdown in March 2020. She admits, “I was probably drinking a bit too much already and knew I should cut back but I drank even more because there wasn’t much else to do and nowhere to go.

“I’d split from my husband and I was lonely. We’d split a few years earlier but I hadn’t felt loneliness until I was working from home. The news was quite scary, and nobody seemed to really know what was happening. My sense of disconnection was made worse by mostly connecting with people on screen.”

Added to that, Adriana’s workload increased but not being able to go out meant she was finding it hard to unwind. “Previously, I’d maybe go out for a drink with friends in the evening, or have a drink after I’d had dinner and settled down for the evening.

“Now I didn’t have to worry about getting home and I started to drink earlier in the evening, usually as soon as I finished work. But I never drank in the day or in work hours – that was a line I never crossed.”

However, within weeks her drinking crept up to over a bottle of wine a night, totalling 70 units of alcohol a week. A woman’s limit should be a lot lower at 14. After five months, Adriana knew her drinking was affecting her.

“My sleep was bad, and I’m sure my ability to concentrate was suffering. I was grateful meetings were on Zoom,” she says. “This way people couldn’t smell the alcohol lingering on my breath and skin, or realise how grotty I felt every morning after yet another night of drinking.

“I felt constantly low and ashamed. I kept promising myself I’d only have one drink and then every night I let myself down. I never got drunk enough to make myself really sick, but I just didn’t feel great most of the time and alcohol seemed to take over all my thoughts. I hated myself but working from home seemed to remove all the normal restrictions.”

Adriana was still managing her life and doing her job and didn’t think the situation was so dire that she needed outside help like going to the GP. But she started to realise she had a problem when she couldn’t stop thinking about alcohol.

“I was worrying about whether I had enough wine in and what I’d do if the shops were shut,” she says. She also noticed that her alcohol consumption was badly affecting her health.

“I was putting on weight and looked really unhealthy, with dull skin and hair,” she says. “It was easier to hide that in Zoom meetings, but it wouldn’t have been so easy face to face.”

She made several attempts to give up drinking, reducing her drinking to just three nights a week. “I started reading books about alcohol and memoirs by people who had quit drinking, and in July 2020, I decided to skip a night of drinking every few days,” she says. “I usually managed it, though I would be back to the same amount on my drinking days. But I started to see the benefits.”

Socialising was hard with people who were drinking and initially Adriana found it difficult to relax and be honest and tell people she had problems around drinking. “Yet each time I did, people were really supportive and that helped,” she says. “And I loved the benefits – better sleep, more money, not worrying about behaving inappropriately, feeling bright and fresh in the mornings, losing the extra weight.

“Gradually I drank less and less and eventually I just stopped. Memories of when I consumed too much and couldn’t remember what I’d said, terrified me. I wouldn’t know if I’d offended someone, if I’d fallen over or even how I’d got home sometimes. I dropped a day of drinking a week in July 2020, and by October I was down to three out of seven, stopping completely by December 2020.”

Still based at home but mostly out and about seeing clients, Adriana is now a trained grey area drinking coach helping “normal” drinkers – the people in the middle, not extreme cases of physically addicted individuals who might need medical detox, and not those who only drink every now and then.

“For many, drinking isn’t a problem, but some notice that it’s affecting their health, relationships, self-esteem, finances etc,” says Adriana. “I use an app which has calculated that I’ve saved £13,000 by not drinking so far – it’s a real eye opener.

“I help people understand why they drink and to change their relationship with alcohol. Drinking stole so much time from me – I lost the time to enjoy so many other things, to concentrate on those closest to me and give them my full attention, to look after myself properly – but I now live every day to the full.”