Like Jennifer Garner, I’ve had to help loved ones through alcohol addiction – but for most of us giving up booze altogether isn’t the answer

If you have the addictive gene, then alcohol gradually wrecks your life, your relationships and will eventually kill you. Please ignore the latest study telling us to stop altogether, because that’s irrelevant

Ben Affleck was reportedly dropped off at a rehab clinic this week by his ex-wife Jennifer Garner, having struggled with alcohol dependency in the past (Getty)

I just dropped in to my local Marks & Spencer food hall to pick up a few bottles as they’d announced their “biggest ever wine festival” with a third off dozens of lines. At 8.30am I was too late – loads of empty spaces on the shelves greeted me as practically every discounted bottle bar the most expensive had been sold. No doubt they’d be swiftly restocked.

That situation sums up UK middle class drinking in a nutshell: Brexit might be stalling, the weather this holiday weekend might be variable, but to keep calm and carry on, we Brits need at least a glass or two every day.

Is our attitude towards booze a big problem? You’d think so, reading the latest study published in The Lancet medical journal.

The Global Burden of Disease, carried out by the University of Washington, involving hundreds of scientists, has come to the conclusion that any alcohol is bad for us. They concluded that the detrimental effects of drink outweighed the health benefits enjoyed by those who only consumed a moderate amount within “safe” guidelines. But when you examine the details of their findings, the difference between the 23 alcohol-related health problems that developed in “safe” drinkers and those of non-drinkers was just four in every 100,000 people – which makes the study pointless, according to a leading British professor for the public understanding of risk at Cambridge University. He reckons the pleasure enjoyed by moderate drinkers must be set against any small risk to our health. But there’s the rub – the word “moderate”.

A very large number of people (me included) tend not to be very good at moderation and very good at excess. In my case, excessive exercise has worn out my knees so one has had to be replaced. I’ve had two slipped disc operations in six months because I quickly resumed long-distance hiking far too soon after the first.

I don’t drink excessively now but I did in my thirties, forties and early fifties, especially when I was a successful TV executive. This Monday a BBC2 documentary showed television presenter Adrian Chiles revealing he drinks up to 100 units a week and struggles to get through the day booze-free. Adrian’s use of alcohol as a support and social crutch is common – he can drink at a safe level and still enjoy life, otherwise his health will certainly suffer.

According to a recent study which looked at drinkers in the Very High Risk category, Britain has the highest number of problem drinkers in Europe at nearly 3 per cent. These are people whose vital organs are being poisoned and whose perception is impaired every single day.

I’ve seen at close hand the damage alcohol causes and the difference between moderate drinking and addiction, the craving for any drink that will alter your perception of reality and make life more bearable. This week, the film star Jennifer Garner was photographed driving her ex-husband Ben Affleck to a treatment centre for alcohol abuse, his third time attending one in 17 years. That’s something I’ve done for a loved one too.

If you have the addictive gene, then alcohol gradually wrecks your life, your relationships and will eventually kill you. Please ignore the latest study telling us to stop altogether, because that’s irrelevant. What we should confront is our inability to drink in moderation. There’s even new evidence of the positive side to booze: a study has found that middle-aged people who imbibe a small glass of wine a day are half as likely to develop dementia, although excessive drinkers are 17 per cent more likely to contract the disease.

If the people who are drinking excessively are the middle-aged and elderly, many young people are abstaining altogether. A quarter of 16 to 24-year-olds never drink and those who do only consume one or two units a week on average, hardly the behaviour of my generation of student boozers. But is abstention the solution to our problem with safe drinking?

Binge-drinking is still a problem among students and young professionals. The recent high-profile court cases involving professional sportsmen Ben Stokes and Danny Cipriani involved late-night drinking and confrontational behaviour. The English Cricket Board plans to put support in place to ensure that in future there will be no embarrassing late-night booze-ups when the team are abroad. I’ve been trolled for saying it, but anyone who plays in a national team has a responsibility to act decently, and getting pissed and acting aggressively in public is something incompatible with your role.

I should be celebrating that many young people don’t drink, but I would be happier if secondary school students were better educated about the good and bad sides of drinking and drugs. If they were helped to understand addiction and dependency while in their teens, they would be able to spot the signs of it developing and act accordingly. The middle class drinkers who empty the shelves of wine bargains aren’t all going to turn into alcoholics, but we do need to look out for friends and family who have crossed the line into dependency.

The bravado exhibited by our drunken sportsmen is so typical of the British attitude to booze – any kind of celebration has to degenerate into excessive behaviour. An increasing number of middle-aged women are fast becoming alcohol dependent: in the prime time drama series Keeping Faith, a successful mother and lawyer turns to the booze in every episode, swigging from the bottle as the search for her missing husband turns bleaker. Role model? It is repulsive to watch.

The real question is: why do we find the concept of “sensible” drinking so embarrassing to embrace?