2024-01-06 10:15:00
In life, forty-year-old and quiet parent. On the networks, former alcohol addict who became an activist against the “hypocrisy” of politicians regarding this drug.
Yann remains anonymous and does not speak in front of his children about the addiction from which it took him 20 years to escape, nor about his fight. After living in Nice from 10 to 25 years, where party alcohol trapped him, he wrote Quite a descenta book “to understand alcoholism”.
How did you become trapped by alcohol growing up in Nice?
I passed my baccalaureate at 17 and entered business school. I started student evenings, it was open bar, massive alcoholism. Our ritual was to start at 8:30 p.m. with four pints at Wayne’s. Then, at midnight, we went to the Master Home to drink liters of beer until two o’clock. Then we would go somewhere else to drink whiskey and cokes.
There is a social gear, a pressure…
When you have an introverted personality, it’s a magic substance that helps you talk with everyone. This is what pushed me to binge drinking [à l’alcoolisation massive en un temps très court]. We don’t think there’s a potential addiction, we’re just party people. Then I started working in Cannes in 1999. We continued these rituals on Friday and Saturday evenings, and I started drinking alone during the week. I had a stressful job and I drank a bottle of red in the evening, quietly. Little by little, it became every day, increasing the doses.
How did you understand?
At 27, I realized that I could no longer do without it. It takes time but it becomes an obsession. We look for lies or excuses, we wonder when the next time will be. It’s all about that. It becomes your life, with all the social consequences. We mainly talk about cirrhosis but it’s a grain of sand. There are blackouts, depression, violence, etc.
How did you get out of this addiction?
At 36, I consulted an addictologist. I did six months of abstinence then a controlled dosage, with a consumption diary. For two years, things went well, but at the first problem in life, I relapsed. Now, it’s been four and a half years since I stopped, I don’t take anything anymore.
Why did you become an anti-alcohol activist?
I am against incitement. It is a drug, legal, often more dangerous than the others. For me, we must ban , promotions, protect minors. We must leave this French culture of the redneck, with this sympathetic image, when there are 42,000 deaths per year in France, accidents, domestic violence, etc.
How do you rate “dry January”?
This is an excellent initiative aimed at everyone. Not to alcoholics, they’re not going to quit in a month. The challenge is for people to realize the place that alcohol takes, the social pressure, to see what it feels like to consume nothing. Even detect addictions.
What do you think of the government’s refusal to support the initiative?
It’s scandalous. Why is tobacco-free month and not “dry January”? These are clearly the alcohol lobbies. There are hundreds of thousands of jobs in France. Although it is a very dangerous drug. Aurélien Rousseau (former Minister of Health) said that wine is not a drug. All the associations have stepped up to the plate. I see Éric Ciotti promoting Bellet wine and chasing young people for two grams of cannabis. This is why I am leading this fight, against this hypocrisy.
What to do to get out of addiction?
It begins when we have a loss of freedom, when we can no longer do without it. The first thing to do is to talk to your GP. A good number of them are trained to guide. We can also turn directly to addictologists but also to support groups. It’s not just Alcoholics Anonymous. This makes it possible to compensate for the months of waiting before appointments.
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