Put down that drink if you want to get through quarantining.
That’s the advice of Dr. Aiysha Malik, a mental health and substance expert at the World Health Organization Europe. The official called alcohol an “unhelpful coping strategy” for stress and isolation during the coronavirus lockdown.
This advice followed a UK survey that found two-thirds of adults feel anxious or worried due to the pandemic.
Instead, Dr. Malik suggests healthy eating, exercise, sleep and social support as alternatives for coping with newfound stress. And while liquor stores have been kept open in several countries as an “essential” business, health experts suggest we should keep boozing in moderation, if at all.
“It’s important that the government, alcohol producers and retailers keep reminding us that it’s best to stick to 14 units a week or less,” as Alcohol Change UK’s chief executive, Dr Richard Piper, told The Independent. “With routines out of the window we might well find ourselves reaching for a drink more often.”
Not that we’re listening to good advice: booze sales were up 55 percent in the week ending March 21.
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