How Giving Up Alcohol Transformed Everything, with Dr Alex George

Me deciding to stop drinking was the single best decision I've ever made, bar nothing. There is nothing in my life that has come close, no career decision, no path, but a single best decision I've ever made. Everything else that follows on was because of it. Yeah. I suspect it will be for a long time. That was the voice of doctor Alex George, an A and E doctor, a reality star turned mental health advocate, a podcaster, a youth mental health ambassador, and now an author. But behind all of those campaigns and all of that incredible work, behind his public face, was for so long a man medicating his life with alcohol. So 12/04/2022, sitting in a hairdresser's chair, Alex was at rock bottom, 20 stone drinking to suppress the grief of losing his brother to suicide. And it was at that moment that he took an honest look in the mirror, and it was the catalyst for transformation. He gave up alcohol. And as you've just heard at the start of this episode, it changed everything for him. And we're about to explore why so many of us are auto enrolled into drinking, why it's the only drug you have to explain that you don't take, and the three groups of people that Alex believes should never drink at all. Please make sure you hit subscribe and share this live recording with doctor Alex George with someone that you think may well benefit from the amazing wisdom that he's got to share as we welcome Alex to High Performance. Alex, thank you so much for for coming and talking to us. It's really nice to see you again. Yeah. Before we sort of get on with the structure of the conversation, I just think, the way that your your journey and your career has gone since Love Island has been absolutely fascinating to watch from the outside. What's it been like to actually be in the middle of it? Because you seem to be doing a different project and a new thing every single time I talk to you. Maybe I'll say ADHD. I don't know. I think, it's been an interesting experience. That's been there's many kind of lows and highs and everything in between, to be honest. I think, you know, people often ask me the question, like, has it made your life better? Are you happier? And I couldn't honestly say I think my life is better off because of everything that has happened. I think I've experienced so much, and I think I've probably contributed more. Yeah. And I think I've done more because of it. But, actually, when I look at it in many ways so I used to work, we're obviously recording this in Central, and I used to work at King's College, London, which is not far away. And then I eventually went over to Lewisham to work. And I loved that loved that hospital. I worked in A …