Film star Tom Holland says getting sober is “the best thing I’ve ever done”, after realising he’d become “enslaved” to alcohol.
Speaking to the On Purpose with Jay Shetty podcast, the star said his journey to sobriety began with “a very, very boozy” Christmas last year.
But after deciding to do dry January, he said, “all I could think about was having a drink. It really scared me”.
“I just was like, ‘Wow, maybe I have a little bit of an alcohol thing.”
The realisation prompted him to extend his no-drinking rule for another month, but he found it hard to resist England’s drinking culture.
“I felt like I couldn’t be social,” Holland said. “I felt like I couldn’t go to the pub and have a lime soda. I couldn’t go out for dinner. I was really, really struggling.
“I just sort of said to myself, like, ‘Why? Why am I enslaved to this drink? Why am I so obsessed by the idea of having this drink?'”
Shaken, he set himself a target of going six months without drinking, and achieved the goal on his 27th birthday, 1 June.
By that time, he said, he was “the happiest I’ve ever been in my life”.
The star went on to list some of the benefits he’d felt since giving up drink.
“I could sleep better. I could handle problems better,” he said. “Things that would go wrong on set, that would normally set me off, I could take in my stride. I had such better mental clarity. I felt healthier, I felt fitter.
“I’m happy to say it – I was definitely addicted to alcohol. I’m not shying away from that at all.”
