The doctor, who is referred to as Dr Mike, is a case study in Wirral Council’s draft alcohol strategy from 2025 to 2030. The policy looks at how to reduce the harms caused by alcohol across the borough,
Dr Mike is a 58-year-old Wirral resident who lives alone and dealt with an alcohol addiction throughout his professional career. He moved to the Wirral in 2011 after a career change where he worked until his retirement in 2017.
Wirral Council said the man “struggled with alcoholism most of his adult life” despite no history of alcohol in his family. His drinking began at 18 and since then, he said “I’ve not had a sober week since.”
He told the council: “I have a busy head, which is full of nastiness, judgement, criticism, and it leads to me not liking myself very much,” adding he spent most of his adult life having a “bottle of gin every other night”.
According to the council, Dr Mike drank alone as well as occasionally with friends but “buying the alcohol was a point of shame for him.” He said he would always try to not get recognised when he was buying his gin and at certain times, the council said he had to lie and say “it’s always a party at my house”.
For two decades, Dr Mike said he didn’t think he had a problem or even consider himself an addict, adding: “I did not identify with being an alcoholic because I felt in control. I was holding down a job. I was being promoted. I had great appraisals at work.”
In 2004, he was found to be drink driving but he starting living with an alcohol meter to make sure he stayed under the limit while also “pulling sickies” at work to manage things. At the same time, he “used to sit with patients and explain to them the damage they were doing to themselves by drinking alcohol.”
However the man was able to turn his life around through a friend and eventually got onto a six week programme meant for NHS practitioners. Though the first few weeks were described as horrible, he said he eventually started to feel the benefits of stopping drinking.
This started the process of recovery and Dr Mike now leads three meetings every week, praising the services that helped him.
Wirral Council said: “His story represents a significant demographic of professionals who slip through the cracks because, on the surface, they look like they have their lives together. They also have jobs that give them the wages to support their addiction without raising eyebrows.
“This highlights that sometimes addiction can be missed if it is not manifesting in the ways in which people stigmatise ‘addicts’.”
Wirral Council’s alcohol policy focused on five key areas. These are reducing and preventing harm through education and engagement, making sure there is a healthy balance of access in the borough, improving local data, increasing access to services, and eradicating stigma.
A report to be considered by councillors at a Wirral Council adult health meeting on November 25 said: “The message is not necessarily that alcohol is intrinsically bad, and therefore people should abstain completely, but rather that excessive alcohol use, as with excessive gambling, is damaging and can be dangerous.”
