[News] I felt enslaved to alcohol – Spider-man star Tom Holland

Hollywood actor Tom Holland has revealed his addiction to alcohol saying that getting sober is “the best thing I’ve ever done”, after realising he’d become “enslaved” to alcohol.

 

Although the past year has seen him confront difficult issues, the actor has been supported by his girlfriend and Spider-Man co-star Zendaya.Speaking to the Smartless podcast last week, he said he was “lucky that I have someone like Zendaya in my life”.

On Monday, July 10, he spoke to the  On Purpose with Jay Shetty podcast, saying 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, a hard decision.

“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?'”

 

He then 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”.

Listing some of the benefits he’d felt since giving up alcohol, he said;.

“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.”

 

The Spider-Man star added that getting sober had had some knock-on effects. He has distanced himself from the rugby community “because so much of it is about how much can you drink”. And he also inspired his mother to get sober.

“She’s loving it, and it’s been amazing,” he said. “I can’t believe the difference that I feel from not drinking. Yeah, I feel amazing.”