As the benefits of intoxication are highlighted in a new book, Rachel Kelly looks at the issue of getting the booze balance right

The head of Heineken made a good point recently. Speaking to the Financial Times, Dolf Van den Brink argued that at a time of “loneliness and a mental health epidemic”, beer’s role in bringing people together was “important to make part of public debate”.

Beer, he continued, is one of the world’s oldest consumer goods: drinking has happened through the ages, with beer consumption recorded in Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt. The reason? Sharing an amphora of amber nectar leads to social connection.

Call him biased, but now there’s research from the University of Oslo backing up Mr Van den Brink. According to a new book by Prof Willy Pedersen, The Beauty and Pain of Drugs, decades – yes decades – of research has identified some benefits of intoxication. The Art of Positive Drinking, we might call it. The Norwegian academic and his colleagues spent 18 years tracking the drinking habits of more than 3,000 Norwegians between the ages of 13 and 31. Those who started drinking regularly in their late teens and 20s were later found to have higher levels of education and income, compared to those who had abstained or drank very little. “There is a correlation,” Pedersen says. “The statistical findings are quite strong, so clearly significant.”

Pedersen even cites our very own Bullingdon Club as part of his research. He notes that alumni of this Bacchanalian Oxford drinking club include three former prime ministers: Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton, Boris Johnson, and way back when, the 5th Earl of Rosebery.

Correlation does not necessarily imply causation. In this case, many Buller boys were already privileged, so they were arguably more willing and able to drink heavily. But Pedersen argues that alcohol is a social lubricant that tends to smooth career paths and ease the awkwardness of dreaded “networking” events. Alcohol may be a marker of sociality, Pedersen says, and that comes with benefits.

Natural ingredients in alcohol act on GABA receptors – pleasure receptors in the brain – to give us that warm, two-drink feeling. We feel uninhibited, and more interesting to people. Better at chatting up the potential boss. More skilled on the dancefloor. Able to ace the karaoke. Even the break-dancing. Less buttoned-up. Here’s to those moments of fun and laughter!

It’s all a refreshing contrast to the generally negative outlook presented by public health organisations, which appear to be strengthening their position against booze. The outgoing US surgeon general said this year that alcohol should carry cancer warning labels; the World Health Organisation has been ratcheting up a campaign against even moderate drinking; and Pedersen’s views have been dismissed by the Norwegian government’s director of public health Linda Granlund. “Every glass you choose to skip is good for your health,” she sniffed in response to Pedersen’s work.

Well OK, I get it: we need some nuance here. The truth is that the relationship between alcohol and health is complex. There’s a difference between being hog-whimperingly drunk versus the social benefits of being jolly and mildly tipsy, strengthened by a few glasses of liquid courage.

The symptoms of getting drunk include slurred speech and feeling emotional, drowsy, nauseous, happy and uninhibited. This is different from the much more serious signs of alcohol poisoning, when in addition to the symptoms of being drunk, a sufferer may also be severely confused, seriously vomiting, falling unconscious and turning pale or bluish. At which point there’s nothing for it but to go to hospital. If you pass out, you could choke on your own vomit. Nothing fun about that.

And yes, M’Lud, it’s true that many of us struggle to drink in moderation. Some of us even drink alone, for which there are no sociability benefits.

How then can we learn the Art of Positive Drinking? The aim is to drink enough to enjoy its benefits, but not so much that we get plastered. It’s hard, I know. So much so that I don’t drink at all, though I’ve used various bits of medication to calm my nerves over the years. My husband thinks a little champagne might have been preferable to antidepressants.

Tips on Tipsiness
• Drink from a small glass. Go at the speed of the slowest drinker. Try “urge surfing”. This is the practice of acknowledging an urge without resisting it, and instead, visualising oneself navigating the sensation – much like riding a wave on a surfboard – until the feeling subsides. I use it for chocolate biscuits.

• List the reasons you might regret drinking to excess on a night out. How will you feel the next day? How will you feel about something your said or did, the problems that may arise with sex or relationships when too much drink is added to the mix? How sick might you feel? How might you lose motivation to continue with that healthy eating or gym regime?

• One last suggestion. You could use visualisation: instead of imagining an ice-cold lager garlanded with condensation, think of a half-empty can, warming and smudged by greasy fingers or lips. A wasp or two might be buzzing around it. Focusing on this image instead of the first could help.

• My suggestions might sound like a lot of hassle, but as we’ve seen, there’s much to be said for mastering the Art of Positive Drinking. I might even try it myself. Cheers!

Rachel Kelly’s new book The Gift of Teenagers: Connect More, Worry Less is available now.

The above article appears in Idler #108 March/April 2026.

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