LIVING

This account, from an Englishwoman in her early 30s living in Barcelona, who asked to be called Barbara, will ring true for many. The ‘holiday’ lifestyle, liberal alcohol measures, cheapness of beer, wine and spirits compared to other parts of Europe and a perceived tolerance to drinking here can easily take hold, until gradually alcohol consumption becomes more of a problem than a pleasure. It might be more frequent hangovers, alcohol injuries, the need for a lie-down after one too many at lunch or more weekends spent in club-land oblivion, but sooner or later the alarm bell rings and it is time for action.

Foreign residents with drink problems fall into three main categories, according to Stephen Joseph, a Barcelona-based English physician. The first is the person who brings the problem with them. “Many people come to Spain to escape problems back home, without thinking things through properly. When they get here, they find it difficult to integrate, especially if they don’t know the language. To avoid feeling isolated, they fall into a lifestyle that revolves around drinking, or they start drinking at home on their own.”

The second group, he said, are the “drifters”, the people who move around from place to place every couple of years and find, by their mid-30s, that it becomes harder to move on, so they turn to alcohol to help them cope. “The third group is made up of younger people who are tempted by a hedonistic lifestyle, who find good jobs, feel invincible and want to seize every opportunity,” said Joseph. “These people often have addictions to both alcohol and drugs such as cocaine.”

The move to a different culture can exacerbate an existing problem, if not cause one. Those who are not medically labelled alcoholics, i.e. those who are not physically and psychologically dependent on alcohol, but for whom heavy drinking forms a regular pattern in their lives, may be tottering just below the threshold, said Joseph. “They may not have developed all the signs, but drinking may already be causing social, legal or financial problems.”