Cherisse Moe

Free­lance Con­trib­u­tor

This may be a touchy sub­ject for a coun­try like Trinidad and To­ba­go, where there is a bar on just about every cor­ner, but that may be the very rea­son why this sto­ry is worth read­ing.

So­cial­is­ing for many cit­i­zens usu­al­ly means hav­ing a drink—or two—in hand. Af­ter all, what’s a lime with­out some al­co­hol, right? But are we ready to ad­mit that our cul­ture, in many ways, en­cour­ages over-con­sump­tion?

We all know some­one who al­ways has one too many bot­tles. Ex­perts warn that’s where the prob­lem lies, when a per­son can no longer dis­tin­guish be­tween a few ca­su­al sips and de­pen­den­cy.

A lo­cal Al­co­holics Anony­mous (AA) rep­re­sen­ta­tive, who asked not to be named in keep­ing with the or­gan­i­sa­tion’s man­date, ex­plains that al­co­holism is an ill­ness char­ac­terised by an ob­ses­sion to take that first drink and then by an “ab­nor­mal re­ac­tion”, which leads to a down­ward spi­ral. Ear­ly in­di­ca­tors may in­clude look­ing for­ward to drink­ing oc­ca­sions, mak­ing plau­si­ble and de­fen­sive ex­cus­es for over­do­ing it, us­ing al­co­hol to change moods, build­ing tol­er­ance (need­ing more to achieve the same ef­fect), and hid­ing the habit.

The phys­i­cal toll is not al­ways felt in the mo­ment, of­ten ap­pear­ing the fol­low­ing day as poor sleep, de­hy­dra­tion, headaches, anx­i­ety, and dif­fi­cul­ty con­cen­trat­ing. Heavy episod­ic drink­ing—com­mon­ly known as binge drink­ing—car­ries se­vere long-term health risks, in­clud­ing high blood pres­sure, liv­er dam­age, heart prob­lems, al­co­hol poi­son­ing, in­juries from falls or ac­ci­dents, and hos­pi­tal­i­sa­tion.

Per­son­al strug­gle

Recog­nis­ing when the line is crossed isn’t al­ways sim­ple be­cause the slide hap­pens be­fore peo­ple even re­alise it.

Michael Singh, 30, a mar­ried en­gi­neer, tells Guardian Me­dia he be­came an al­co­holic at the age of 21. Rum was his cop­ing mech­a­nism to deal with life af­ter his moth­er sud­den­ly died when he was just 19.

“She was a sin­gle par­ent who gave her best to her chil­dren. When she passed away I just felt like I didn’t know who to turn to,” he shares. “I start­ed drink­ing heavy. At first I would be able to con­trol how much, but then, soon, I couldn’t go a day with­out a drink. I had mul­ti­ple. It numbed the pain.”

To­day, he is tak­ing bet­ter care of him­self; church and coun­selling helped a lot.

“I feel like a brand new per­son. Je­sus Christ is a mighty heal­er. My en­cour­age­ment to oth­ers is al­ways to share with some­one and above all, talk to God,” he says.

The sta­tis­tics

Al­co­hol use re­mains a pub­lic health con­cern through­out the Caribbean, dri­ven large­ly by easy ac­ces­si­bil­i­ty. Here at home, the num­bers are climb­ing. Find­ings pub­lished in the Trinidad Guardian in 2025 from the Min­istry of Health’s 2024 STEPS sur­vey re­vealed 51.5 per cent of the adult pop­u­la­tion re­port­ed con­sum­ing al­co­hol with­in a 30-day pe­ri­od—a no­table in­crease from 40.6 per cent in 2011.

The sur­vey al­so high­light­ed a clos­ing gen­der gap, with 43.4 per cent of women re­port­ing re­cent con­sump­tion, up from 30.9 per cent in 2011.

The lo­cal AA rep­re­sen­ta­tive notes a sim­i­lar trend. “More fe­males have been show­ing up over the last 20 years,” he dis­clos­es. “AA does not keep da­ta on our mem­bers, so no sta­tis­tics are avail­able from us but we see a range of ages, ear­ly 20s to 50s and 60s. Most, how­ev­er, ap­pear in their 30s and 40s. Mem­bers’ av­er­age age would be in their 50s.”

The break­ing point

For many in­di­vid­u­als, seek­ing as­sis­tance hap­pens af­ter their ad­dic­tion be­gins to im­pact their dai­ly lives.

The pri­ma­ry wake-up call to fi­nal­ly turn to Al­co­holics Anony­mous rather than try­ing to cut back alone varies. As the rep­re­sen­ta­tive ex­plains, “Most mem­bers come to AA through fam­i­ly, re­habs, em­ploy­ers, or on their own. We are see­ing more through the courts in re­cent years.”

Be­hav­iour­al in­di­ca­tors of­ten in­clude traf­fic ac­ci­dents, DUI court ap­pear­ances, do­mes­tic vi­o­lence, job ter­mi­na­tion, bar-room fights, hos­pi­tal­i­sa­tion, and doc­tors’ di­ag­noses. Ad­di­tion­al warn­ing signs may in­volve set­ting lim­its be­fore go­ing out but re­peat­ed­ly break­ing them, re­ly­ing on al­co­hol to deal with stress or emo­tions, ex­pe­ri­enc­ing mem­o­ry gaps af­ter gath­er­ings, or be­com­ing de­fen­sive when loved ones raise con­cerns.

Get­ting help

For any­one who fin­ish­es read­ing this and re­alis­es they need sup­port, the door is open. There are cur­rent­ly 110 AA groups in Trinidad and To­ba­go, with each host­ing at least one ses­sion each week. There are no ap­pli­ca­tion forms to fill out, no fees or dues to pay, and no screen­ing process.

“All meet­ings are open to the pub­lic and usu­al­ly run for 90 min­utes,” the rep­re­sen­ta­tive shares. “You are in­vit­ed to sit and lis­ten to sea­soned mem­bers give per­son­al con­tri­bu­tions. Any­one with a drink­ing prob­lem would be able to iden­ti­fy some of what is said, and that iden­ti­fi­ca­tion is the first step in the process of re­cov­ery.”

Find­ing a way out of the cy­cle starts with aware­ness—see­ing your habits clear­ly, know­ing the warn­ing signs, and reach­ing out be­fore the glass takes over.