'We need to dismantle the stigma of alcohol dependence in academia'

"On the one hand, in many countries and contexts, consuming alcohol is incredibly normalized. In fact, as we heard in last week's episode, people who don't drink for religious reasons can struggle to find social spaces in academia that don't centre around drinking. And so it's perhaps unsurprising that many academics can struggle with alcohol dependency. But while alcohol consumption may be the norm, coming to terms with and openly discussing harmful relationships with the substance remain incredibly taboo."

"But looking back on my student days and my early career, alcohol was a terrible problem for me. Much like lots of people who suffer with substance issues, I had low self esteem. I felt different from my peers. I felt that I didn't fit in, and substance use enabled me to function for many years. It felt like it was giving me confidence. It felt like it was enabling me to fit in."

"But both have found ways to transform both their lives and their work, to reflect their recoveries. The first is Wendy Dossett. Wendy is a professor emeritus of religious studies at the University of Chester in the UK. Over her career, she's investigated a number of questions related to faith. In the last decade or so of my career, I turned my religious studies methodologies onto the phenomenon of recovery from addiction."

Alcohol consumption is normalized across many academic contexts, creating social spaces centered on drinking. People who abstain for religious reasons can struggle to find non-drinking social spaces in academia. Many academics experience alcohol dependency, yet openly discussing harmful relationships with alcohol remains taboo. Two academics who faced alcohol problems have transformed both their lives and academic work through recovery. Wendy Dossett, professor emeritus of religious studies, applied religious-studies methodologies to study recovery from addiction. She reports 20 years of long-term recovery and describes low self-esteem, feeling different from peers, and using alcohol to gain confidence and fit in. References to sexual violence are present.

Read at Nature