Tom Holland, a well-known Hollywood actor, has opened up about his alcoholism, calling quitting drinking “the best thing I’ve ever done” after realizing he was “enslaved” to it.
Despite dealing with difficult obstacles throughout the past year, the actor has had the support of his girlfriend and Spider-Man co-star Zendaya.
Last week, he said he was “lucky that I have someone like Zendaya in my life” in an interview with the Smartless podcast.
He spoke to the On Purpose with Jay Shetty podcast on Monday, July 10, and said that his path to recovery had started after “a very, very boozy” Christmas the year earlier.
However, he claimed that after agreeing to observe a dry January, “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.”
Tom Holland made the difficult decision to prolong his no-drinking ban for an additional month as a result of his realization.
“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 with the idea of having this drink?’”
Then, on his 27th birthday, on June 1, he set himself the aim of quitting drinking for six months.
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 much 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 actor continued by saying that quitting drinking has some unpleasant impacts. The rugby community has alienated him because “so much of it is about how much can you drink.” He also encouraged his mum to quit drinking.
“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.”