BBCA man who struggled with alcohol addiction has called for support to be provided for all communities.
Navraj Singh, 43, has spoken out about how he got help, the barriers he faced, and what support was needed.
He set up an organisation called No More Pretending to encourage other people from his Punjabi community to seek help, and also created a non-alcoholic drinks brand.
“At the peak of my addiction, I was still working full-time, married, my wife was expecting, I was paying the bills, but I was really struggling,” he said. “I would drink and I wouldn’t want to wake up in the morning.”
Mr Singh said his community was well-known for its hospitality, which includes serving alcohol to guests at home and unlimited booze at weddings, adding even Punjabi songs promoted drinking.
“Everything I knew about socialising and connecting with others, it was all based around alcohol,” he said.
The father-of-two sought help in Bradford before moving to Birmingham, but found Asian people were underrepresented at services in both cities.
“If you don’t see someone who looks like you then you might feel this place isn’t for me,” he said.
Recovery meetings were often held in churches, he said, but he wanted a religiously neutral place and to move away from stereotypes.
“Shame and stigma are universal,” he said. “It’s not specific to the South Asian community.”
He said his life had now changed, adding: “Today, I’m everything I couldn’t be in my drinking, a son, father, husband. I’m living the life I was looking for in the bottom of a bottle.”
Corrina’s addiction began in her late teens in Worcester.
“I saw friends at school drinking and I wanted to join in, I wanted to be ‘normal’. But my parents would say ‘that’s not what Indian girls do’,” she said.
Describing a childhood “identity crisis”, she said: “I felt very ugly, and I thought that’s because I’m brown.”
Corrina’s insecurities led her to drink more, she added.
She said men in her family “were allowed to get blackout drunk at weddings, but me and my sister would be secretly drinking”.
Corrina, 34, said: “When I first got help, I was the only Asian in the room, so I felt like nobody understood me.”
She joined a support group in Birmingham in an Asian area, which gave her a different perspective on her family and culture.
Graham Duncan from Alcoholics Anonymous Great Britain said two or more people could set up a meeting and run it “to suit their particular needs”.
He said: “There are many online-only meetings which reflect the preferences of participants. A meeting can be conducted in any language, at any time and on any day.”
An Alcoholics Anonymous survey in 2020 found 1.2% of its members were Asian, 0.6% were Afro Caribbean and 96.8% were white.
