I’m A Celeb‘s Dean McCullough has battled with an alcohol addiction that left him in a ‘really dark place’ and celebrated four years of sobriety in September.
The BBC Radio 1 presenter admitted he quit drinking after abusing alcohol during the pandemic when he was drinking two bottles of wine and a bottle of vodka at the weekends.
After a trip to Ibiza with his friends before the Jungle, the Northern Irish star wrote on social media: ‘In the last 18 months I’ve had a whirlwind of experiences.
‘I’ve bought my own home & felt every bit of stress around that.
‘I’ve fallen in love with the wrong person and had to navigate the breakdown of that. I’ve had a shift at work and navigated all of that.
‘Sadly I’ve had family members pass away and we’ve all had to process the deep pain of that.
I’m A Celeb’s Dean McCullough has battled with an alcohol addiction that left him in a ‘really dark place’ and celebrated four years of sobriety in September
The BBC Radio 1 presenter admitted he quit drinking after abusing alcohol during the pandemic when he was drinking two bottles of wine and a bottle of vodka at the weekends
‘I wanted to stop boozing for a month to refocus my mind and take back control of what was a spiralling problem.
‘I wanted to go for my dream job at Radio 1 but had absolutely no idea how that was going to happen but what would happen next would be remarkable.
‘Everything aligned, I stayed sober for another month and then Radio 1 happened, my mind opened up and I felt like me.’
The DJ revealed that during the Covid-19 lockdowns, his binge drinking had got out of control and his mental health had been severely affected.
‘What was like a glass of wine of an evening after work turned into a bottle which turned into two bottles and then, some weekends, I was drinking like a bottle of vodka too.
‘It wasn’t until I was going to work on a Monday and I was looking at the bins and I was like, ‘I didn’t drink all that?’
After a trip to Ibiza with his friends before the Jungle, the Northern Irish star wrote on social media: ‘In the last 18 months I’ve had a whirlwind of experiences
‘I wanted to go for my dream job at Radio 1 but had absolutely no idea how that was going to happen but what would happen next would be remarkable’
‘But I had, because there was no one else in the house. It was the pandemic, and I just got myself into a bad way and I was sort of thinking some really, really dark thoughts to myself. Anybody who’s kind of struggled with mental health will know what it’s like.
He added: ‘I didn’t plan it. I didn’t think, ‘This is my last drink. This is my last party.’ I literally woke up on the first of September and I turned to my mate and said, ‘This is it, like I’m going to stop drinking for a month. Just to see what happens.’
‘There was no real pivotal moment. It wasn’t a really horrendous hangover. I didn’t go through a break-up.
‘I just saw the path in front of me and it wasn’t nice. It was really dark and it was very destructive.’
