![\"Corrina](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/5a506dab6bdb578046892c649e38f605.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\nA man who struggled with alcohol addiction has called for support to be provided for all communities.<\/p>\n
Navraj Singh, 43, has spoken out about how he got help, the barriers he faced, and what support was needed.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“Everything I knew about socialising and connecting with others, it was all based around alcohol,” he said.<\/p>\n
The father-of-two sought help in Bradford before moving to Birmingham, but found Asian people were underrepresented at services in both cities.<\/p>\n
“If you don’t see someone who looks like you then you might feel this place isn’t for me,” he said.<\/p>\n
Recovery meetings were often held in churches, he said, but he wanted a religiously neutral place and to move away from stereotypes.<\/p>\n
“Shame and stigma are universal,” he said. “It’s not specific to the South Asian community.”<\/p>\n
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.”<\/p>\n
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Corrina found a group that gave her a new perspective on her family and culture [BBC]<\/p>\n
Corrina’s addiction began in her late teens in Worcester.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
Describing a childhood “identity crisis”, she said: “I felt very ugly, and I thought that’s because I’m brown.”<\/p>\n
Corrina’s insecurities led her to drink more, she added.<\/p>\n
She said men in her family “were allowed to get blackout drunk at weddings, but me and my sister would be secretly drinking”.<\/p>\n
Corrina, 34, said: “When I first got help, I was the only Asian in the room, so I felt like nobody understood me.”<\/p>\n
She joined a support group in Birmingham in an Asian area, which gave her a different perspective on her family and culture.<\/p>\n
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”.<\/p>\n
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.”<\/p>\n
An Alcoholics Anonymous survey in 2020 found 1.2% of its members were Asian, 0.6% were Afro Caribbean and 96.8% were white.<\/p>\n
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