I’m A Celeb’s Dean McCullough has battled 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 stopped drinking after abusing alcohol during the pandemic when he drank two bottles of wine and a bottle of vodka at weekends.
After a trip to Ibiza with friends before the Jungle, the Northern Irish star wrote on social media: ‘Over the last 18 months I’ve had a whirlwind of experiences.
‘I bought my own house and felt a lot of stress about it.
“I fell in love with the wrong person and had to deal with the collapse of that. I had a shift at work and navigated all of that.
‘Sadly, some members of my family passed away and we all had to process the deep pain of that.
I’m A Celeb’s Dean McCullough has battled 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 stopped drinking after abusing alcohol during the pandemic when he drank two bottles of wine and a bottle of vodka at weekends.
‘I wanted to stop drinking for a month to reorient my mind and regain control of what was a spiraling problem.
‘I wanted to get my dream job at Radio 1 but I had no idea how it was going to happen, but what would happen next would be extraordinary.
‘Everything aligned, I stayed sober for another month and then Radio 1 happened, my mind opened up and I felt like myself.’
The DJ revealed that during the Covid-19 lockdowns, his excessive alcohol consumption had gotten out of control and his mental health had been severely affected.
‘What was like a glass of wine one afternoon after work turned into a bottle which then turned into two bottles and then some weekends I drank like a bottle of vodka too.
“It wasn’t until I went to work on a Monday and I was looking at the containers and I thought, ‘Didn’t I drink all that?’
After a trip to Ibiza with friends before the Jungle, the Northern Irish star wrote on social media: “Over the last 18 months I’ve had a whirlwind of experiences
“I wanted to get my dream job at Radio 1 but I had no idea how it was going to happen, but what would happen next would be extraordinary.”
—But I did it, because there was no one else in the house. It was the pandemic, and I went down a bad path and I was thinking very, very dark thoughts. Anyone who has 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 turned to my partner and said, ‘This is it, like it was to stop drinking for a month.’ Just to see what happens.
“There wasn’t any really crucial moment. It wasn’t a really horrible hangover. I didn’t go through a breakup.
‘I just saw the road in front of me and it wasn’t pretty. “It was very dark and very destructive.”