Ewan McGregor health: Trainspotting actor was ‘ashamed’ of his real-life addiction

Halston: Ewan McGregor stars in trailer for Netflix film

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As well as being famous for his role as Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars, McGregor is notorious for playing a heroin addict in the 1996 film Trainspotting. Recently, the actor played the role of yet another drug addict in the Netflix series Halston.

This time he wasn’t a Scottish heroin addict but a big-time American fashion designer.

Talking to Variety, he opened up about his battle with addiction and how this changed the way he worked on set.

He said: “I didn’t realise I would end up with addiction problems myself then.

“I became sober in 2000. So now, when I’m looking at characters who are addicts, I look at it through a different lens of understanding it more.

“An everyday part of my life is being sober.”

He added: “It’s interesting to do all those lines of coke and all those cigarettes and shots that Halston was doing and just being glad they weren’t real.

“Just being happy about that, but understanding it.”

Although he didn’t specify which substances he was taking in the Variety interview, back in 2005 Ewan McGregor, 34 at the time, explained to Playboy magazine exactly why he stopped drinking.

“Originally I was a happy drunk. But later I was miserable because it’s a depressant,” he said.

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“I was just ashamed of myself, really.”

He added: “I knew I was lucky, and somehow I knew that if I didn’t stop, everything would go tits up – my career, my family, my everything.”

Alcoholism is a common problem in the UK with four percent of people between the ages of 16 and 65 having problems with alcohol addiction.

Doctor Colin Tidy writes that it is the “biggest risk factor” for early death for those aged 15 to 49.

Getting sober after an alcohol addiction can take years and may become an ongoing struggle for the rest of your life.

If you or someone you know is struggling with alcohol addiction problems there are plenty of supportive organisations that can help.

• These include:
• SMART recovery – where people gather to decide if they have a problem and work on using techniques to change
• Alcoholics Anonymous – this is a free self-help group that offers support all around the country through their “12 step” programme
• We Are With You – a country-wide agency that offers treatment for individuals struggling with substance dependency.

There are several health risks associated with excessive cancer consumption, the NHS suggests.

These include illnesses that you can develop after 10 to 20 years of drinking more than 14 units a day, such as mouth, throat, and breast cancer, as well as stroke.

It can also result in heart disease, liver disease, brain damage, and nervous system damage.

Moreover, there are countless studies showing that alcohol misuse is linked to worsening mental health.

One study published in the European Journal of Public Health found that “frequent binge drinking and alcohol problems are associated with poor mental health”.

This effect, they noticed, was worsened if the drinking came with an already lacking life satisfaction and psychological disorders.

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