Tom Holland says he was 'enslaved' to alcohol: 'It really scared me'

Spider-Man star Tom Holland says he decided to give up drinking after he became worried that he might have "an alcohol problem".

The British actor, who is a year-and-a-half sober from alcohol, addressed his struggle with alcoholism in an appearance on the On Purpose with Jay Shetty podcast.

Holland, who most recently starred in Apple TV+'s psychological thriller series The Crowded Room, said he chose to go dry last January after indulging over the holiday season but found it tough.

“I didn’t one day wake up and say, ‘I’m giving up drinking’. I just, like many Brits, had had a very, very boozy December. (It was) Christmas time, I was on vacation, I was drinking a lot and I’ve always been able to drink a lot.

“All I could think about was having a drink. That’s all I could think about. I was waking up thinking about it. I was checking the clock, ‘When’s it 12pm?’" the 27-year-old said, as quoted by British website The Independent.

He was compelled to ask himself some questions after he realised he was "obsessed" with drinking, he added.

“I just sort of said to myself, like, ‘Why? Why am I enslaved to this drink? Why am I so obsessed by the idea of having this drink?’ It just really scared me. I just was like, ‘Wow, maybe. Maybe I have a little bit of an alcohol thing’.

“So I sort of decided to punish myself and say, ‘I’ll do February as well. I’ll do two months off. If I can do two months off, then I can prove to myself that I don’t have a problem’,” he recalled.

Holland, however, said he found he was still “really struggling” two months off alcohol and felt that not drinking impacted his ability to socialise.

“I felt like I couldn’t go to the pub and have a lime soda. I couldn’t go out for dinner. I was really, really struggling and I started to really worry that maybe I had an alcohol problem,” he said.

The actor said he then decided to go off alcohol until his birthday in June to “prove to myself that I don’t have a problem”.

By the time he reached the deadline, Holland said he was “the happiest I’ve ever been in my life”.

“I could sleep better. I could handle problems better. Things that would go wrong on set that would normally set me off, I could take in my stride. I had such better mental clarity. I felt healthier, I felt fitter,” he added.