Tom Holland Says 'Struggling Without Booze' During Dry January Pushed Him Toward Sobriety

• Tom Holland says that he realized he had “a bit of an issue” with drinking after he struggled to make it through Dry January in 2022
• The Spider-Man alum said that made him give up alcohol for longer stretches — until he’d made it a year and decided, “This is the best version of myself”
• He shared that his relationship with alcohol had been "complicated," saying he'd relied on it to cope with insecurity in social situations
  

Tom Holland says that his decision to quit drinking came in 2022 after he tried doing Dry January — making it the entire month without drinking — and found it difficult.

“I couldn't quite wrap my head around how much I was struggling without booze in that first month — and It really scared me,” the Spider-Man star, 28, said on Oct. 17 episode of the Rich Roll podcast. “I decided, as a sort of punishment to myself, that I would do February as well as January.”

But the second month, he said, “was no easier. If anything, it got a little bit harder. So I was starting to kind of panic, thinking, ‘Damn. I have a bit of an alcohol thing.’ “

He shared that that revelation — coupled with an “upsetting conversation” he’d had with his doctor about his liver —  made him think “ ‘Wow, maybe I have a bit of an issue here.' ”

The Romeo & Juliet actor said he decided to do a third month, explaining, “I got through March. and started to feel a little bit better, but was still really struggling. So I said to myself, ‘If I can make it to June 1st, which is my birthday, and I can do six months without booze, I will have then proved to myself that I don't have a problem. I'm just young and enjoying a drink.”

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But by the time Holland made it to June, he said he “really started feeling the benefits” of a sober life.

“I started sleeping better. I was handling stressful situations better. My relationship [with Zendaya] was better. My relationship with my family was better. My relationship with my work was better.”

So he decided to make it to a year — and “by the time I'd crossed that annual mark I was done. I was like, ‘I'm never gonna drink again because this is the best version of myself.’ “

He shared that his relationship with alcohol had been “a complicated one,” saying “it was my go-to to celebrate, and my go-to to commiserate.” 

And as an actor, “you always have a reason to be drinking. Or, I felt like I always had a reason to be drinking.”

While he says “I was never a bad drunk,” he said he didn’t have a stopping point. 

“I wasn't the type of person that could nip to the pub for a pint,” he said. “I wanted to lock the door behind me.”

“I polished off a mini-bar one too many times,” he said, saying that he was lucky to have the support system around him that kept him from spiraling further.

“They never allowed that to happen,” Holland said, sharing that his fellow Avengers franchise star, Robert Downey Jr. — who has overcome his own struggles with addiction — has “been a real ally for me.”

“I would get really uncomfortable and not confident in social scenarios out in public. That's why I really latched onto drinking because it masked that insecurity with stupidity," says Holland, adding that these days, he doesn’t “try as hard to go out to the L.A. parties and mix with celebrities that I don't know.”

“I used to go to these parties, and be like, 'I can't speak to someone until I'm drunk,' ” said Holland, who was 19 when he made his Marvel debut as Spider-Man. He added, “I've grown up a little bit, I know that It isn't my place to be.”

“When I realized that alcohol wasn't masking my insecurity or bringing out my best self — it was actually doing the opposite — [I] started to feel this freedom of like, ‘ I can just be myself.’ “