“I THOUGHT I WAS TOO YOUNG TO STOP DRINKING”

DAVY STARKEY

Like most of his friends, Davy Starkey loved to drink. Naturally gregarious and talkative, alcohol made him more so. “I felt more confident… More articulate, wittier. Drink gave me permission to behave in a more outrageous manner, which in turn made me more of a ‘character’ and apparently more popular within my own crowd of friends.”

Davy was educated within the state system in North London at a time when the teachers themselves were involved in industrial action. This meant that it was just too easy to ‘bunk off school.’ In practice, it meant that Davy left school with nothing much to show for it – apart from a few friends, some colourful memories and a clutch of lost opportunities.

Living in Hampstead, his friends included the children of the very rich, as well as school friends whose families were very poor. “I was never sure quite where I fitted in – but after a few drinks, I ceased to care!” he says.

His drinking took him into questionable situations and got him into minor trouble with the law – a caution here, a night in the cells there. Once he took a short ride on a motorbike, without a helmet and got stopped by the police. When they discovered he had no licence or insurance cover, they had no choice but to prosecute.

After he left home, Davy experienced living in a squat, before finding a place of his own and a demanding but spiritually rewarding career, as a carer for ‘adults with learning difficulties’.

Every summer, he also takes inner-city children out of London, to enjoy camping holidays in the country.

Throughout his twenties, social drinking and recreational drugs remained part of Davy’s ‘normal life’ – as they were for many of his contemporaries. “Things just seemed to get messier for me sometimes… somehow. My girlfriend could see it clearly enough – I thought she was over-reacting! I looked young, I was young and I felt I was far too young to have a real problem.”

Since he put down the drink and any mind-altering drugs, Davy finds he is calmer, more optimistic and genuinely happier than ever before.

Now, that’s a result!