The 27-year-old actor realized he was 'addicted to alcohol' after a particularly 'boozy' Christmastime.
Tom Holland is opening up about his struggles with alcohol addiction. The 27-year-old Crowded Room actor was candid on the On Purpose With Jay Shetty podcast about his "obsession" with drinking and how it led him to a year-and-a-half sobriety journey.
Sharing that he had been "drinking a lot," Holland said that he's always been able to handle mass amounts of alcohol. However, after a particularly "boozy" holiday season one year, Holland decided to try a dry January.
"All I could think about was having a drink. I was waking up thinking about it. I was checking the clock, 'When's it 12?'" Holland recalled. "And it just really scared me. Wow, maybe I have a little bit of an alcohol thing."
Realizing this issue made Holland try to go dry for February as well, noting, "Two months go by and I was still really struggling. I felt I couldn't be social. I felt I couldn't go to the pub and have a lime soda. I couldn't go out to dinner. I was really, really struggling. And I started to really worry that maybe I had an alcohol problem."
He decided to wait until his birthday in June to have another drink but said that by the time his birthday rolled around 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 set me off, I could take in my stride," Holland recalled. "I had such better mental clarity. I felt better. I felt fitter. And I just said to myself, 'Why am I enslaved to this drink? Why am I so obsessed with having this drink?'"
Calling his sobriety journey, "the best thing I've ever done," Holland shared that he's a year and a half into it now.
"I'm happy to say I'm addicted to alcohol, not shying away from that at all," Holland admitted, saying he realized he used to drink "to feel more comfortable in a social environment."
Sharing that his friends and family are "super supportive" of his sobriety, Holland said that he does not want to push others to follow in his footsteps.
"If I can encourage someone to drink less, then that's great… it's not for me to say," he said. "I went on my own little journey. I'm really enjoying it."
Holland also opened up about his dream of having children of his own one day. Noting that his two parents, Dominic and Nikki, were very involved in his childhood, Holland said he and his brothers, Harry, Sam and Paddy, had an "amazing foundation."
"I have this dream of having kids and putting my work to bed and just kind of being there as a dad because I really admire how my dad was around," Holland said, sharing that his father was a comedian and worked nights after he and his brothers went to bed.
As for his current personal life, Holland is currently dating his former Spider-Man co-star, Zendaya.
Holland told Shetty of his longterm romance, "My relationship is the thing I keep most sacred. I don't talk about it. I try my best to keep it as private as possible. We both feel very strongly that that is the healthiest way for us to move on as a couple."
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