Tom Holland Realized He Was 'Obsessed' With Alcohol During Dry January Challenge

The 27-year-old actor spoke in a recent episode of Jay Shetty's On Purpose podcast about his struggle with drinking, recalling how "all I could think about was having a drink."

"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," the Cherry actor shared, adding that he began his sober journey in 2022 following the holidays with a dry January challenge.

However, his decision to give up drinking for a month came as no easy feat - the constant yearn for a drink proved to be a challenge for the young star.

"I was waking up thinking about it. I was checking the clock, when’s it 12 p.m.?" Holland admitted. "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.'"

It was then that Holland realized his problem may go deeper than a no-drinking challenge – confessing that after those two months he struggled so much he "felt like I couldn't be social."

"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.

"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?'"

Following this personal revelation, the Spider-Man: No Way Home star decided to prolong his sobriety until his birthday in early June.

"I said to myself, 'If I can do six months without alcohol, then I can prove to myself that I don’t have a problem.' And by the time I got to June 1, I was the happiest I've ever been in my life," Holland shared, noting how he quickly began to see sobriety’s positive results.

"I could sleep better. I could handle problems better," he recalled. "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."

Today, Holland is "a year and a half" sober from alcohol. While the actor has voiced his pride in this accomplishment, this wouldn't be the first time he has been vocal about putting his health first. Holland has been candid about his mental and personal health, recently sharing that he's taken an acting hiatus following the release of his latest project, The Crowded Room.