Tom Holland opens up about sobriety journey: 'I was definitely addicted to alcohol'

Tom Holland reevaluated his relationship with alcohol after he was struggling to abstain from drinking for a month.

"I was definitely addicted to alcohol, not shying away from that at all," the actor, 27, revealed on the July 10 episode of "On Purpose with Jay Shetty."

"The Crowded Room" star challenged himself to "dry January" in 2022, giving up alcohol after a boozy holiday season. During that month, Holland said, "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 p.m.?"

"It just really scared me," he admitted.

Holland proceeded to "punish" himself with another month sober and ultimately challenged himself to quit drinking until his birthday on June 1, 2022.

"By the time I got to June 1, I was the happiest I've ever been in my life," he recalled. "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 so much better mental clarity. I felt healthier, I felt fitter."

After that realization, Holland began to question, "Why am I so enslaved by this drink? Why am I so obsessed by the idea of having this drink?"

The "Spider-Man" star concluded that a lot of his draw to alcohol was to "feel more comfortable in a social environment." "I would look back and recognize that I would go to events for work, and I can't enjoy myself until I've had a few beers, and I just felt so much pressure," he said. Similarly, he felt like he couldn't' refrain from having a drink while out with friends or watching rugby games in public settings.

Holland shared that he had made previous attempts at quitting alcohol, but this time was different because he started addressing the reasons he felt like he needed a drink.

Someone not drinking alcohol? It's none of your business.

He also discovered alternative options to mimic "ritual of cracking something open and sharing it with friends and drinking it − whether it's sparkling water or a beer."

Today, the actor is a "year and a half" sober from alcohol. "If I could encourage someone to drink less, that would be great. But I don’t want to start getting into the world of, ‘You need to stop drinking.’ Because it’s not for me to say."

'The show did break me': Tom Holland taking a year off after filming 'The Crowded Room'

Holland is currently on a break from the entertainment industry. The actor starred and executive produced in the psychological thriller miniseries "The Crowded Room" on Apple TV+. He told Extra in an interview the role was a "tough time," and the show had him exploring some emotions he had never experienced before.

"The show did break me," he said in the interview. "There did come a time where I was like 'I need to have a break,' and I disappeared, I went to Mexico for a week, had some time on a beach and lay low. I'm now taking a year off, and that is the result of how difficult this show was."

"The Crowded Room," which also stars Amanda Seyfried and Emmy Rossum, tells the story of a man that is arrested following a "shocking" crime that takes place in Manhattan during the summer of 1979.

Contributing: Emily DeLetter

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Tom Holland says alcohol addiction, sober journey 'really scared me'