Known for his outspokenness and his communicative energy, Norbert Tarayre, revealed in 2012 in season 3 of Top Chef on M6, has built a rich media career, between culinary programs and personal projects. But behind the smile and the apparent good humor, he went through a dark period, marked by an alcohol addiction that upset his family and personal life.
“Festive” consumption that degenerates
In a podcast published last June on YouTube (Unik), Norbert Tarayre fought without detour to this difficult fight. At the time, television success and media solicitations were accompanied by a progressive change towards alcoholism which he calls “worldly”. The chef tells:
“During the show, I am all alone at the hotel, I am invited in worldly evenings, social alcohol … I ordered wine boxes in the hotel room, I did not have one but two mini-bars (…) I was drinking it to the neck. I was putting” alcohol in green bottles of 7up and then we did not see “.
This excessive consumption becomes a refuge, a means of “no longer thinking” he says. But very quickly, alcohol settles in his daily life, until he becomes essential.
Until his image disgusts
This worldly alcoholism, which is characterized by regular consumption without necessarily leading to visible intoxication, nevertheless quickly creeps into its private life. Today, Norbert Tarayre says he damaged his couple and makes his children suffer: “Your kids are afraid of you because you run out all the time and when you come back on the weekend, they just want one thing, it’s that you fuck yourself in filming” he admits. On the health side, his excesses are also visible. And his doctor alerts him to his liver “two grams of farting”.
However, it is another confrontation that will end his addiction. One night, the chef who is thirsty, leads to yet another bottle and drinks it to the neck, with his room. “”And then the bathroom door closed and there was a mirror. I saw myself filthy, naked, the really marked features. That night, I emptied all the bottles and said: ‘I no longer touch alcohol’ “.
A brutal awareness which, in his case, was enough to make it drop out.
What signs can you ask you about your abusive consumption?
Norbert Tarayre’s word is today precious and courageous. Getting an addiction to alcohol, especially in a country like France which does not value abstinence, is not obvious. According to Dr. Philippe Batel, addictologist, having a disorder with alcohol is not easy to design. “We know most of the time that drinking will be a health problem. But in general, most people who are in danger with alcohol do not realize it. Because they will drink, for example, 12 glasses per week, which is less than 2 per day. In women this increases the risk of having breast cancer for example. However, your consumption does not seem to have a problem of dependence. “
Sliding towards problematic consumption, an addiction, is more insidious. For the expert, several signs must question. Criteria that can highlight a “alcohol use disorder”.
- To surprise yourself to have consumption that comes out of the usual framework. In a time which normally does not call a “small glass”;
- Having consumption that will be more or less systematically linked to an emotional state or to a routine that has been set up. “I come home every night and every night, I need my whiskey” illustrates the addictologist;
- To surprise yourself to go to reopen another bottle at the end of a dinner;
- To provide more important drinking provisions during races;
- Observe that time between two glasses is accelerating;
- Give up activities that imported us before;
- Realize that others, our loved ones, make more and more comments on our behavior …
“In itself, we are not necessarily in the loss of control. But in a system in which alcohol will take up space in thoughts, in behavior and a place that nibbles the rest gradually the rest. Like activities, leisure.”
Should the trigger come from the person to win?
But can we help a person who sinks into alcohol or the click must come from herself to be effective?
There are two things to know, according to Dr. Batel. Already recall that it is not enough to find the reasons for such an excess as it has long been believed, to treat the person. “”There is not only one part linked to trauma (Fortunately!). As we know today, there is above all a genetically determined part of this problem. Addiction is a brain disease, that is to say that you have brain availability that will make your brain be much more sensitive than others, with the positive effects of alcohol. Which obviously promotes consumption“. Become aware of your problem is therefore a first step. But it is not always enough.
The approach, however, must come partly from the person concerned. “But sometimes it also comes from the entourage who says “it’s not going”, or sometimes that sets up ultimatums “. Thus 10% for example alcohol patients stop drinking spontaneously, without seeing a doctor. “Because they will find a word on their table ‘a partner who is gone’, for example”.
Before being confronted with it, a process of engagement in a change is possible. “”This consists in making two columns, the benefits, interests, the advantages that we draw from consumption, and then try to calmly make the inventory of damage and risks that we take with this consumption. This assessment, associated with support often makes it possible to get out of people from addiction “.
An assessment to do in a sober moment, which can save your life.