Many Alcoholics Anonymous meetings now cater to young people struggling with drinking and drugs. Photos: Christoph Soeder/dpa
Paul only recalls a few nights when he managed to stop himself from keeping on drinking voluntarily.
Other times, though, after drink and drugs, he would steal from his best friend. Sometimes, during those nights of boozing and partying, he was seized with paranoia.
When things went badly, and they often did, he wound up suffering from a mental blackout. In fact, that tended to be the rule rather than the exception.
"I always thought: I still have a girlfriend and a job and I'm still young, and partying is just part of it all. Maybe I'll still get it under control," says Paul, 27, who didn't want to give his real name.
He spent more than a decade trying to stop drinking and managed with the help of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). Before those meetings, taking too many drugs was simply part of life, he says.
Paul has been sober for more than three years and is proud of his gold chip from Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and carries it everywhere.
Paul has been sober for more than three years, he says proudly, showing off his golden chip he earned as a mark of his achievement.
It has three large stripes and shows the faces of AA founders Bill W. and Bob S. and is a lucky charm for Paul, who carries it everywhere, on his key chain.
Founded in the United States in 1935, AA, which is wholly funded by donations, now has branches worldwide, where members of groups support each other and provide a space to talk about their experiences and their struggles to recover.
In larger cities like Paris, London or Berlin, there are often hundreds of different meetings to choose from every week.
AA members organise the meetings themselves, without professionals such as therapists or social workers. The only requirement for new members is "a desire to stop drinking", according to the website.
That was something Yasmin wanted for years before she finally joined a group. One Monday evening, she shared her story at a meeting of around 80 people sitting in the pews of a church in downtown Berlin.
A sign reading, 'Who you see here, what you hear here - if you leave, please leave it here!' hangs on the lectern outside a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous.
She used to drink to drown her feelings, says Yasmin, 23. Like her, some of the others who are present have been sober for many years but keep on attending meetings anyway.
In Germany, with a population of 83 million, 7.9 million people aged between 18 and 64 are at risk due to the amount of alcohol they drink, according to the Health Ministry.
A daily average of more than 10g of pure alcohol for women and more than 20g for men is considered risky, under the guidelines issues by Germany's Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for disease control.
A 0.1l glass of wine, or 0.3l of beer, contains 10g to 12g of alcohol, says Germany's Federal Centre for Health Education (BZgA). The RKI says consuming harmful amounts of alcohol is a contributing factor for more than 200 diseases.
Paul and Yasmin were both between 13 and 14 years old when they first started drinking regularly. In Germany, people can legally drink beer, wine and sparkling wine at the age of 16, which gives younger people easier access to alcohol.
Soon afterwards, they started smoking weed, followed by heavier drugs. Partying throughout the weekend without sleep, sometimes for days in a row, became the norm, both say.
In larger cities like Paris, London or Berlin, there are often hundreds of different AA meetings to choose from every week.
It became about finding the right mix of alcohol and drugs, says Paul.
Today, they both drink coffee rather than beer before going out, unlike most of their peers.
"Of course I was extremely afraid of becoming boring," says Yasmin of her decision to stop drinking.That's why the AA meetings are so important to them. Some groups are specifically geared towards young adults, offering them a chance to meet others their age who are struggling with the same things.
"For the very first time I no longer felt like a black sheep," Kati, 30, from Frankfurt, looking back on her first AA meeting. She also didn't want to give her real name.
At school, she always brought a "motivator", half a bottle of brandy mixed with coke. Her friend Luca, not his real name, went into in-patient rehab 30 times before finally becoming sober two years ago.
Attending a meeting for the first time, he immediately realised the members were serious about wanting to stop drinking. "And I really needed to get serious," he says.
Greater awareness about health means more young people than ever do not drink alcohol, says behavioural therapist and researcher Gallus Bischof from the University of Lubeck. Nevertheless, alcohol is the most popular drug of choice.
For Paul, Yasmin, Kati and Luca, regular AA meetings are crucial as the community makes them feel understood and shows they are not alone.
"For the first time, I met people who were excited when you're sober," Paul says of his first meeting.He now parties more than ever, he says, just without alcohol and chemical drugs. – dpa
