A usually taboo topic was the centre of an event held at the Guru Nanak Darbar Gurdwara, in Gravesend on Saturday.

Speakers and organisations gathered to offer shame-free help and advice to Sikhs with alcohol addictions.

Though drinking alcohol is strongly discouraged in the faith, alcoholism has become a growing issue in the community.

The event organised by the gurdwara followed a study conducted into the issue last year, by not-for-profit organisation, Sikh Recovery Network (SRN) and British Sikh Report Teams.

Jagdev Singh Virdee, general secretary of the gurdwara, and a statistician who helped put together the report, opened the event by discussing its findings.

In a presentation, Jagdev emphasised the scale of addiction in the community by highlighting that 15% of respondents drink more than 10 units of alcohol a day – nearly the recommended amount for an entire week.

Later, he said: “The gurdwara’s Health and Wellbeing team organised this event because we know how important this issue is to the whole community.

“Consumption of alcohol increased during the pandemic lockdowns for various reasons, and alongside this, an increasing number of people have suffered declining mental health.”

The audience also heard from organisations SRN and the National Association of Children of Alcoholics about recovery paths and the impacts of drinking on families.

Founder of SRN, Jaz Rai, a former alcoholic who turned his life around 14 years ago discussed local support for addicts as well as the charity’s specialised approach for sobriety.

“The SRN have developed the Sikhi-based 12 Step Recovery programme and it was good to hear from those who have benefitted from this.

“We hope to work with them to make this programme accessible to more people in this area,” said Jagdev.

Jaz said: “I believe my testimony and the work the Sikh Recovery Network do, provided hope and belief to others that recovery is possible.”

Joti, a recovering addict who recently shared his story with KentOnline, said: “The event was a real eye opener. It really gave me hope seeing other Sikhs sharing their experiences in addiction and how they got sober and now living a life of freedom.”

“The initial reaching out for help seems to be difficult in Sikh communities,” said Ranjot previously to KentOnline.

More than 20 people attended the event but some who did not wish to go in person chose to speak to Jaz afterwards on a one-to-one basis about addiction and recovery.

The gurdwara has vowed to support local self-help group initiatives and offered available space within either the main building or at the day centre for meetings.

Jagdev said: “We want to do whatever we can to raise awareness of addiction as an illness and help people to find ways of effective recovery.”