Behind the Drink

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  CTA: Encourages people to share the data and help shift how we talk about mental health.

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  Charts: See how alcohol-related deaths and suicide have changed over time in different countries.

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  Insights: Breaks down what might be driving the trends – like stigma and social isolation.

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  Hero: “Behind the Drink” starts with a clear message about how alcohol deaths hit men harder.

💡 Inspiration

The project was inspired by a simple but powerful observation: men across Europe are dying from alcohol-related causes at 4.4× the rate of women. Could this be more than substance abuse? Could it reflect deeper mental health struggles – hidden behind social norms and stigma?

That question led to a full analytical journey: collecting public health data, uncovering hidden patterns, and building a gender-focused narrative that connects alcohol mortality to mental well-being.

🧠 What it does

Behind the Drink is a visual, data-driven storytelling site that:

• Analyzes alcohol-related deaths, suicide rates, and accident deaths across Europe (2011–2022)
• Examines gender differences and correlations between metrics
• Provides an interactive way to explore trends by country, sex, and year
• Presents a clear narrative showing how alcohol misuse mirrors underlying mental health challenges

🛠️ How it was built

• Data Sourcing: Collected from data.europa.eu — four Eurostat datasets
  
• Data Cleaning + Analysis: Performed using SQL in Google BigQuery
  
• Correlation Analysis: Used Pearson correlation to analyze alcohol-suicide relationships by gender (r = 0.59)
• Design + Storytelling: Built in Bolt.new, using responsive storytelling blocks, interactive components, and embedded visuals
  

🧗 Challenges along the way

• Messy Time Ranges: Datasets didn’t always cover the same years or countries — we had to carefully align everything
  
• Incomplete Coverage: Some countries were missing data or had outdated records
  
• Correlation ≠ Causation: We had to tread carefully to avoid making causal claims
  
• Finding the Right Tone: Striking a balance between emotional impact and statistical honesty was harder than expected
  

🏆 Key accomplishments:

• Built a fully responsive, interactive data site – mostly with no-code tools
  
• Created a clean, professional narrative out of complex, comprehensive data
  
• Discovered a clear, significant statistical signal (r = 0.59) linking alcohol deaths and suicide, especially in men
  
• Launched behind-the-drink.xyz as a public data story
• Deployed a live public API at api.behind-the-drink.xyz for programmatic data access

📚 Lessons learned

• Public health data can be tricky to work with, but of high quality and very powerful
  
• Gender-based analysis adds critical nuance to mental health research
  
• Storytelling is as important as stats – especially in projects that deal with life-and-death topics
  
• Tools like Bolt.new enable solo creators to tell complex stories quickly and beautifully
  

🚀 What's next for Behind the Drink

• Publish full dataset + methodology to Kaggle and GitHub
  
• Expand the public API with additional filtering and aggregation endpoints
• Build a timeline of policy interventions across countries
  
• Add filters for age groups, accident deaths, or economic indicators
  
• Collect qualitative stories from people affected by substance and mental health issues
  
• Develop a short video explainer or workshop to bring the topic into classrooms or public health orgs
  

Built With

• bolt.new
• elevenlabs
• eurostat-datasets
• figma
• github
• google-bigquery
• google-sheets
• javascript
• netlify
• openai
• react
• sql
• tailwind-css
• vercel
• vite