Recently, I heard about a new term called “sober curious.” According to an online article, “The sober curious movement is when someone chooses to be sober for the health benefits, both physical and mental, as opposed to someone who is sober because of an alcohol abuse problem. In other words, people who are sober curious don’t consider themselves alcoholics, but still choose not to drink.”
As someone who has been sober for 30-plus years (Thank you, Jesus!), I'm not curious about sobriety because I know what it’s like. And I’m not curious about alcohol abuse because I remember vividly what that was like.
Rather than being curious about sobriety, I would think the more commonplace situation would be intoxication curious. At age 15, I was very intoxication curious, especially after seeing my dad and his pals having a jolly ol’ time after tossing back a few beers at a baseball game. There wasn’t a whole lot of jolly ol’ timing during everyday family life, so I was very curious about that magical potion in the narrow brown bottles. And soon afterward, I finally found out what it was all about. Unfortunately, this immediately led to room-spinning curious and barfing-in-the-bushes curious.
Maybe the folks who are in the sober curious movement are curious about what it’s like not to drink for months at a time. That is certainly a noble goal.
What I do find curious are some of the comments made by a young lady who was interviewed for the article. She is avoiding alcohol for an extended period even though her drinking didn’t get “out of hand all the time.” She noted that the times her drinking did get out of hand “weren’t worth it.”
Hmm, her drinking didn’t get out of hand “all the time,” but getting out of hand wasn’t a foreign experience either. That doesn’t exactly sound like a casual drinker. Just sayin’.
Here is another quote from this young lady: “I was tired of wasting time being hungover. And I definitely was reliant on alcohol in social situations. Instead of dealing with my anxiety, I would just drink away my anxiety…and I would wake up the next day having more anxiety.”
Maybe the folks who are in the sober curious movement are curious about what it’s like not to drink for months at a time. That is certainly a noble goal.
What I do find curious are some of the comments made by a young lady who was interviewed for the article. She is avoiding alcohol for an extended period even though her drinking didn’t get “out of hand all the time.” She noted that the times her drinking did get out of hand “weren’t worth it.”
Hmm, her drinking didn’t get out of hand “all the time,” but getting out of hand wasn’t a foreign experience either. That doesn’t exactly sound like a casual drinker. Just sayin’.
Here is another quote from this young lady: “I was tired of wasting time being hungover. And I definitely was reliant on alcohol in social situations. Instead of dealing with my anxiety, I would just drink away my anxiety…and I would wake up the next day having more anxiety.”
OK, that is definitely NOT the behavior of a casual drinker. There’s an old expression: you can’t BS a BSer. I’ve been there, done that, bought the beer stained T-shirt. The behavior she described is definitely problem drinking. Is she an alcoholic? I can’t say. But I pray she doesn’t treat sobriety as a mere fad to be dumped after a month or two.
That same article has a quote from Amada E. White, author of the book Not Drinking Tonight. Ms. White said, “During the COVID pandemic there was a huge increase in how much people were drinking. I believe more people than ever are realizing they may need to re-evaluate their relationship with alcohol.”
During the height of the pandemic the government ordered churches to be closed until further notice, but said liquor stores could remain open. So, maybe our entire society needs to re-evaluate its relationship with alcohol, don’t you think?
I’m certainly not in favor of prohibition. As a nation, we’ve been there, done that, bought the blood-spattered Al Capone T-shirt.
That same article has a quote from Amada E. White, author of the book Not Drinking Tonight. Ms. White said, “During the COVID pandemic there was a huge increase in how much people were drinking. I believe more people than ever are realizing they may need to re-evaluate their relationship with alcohol.”
During the height of the pandemic the government ordered churches to be closed until further notice, but said liquor stores could remain open. So, maybe our entire society needs to re-evaluate its relationship with alcohol, don’t you think?
I’m certainly not in favor of prohibition. As a nation, we’ve been there, done that, bought the blood-spattered Al Capone T-shirt.
The online article mentioned a cool word I never heard before: hangxiety, which is when your head is pounding from drinking too much the night before and you’re stressed out about your drunken behavior and the fact you blew a week’s paycheck in one night.
If you are sober curious, try giving up alcohol for a while. Your liver and your bank account will thank you. No one needs to go through life experiencing the pain of hangxiety.
No comments:
Post a Comment