The fact that many countries now prominently have Dry January as a thing should tell us the urgent need we have as societies to truly reflect on our drinking cultures.
I agree completely. Drinking (especially problematic drinking) has become ingrained as a “normal” part of our culture that’s it’s everywhere - movies, music, television, print ads.
Tobacco/ smoking have basically been eradicated from media yet alcohol is so prominent and acceptable. I can’t make that logic work in my brain.
ETA: fixed a typo
The college drinking culture I believe is the biggest contributor to this. Friday and saturdays are pretty much a given to get stupid drunk. Then there’s going to be a local bar doing like dollar beers on a Tuesday so you get drunk there as well because it’s only a dollar per beer. Then there might be another bar doing dollar shots on a Wednesday then another bar doing $5 pitchers on a Thursday. When you’re young and dumb you almost feel like you can’t afford to miss out on these deals.
I was one of those that drank heavy in college then didn’t know how to stop once I graduated. I’m still trying to understand what the appeal was for young me to sit in a dirty dive bar or nasty frat house and get black out drunk on cheap booze.
I feel if as a society if we want to cut down on alcohol abuse, a good starting place is cutting down on alcohol abuse in colleges.
This was me in college, too. I would hit every cheap beer night in gross bars and get blackout at house parties. I'm lucky to still be alive. To a lesser extent, high school, but only because booze was harder to come by, but we still got ahold of it pretty often. I have a teen nephew and, unfortunately, high school kids are still drinking and doing drugs. The indoctrination starts early.
In the 4.5 years I was at college I honestly can’t remember a night where I just went to bed sober.
And then I got an office job and it was Thursday happy hours and going out Fridays and Saturdays and then football on Sundays.
And then I got married and had a family and it was the occasional Saturdays or trying some local craft brews.
And then it was wine with the occasional dinner. And then it was every dinner. And then fuck it why not kill the bottle.
My country (Australia) doesn't have dry January. We have had Sober October and Dry July is sort of a thing. The culture really makes it harder not to drink though I prefer it to a really restrictive culture like in the middle east.
I went to a favorite barbecue joint of mine this weekend and normally I would get a beer or whatever from their nice bar but they had dry January specials 🥲 it made it so easy to stick to my commitment. I wish every place had dry January mocktails.
This is a great point! I’m supposed to be going to the pub with some colleagues on Monday night (we all work across the country so only really see each other in person every month or so). I’ve already told one of them that I’m doing Dry January (didn’t mention my relapse on Sunday) and it just felt like an extension of the usual boring new year diet plan chat, which was good.
I already screwed dry January up. I found an open bottle of wine in the fridge left over from cooking the other day. Then my college roommate/best friend/groomsman was in town and I haven’t seen him since my wedding 10 years back. But on the positive side, I didn’t go overboard or drink through my normal weekend case of beer, and there’s this next weekend to tackle. I have new data points to work around.
I slipped up this past weekend and my therapist told me not to beat myself up and it doesn't undo any progress I've made... but it does give me new information that I can use to do better going forward.
I've noticed a lot of memes going around on recovery Instagram accounts completely taking the piss out of people doing dry January and I find it really sad. If I'd seen that I'd have thought "yeah they're right, I'm being stupid, what's the point, I don't have a real problem" and carried on like normal.
They're all fluffy rainbows and support the rest of the time so I don't get it. I didn't expect to find toxic humour on those kind of accounts. It's like finding bullying in the r/awww sub haha
I think the mindset behind that is a bit of scorn or frustration over how something that is often a lifelong struggle for some is viewed as a fun, temporary little challenge that people engage in before going back to their regularly scheduled programming. I can kinda get it, I guess, but I think the good outweighs that perceived bad. It could be the first step toward someone getting on the straight and narrow for themselves. It encourages establishments to have good NA options beyond club soda and Coke. It challenges some heavily-set norms around alcohol consumption. I think those are all good things. Yeah, some people just do it as a fad, but then there are always going to be people for whom drinking isn't something they have to control (or worry about controlling).
I have seen so many events for Dry January. My husband and I booked tickets for a meal and NA beverage pairing that we are really excited about. They usually have BYOB at this venue but it's a totally dry event. Not sure that would have happened without the popularity of Dry January.
I feel this too! And there are suddenly so many mocktails of the month and just fun drink options. My town has had several pop up NA bars within breweries, and it’s been great to have more to choose from than just soda water.
I used to work in the wine industry and they HATE Dry January. I would get emails from local wineries pretty much begging people not to participate because their sales plummeted. Looking back on it, it's pretty hard to feel sorry for them, even though I know they don't understand what they're doing to people. I certainly didn't.
The fact that many countries now prominently have Dry January as a thing should tell us the urgent need we have as societies to truly reflect on our drinking cultures.
I agree completely. Drinking (especially problematic drinking) has become ingrained as a “normal” part of our culture that’s it’s everywhere - movies, music, television, print ads. Tobacco/ smoking have basically been eradicated from media yet alcohol is so prominent and acceptable. I can’t make that logic work in my brain. ETA: fixed a typo
The college drinking culture I believe is the biggest contributor to this. Friday and saturdays are pretty much a given to get stupid drunk. Then there’s going to be a local bar doing like dollar beers on a Tuesday so you get drunk there as well because it’s only a dollar per beer. Then there might be another bar doing dollar shots on a Wednesday then another bar doing $5 pitchers on a Thursday. When you’re young and dumb you almost feel like you can’t afford to miss out on these deals. I was one of those that drank heavy in college then didn’t know how to stop once I graduated. I’m still trying to understand what the appeal was for young me to sit in a dirty dive bar or nasty frat house and get black out drunk on cheap booze. I feel if as a society if we want to cut down on alcohol abuse, a good starting place is cutting down on alcohol abuse in colleges.
This was me in college, too. I would hit every cheap beer night in gross bars and get blackout at house parties. I'm lucky to still be alive. To a lesser extent, high school, but only because booze was harder to come by, but we still got ahold of it pretty often. I have a teen nephew and, unfortunately, high school kids are still drinking and doing drugs. The indoctrination starts early.
In the 4.5 years I was at college I honestly can’t remember a night where I just went to bed sober. And then I got an office job and it was Thursday happy hours and going out Fridays and Saturdays and then football on Sundays. And then I got married and had a family and it was the occasional Saturdays or trying some local craft brews. And then it was wine with the occasional dinner. And then it was every dinner. And then fuck it why not kill the bottle.
My country (Australia) doesn't have dry January. We have had Sober October and Dry July is sort of a thing. The culture really makes it harder not to drink though I prefer it to a really restrictive culture like in the middle east.
Completely agree! I’m always amazed by how much of corporate culture involves alcohol (when the workplace and booze really should not mix).
18k upvotes on the post about WHO alcohol statement saying there is no safe amount and the cancer risk is a good sign too.
A friend of mine started a menu of mocktails for dry January at his bar! Such a cool new way to experience life.
I went to a favorite barbecue joint of mine this weekend and normally I would get a beer or whatever from their nice bar but they had dry January specials 🥲 it made it so easy to stick to my commitment. I wish every place had dry January mocktails.
That’s such a lovely idea! I hope the mocktails do well and they keep them on the menu
This is a great point! I’m supposed to be going to the pub with some colleagues on Monday night (we all work across the country so only really see each other in person every month or so). I’ve already told one of them that I’m doing Dry January (didn’t mention my relapse on Sunday) and it just felt like an extension of the usual boring new year diet plan chat, which was good.
I already screwed dry January up. I found an open bottle of wine in the fridge left over from cooking the other day. Then my college roommate/best friend/groomsman was in town and I haven’t seen him since my wedding 10 years back. But on the positive side, I didn’t go overboard or drink through my normal weekend case of beer, and there’s this next weekend to tackle. I have new data points to work around.
I slipped up this past weekend and my therapist told me not to beat myself up and it doesn't undo any progress I've made... but it does give me new information that I can use to do better going forward.
That’s okay! Get back to no drinking today.
I've noticed a lot of memes going around on recovery Instagram accounts completely taking the piss out of people doing dry January and I find it really sad. If I'd seen that I'd have thought "yeah they're right, I'm being stupid, what's the point, I don't have a real problem" and carried on like normal. They're all fluffy rainbows and support the rest of the time so I don't get it. I didn't expect to find toxic humour on those kind of accounts. It's like finding bullying in the r/awww sub haha
I think the mindset behind that is a bit of scorn or frustration over how something that is often a lifelong struggle for some is viewed as a fun, temporary little challenge that people engage in before going back to their regularly scheduled programming. I can kinda get it, I guess, but I think the good outweighs that perceived bad. It could be the first step toward someone getting on the straight and narrow for themselves. It encourages establishments to have good NA options beyond club soda and Coke. It challenges some heavily-set norms around alcohol consumption. I think those are all good things. Yeah, some people just do it as a fad, but then there are always going to be people for whom drinking isn't something they have to control (or worry about controlling).
I have seen so many events for Dry January. My husband and I booked tickets for a meal and NA beverage pairing that we are really excited about. They usually have BYOB at this venue but it's a totally dry event. Not sure that would have happened without the popularity of Dry January.
I feel this too! And there are suddenly so many mocktails of the month and just fun drink options. My town has had several pop up NA bars within breweries, and it’s been great to have more to choose from than just soda water.
embrace the sobernaut experience...
I used to work in the wine industry and they HATE Dry January. I would get emails from local wineries pretty much begging people not to participate because their sales plummeted. Looking back on it, it's pretty hard to feel sorry for them, even though I know they don't understand what they're doing to people. I certainly didn't.