A Sober Curious Movement Builds Online, Targeting ‘Gray Area’ Drinking

After a pandemic surge in alcohol consumption, new services promise to help drinkers cut back-either temporarily or for good

Source: https://www.wsj.com/

October 4, 2021

During lockdowns, millions of Americans marked the end of the day with cocktails. Now, as daily routines resume, some are trying online alcohol-recovery programs to curb drinking or quit entirely.

So-called sober curious, or gray-area, drinkers suspect they drink too much but say the term “alcoholic” doesn’t accurately describe them. A host of for-profit programs, many founded by authors of popular books about sobriety and pitched to gray-area drinkers, has sprung up to offer support and strategies for giving up alcohol-whether temporarily or for good.

Nicola Peachey, 46, says she tried one such program, a 30-day alcohol-free challenge called the Alcohol Experiment, in July after wine became a coping mechanism during the pandemic.

“Alcohol became my new bestie,” said the resident of Perth, Australia, who spent lockdowns with her husband, their two teenagers, and a Brazilian exchange student. Ms. Peachey, a diet and nutrition coach, said she hasn’t had a drink since joining the program, even while on a recent vacation.

According to a Rand Corp. survey of 1,540 adults, the number of days in which Americans drank rose 14% during a month-long period in the spring of 2020, compared with the same period in 2019. In a February American Psychological Association poll of 3,013 adults, 23% reported drinking more to cope with stress during the pandemic.

Sobriety trend

The new programs are part of a broader trend toward sobriety, led by authors of drinking recovery memoirs, social-media influencers, and leaders of online sober communities. Many frame abstinence as a healthy lifestyle choice and push back at what they describe as society’s embrace of alcohol.

“For too long, alcohol has been seen as necessary to having fun,” said Ruby Warrington, author of the 2018 book “Sober Curious,” a term that has become synonymous with the move to examine gray-area drinking by questioning personal impulses and cultural expectations to drink. The negative side effects of alcohol, which raises the risk of diseases including depression and cancer, outweigh the benefits for many, she said.

Alcoholics Anonymous, the 86-year-old organization behind the 12-step program, offers peer support groups for free, as do other nonprofits. The new services generally charge users from $14 to $197 a month, depending on the degree of coaching involved.

Like Alcoholics Anonymous, the new services embrace sobriety. But while an AA publication argues that it is ultimately futile for heavy drinkers to attempt “moderate, social drinking,” some new services take the view that a little drinking can be OK.

Not quite cold turkey

“Some people can choose moderation,” said Annie Grace, founder of This Naked Mind LLC, which offers a variety of recovery programs, including the one Ms. Peachey completed. Ms. Grace cautions that the effort needed to regulate what, when, and where to drink can lead to mental fatigue that makes it hard to stick to limits.

An AA spokesman said in a statement that the organization has no comment “on other methods for getting sober. There are lots of different options.”

John Kelly, a professor who specializes in addiction at Harvard Medical School, said his research on AA shows strong evidence the program works by building motivation, coping skills and self-confidence, and helping people meet sober friends.

While there is little statistical evidence on the new services, Prof. Kelly said, “Covid has opened our eyes to the fact that online platforms have shown they can be really helpful to people..They help people get their feet wet and find a good fit.”

The price of support

Ms. Grace’s company charges $47 for a live version of the 30-day Alcohol Experiment. Sessions draw as many as 3,000 participants, and include a private Facebook group and a live daily online meeting moderated by coaches trained by Ms. Grace, whose book “This Naked Mind” chronicles her recovery from a bottle-of-wine per evening habit. (A version without the live meeting is free.)

Participants receive daily emails with videos featuring Ms. Grace and others, including authors and psychologists, discussing alcohol’s effect on the brain, how to deal with cravings, and triggers for drinking, among other topics.

This Naked Mind’s more intensive programs cost up to $197 a month, depending on the level of coaching a participant elects.

More than 280,000 people have completed the Alcohol Experiment since the company began offering it in 2017, Ms. Grace said. About 80,000 of them have enrolled since Jan. 1.

Ms. Peachey said she never considered Alcoholics Anonymous in part because she doesn’t believe the label applies to her. “For me, the term ‘alcoholic’ implies something dire, like losing your job and family. That wasn’t my path,” she said.

The number of users of Tempest, a program started in 2014 by Holly Whitaker, author of “Quit Like A Woman: The Radical Choice to Not Drink in a Culture Obsessed with Alcohol,” has quintupled since 2020, according to the company. Memberships begin at $41 a month and include live workshops, a private online community and roughly 50 weekly support group meetings.

Target customers

The companies say that women-whose frequency of binge drinking rose sharply in 2020, according to Rand-make up the majority of customers. More than 80% of Tempest members and over 60% of This Naked Mind’s participants are women, the companies say. Alcohol use among women has been rising for years, according to research cited by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

Laura McKowen, author of the 2020 book “We Are the Luckiest: The Surprising Magic of a Sober Life,” started Luckiest Club, which offers 28 weekly online support groups, in May 2020 and charges $14 a month. Ms. McKowen said many members have joined to curb pandemic drinking.

Others who got sober during lockdown are seeking support to stay sober as restaurants and bars reopen.

Colby Wallace, a New York City resident, said his drinking escalated after March 2020, when his third-grade teaching job moved online and his roommates left the city.

“I was in a dark apartment by myself teaching remotely,” he recalled. His early morning commute had kept his drinking in check, he said, but lockdowns took that structure away.

After blacking out on May 4, 2020, Mr. Wallace said he got sober and has remained so since. He credits the “accountability” provided by Luckiest Club meetings, where members can share their progress. “I wanted so badly to show up to meetings and type in my (dry) day count,” he said.