When the phrase “the new black” is used it means that you’re saying that something is popular. Sober is the new black. I’m saying that sobriety is becoming popular.
I’ve done some research into alcohol addiction, which I will present to you. I’d like you to reflect throughout, if we, as a society, are doing enough to reduce the harms associated with drinking alcohol.
In 2016, I quit drinking. I did it on my own, and it was one day at a time. About a year into my sobriety, I came across the work of Holly Whitaker, who is on a mission to fix the mess that is addiction and addiction recovery. I signed up for her three-month online Hip Sobriety School, which helped me make the decision to quit drinking for life.
Holly has a 12-Point manifesto and Point 4 is Sober is the New Black. This is Point 4…
More and more of us are waking up to the reality that drinking is not sexy or sophisticated or adult. It is the exact opposite of those things. Drinking makes us ugly, kills our self-confidence, sucks our time/money/energy, ruins our health, works against every single goal we have for ourselves, and keeps us stuck and stunted. By just trying on sobriety or questioning our drink-centric culture, you are profoundly ahead of the pack.
I have a few shocking facts about alcohol I’d like to share. I’ve picked them up from a blog Holly wrote (2018), so these are Americanized facts (don’t worry I will share some Canadian facts later). Ready?
Alcohol is more harmful than crack, heroin, and crystal meth.
10% of American deaths (88,000) will be due to excessive drinking this year.
Alcohol is the 4th leading cause of preventable death.
Alcohol kills over 3,000,000 people worldwide annually.
29% of the adult population drinks excessively, 1 in 3 adults.
92% of domestic abuse perpetrators reported using alcohol or drugs on the day of the assault.
Excessive drinking cost the United States $225 BILLION in 2006.
Okay, let’s look at drinking guidelines. The following are guidelines (2018) put out by the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse and are considered to be Canada’s low risk alcohol drinking guidelines.
For men, apparently, it’s okay to have no more than 3 drinks a day most days with a maximum of 15 drinks a week.
For women, it’s recommended to have no more than 2 drinks a day most days with a maximum of 10 drinks a week.
Personally, I consider these guidelines to be on the spectrum of excessive drinking especially if this is what someone drinks week in, week out, year after year. But I don’t want to hold any judgement. Drinking is a personal choice.
Here are a few other tips from the guidelines…
Plan non-drinking days every week to avoid developing a habit.
Set limits for yourself and stick to them.
Drink slowly. Have no more than 2 drinks in any 3 hours.
For every drink of alcohol, have one non-alcoholic drink.
Eat before and while you are drinking.
Always consider your age, body weight and health problems that might suggest lower limits.
Do not start to drink or increase your drinking for health benefits.
Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer put out a report in 2015 titled Alcohol Consumption in Canada, and here are a few things that he said…
“Alcohol is a socially accepted part of everyday life for most Canadians. Almost 80 percent of us drink.”
“Alcohol is a mind-altering drug and there are health risks associated with drinking. Our low-risk drinking guidelines do not mean that alcohol is harmless.”
“Data on alcohol consumption and related costs and harms are limited in Canada. This makes it difficult to capture a true picture of the impact on Canadians.”
“Our knowledge and understanding of alcohol consumption in Canada is inadequate.”
“I suggest Canadians and our institutions take a closer look at our current approach and reflect if we are doing enough to reduce the harms associated with drinking alcohol.”
I now want to show you a few figures from his report…
In this figure above, you can see that alcohol is the preferred drug choice of Canadians. Much higher than tobacco, marijuana and other illicit drugs.
This figure above clearly shows that there is no difference regarding drinking rates between age groups except of course for youth aged 15 to 19, but they shouldn’t be drinking anyway!
This figure above focuses on risky drinking rates amongst age groups, and here we see some differences between age groups. The figure also separates out the percentage of risky drinking by short-term impacts and long-term impacts.
In Canada, in 2002, excessive drinking cost us $14.6 billion. We can compare that back to the US’s $225 billion in 2006, and I can see why Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer believes our data is limited unless of course costs are rising substantially. The largest costs are in lost productivity, health care and low enforcement costs.
Here’s one thing that I know for sure…
Sobriety delivers everything good alcohol promises, and more!
So, why not try an experiment? An alcohol experiment from Annie Grace…
A 30-day Alcohol Free challenge where you take a break, test the waters, learn all about how alcohol works on your brain, and then make your own decisions about drinking based on conscious choice, education and empowerment.
SOURCE: https://www.hollywhitaker.com.
© Brooke Somers (2022)
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