Around the world, approximately 2.3 billion people drink alcohol. Most of them do so recreationally, but even those who don’t have alcohol use disorders can suffer from the negative effects of alcohol use. In the United States, as many as 178,000 people die from excessive drinking each year, with 61,000 of these occurring from binge drinking.
As a result of all the negative impacts of alcohol, one movement gaining traction among young people is being sober curious. Sober curious people want to be more aware of how much they drink while not being entirely abstinent. For many, it offers a way to pay closer attention to the roles that alcohol plays in their lives.
If you’ve never heard of this movement or you have been considering it but aren’t sure if it’s the right option, learning more about it can help you decide whether it’s something you should pursue.
Understanding the Sober Curious Movement
The sober curious movement is a social wellness trend that involves choosing not to drink as much as you may be used to, or at all, while not signing up for complete abstinence. It’s an option that encourages you to challenge how you look at alcohol and the relationship you have with it while also enjoying the health benefits of not drinking.
A crucial aspect of this movement is that it doesn’t require you to stop drinking cold turkey, which can be tough to do and may not be what you want. What it does encourage you to do is bring more mindfulness to the act of drinking.
Drinking is associated with social events and celebrations. It’s also a substance that helps you “unwind” after a stressful day. You may have built habits around drinking that you don’t even notice, so the sober curious movement strives to help you spot these and make changes to improve your mental and physical health.
By participating in this movement, you can break away from societal expectations while still having the freedom to have a drink when you feel like it. Therefore, a sober curious lifestyle can include taking a break from drinking for a certain amount of time. An example of this would be to participate in Dry January.
Alternatively, you can choose to be sober a few days during the week or to drink less during social events. Participating in activities that don’t have alcohol as a focus is also part of this movement. For example, instead of going to a bar every Friday night, you can choose to go to a movie.
Essentially, the goal is to reduce your alcohol intake without feeling that you can’t have a drink ever again. This ensures you don’t feel like you’re missing out.
Benefits of the Sober Curious Movement
Alcohol can be very harmful, especially in large quantities and when consumed very frequently. The sober curious movement helps address these issues.
Improved Sleep
Alcohol disrupts sleep patterns, especially if you have a drink right before bed. Although alcohol can help you fall asleep more quickly, it impacts the quality of your sleep. If you go to bed with alcohol in your system, the way you cycle through the stages of sleep can be altered.
After drinking alcohol, you can experience more deep sleep and less REM sleep. REM sleep is necessary for memory consolidation and many other vital processes, so not getting enough of it means you’ll feel less refreshed the next day.
By reducing the amount of alcohol you drink before bed, or at all, you can start getting more balanced rest.
Better Weight Management
Alcohol contains calories that can quickly add up if you have several drinks a week. Cocktails and other mixed beverages often also have lots of sugar, so your body will use those for fuel instead of burning fat.
If you’re attempting to lose weight and are following a diet, you’ll want to cut down on your drinking because it can also make you hungrier. You may crave greasy or salty foods, and your mental clarity may not have reasserted itself before you reach for a hamburger or other foods that go against your diet.
Enhanced Mental Clarity
Although alcohol doesn’t kill brain cells, as was once widely believed, it can still result in many short- and long-term mental effects, including cognitive issues. That’s because alcohol is a neurotoxin that disrupts communications in the brain while affecting the functions of brain cells.
Over time, significant alcohol consumption can result in intellectual impairment, memory loss, trouble with balance and coordination, and even an increased chance of developing dementia. Being sober or at least seriously reducing your intake of alcohol can improve your focus and decision-making skills.
Improved Mood
Most people see alcohol as a way to relax and feel a bit happier, and while that’s the case for a few minutes, remember that alcohol is a depressant. It will actually increase depressive symptoms as well as anxiety.
The more alcohol that you drink, the greater the likelihood that you’ll develop mental health concerns and mood disturbances because it changes your brain’s structure. It should come as no surprise that a large number of people who have an alcohol use disorder also have co-occurring depression.
Better Digestive Health
Alcohol irritates your digestive system and could lead to the development of gastritis and acid reflux. It interferes with gastric acid secretion as well as the activity of the muscles surrounding the stomach. These muscles include the ones around the small and large intestines. If they don’t function correctly, you can develop diarrhea.
Not only does this damage to the gastrointestinal tract cause discomfort and potential health issues, it also makes it difficult for the body to absorb the nutrients it needs. It’s common for people who drink a lot of alcohol to have mineral and vitamin deficiencies.
Improved Physical Fitness
Alcohol can make it more difficult for your muscles to recover after exertions. Athletes can really struggle to compete, for example, if they regularly drink. A lot of that comes down to the dehydration alcohol causes, which affects all body systems.
Alcohol hinders your body in the process of converting food into energy. It also reduces carbohydrates and blood sugar levels while simultaneously increasing the production of lactic acid. All of that impacts athletic performance.
Even if you’re not an athlete, doing everyday tasks like climbing stairs can become more strenuous if you drink a lot.
More Balanced Hormones
Alcohol impacts your endocrine system, leading to hormonal disturbances. It can lead to fertility issues in both males and females.
Don’t forget that your endocrine system controls your blood sugar levels by using insulin and glucagon, which are hormones made by your pancreas. Alcohol interferes with all of the hormones and systems involved in maintaining blood sugar levels.
Hormones also play a role in your calcium levels. Acute alcohol consumption interferes with hormones like parathyroid hormone, calcitonin, and vitamin D-derived hormones. This can potentially result in the development of osteoporosis and a higher risk of fractures.
Is the Sober Curious Movement Right for You?
Being sober curious doesn’t mean you have an issue with alcohol. Sobriety is not the same thing. People who are sober abstain entirely from alcohol, and there may be many reasons behind that decision. If sobriety is not what you’re looking for, the sober curious movement might be the right option.
You Want to Cut Back on Drinking
If you find yourself drinking too much alcohol, this could be an option. Even if you don’t feel you have a problem, drinking too much can impact your health and mood, and that could be enough to prompt you to look for a way to better manage your consumption.
Being sober curious encourages you to think carefully about drinking and pay attention to how it impacts you. You also focus on quality, not quantity, making any drinking much more mindful.
You Have Health Concerns
Because of all of the negative ways alcohol can impact your body, you may prefer not to drink too much. This can be especially important if certain kinds of cancers run in your family.
Alcohol can increase the risk of gastrointestinal cancers, for example, while also causing system-wide inflammation that could lead to the development of other issues, like diabetes. Being sober curious can help you lower your risk of suffering from these issues while still giving you the option to have a drink if you feel like it.
You Have Family Members With Substance Use Disorders
If you have family members who have struggled with substance use disorders, you may be concerned about developing the problem, too. There are genetic factors that can impact the chances of struggling with addiction, which means that it can run in families.
To protect yourself from developing dependence, you can start paying closer attention to when and how much you drink.
You Have a Mental Health Condition
It can be tempting to try to manage low moods or other mental health symptoms with alcohol, but it can actually make your mental health concerns worse. That’s because alcohol impacts many of the same areas in the brain as mental illness, causing further changes to your brain’s structure.
People with anxiety disorders, for example, may feel relief from symptoms for a few minutes, but once the alcohol wears off, their anxiety can be even worse. If you drink excessively, alcohol will deplete GABA, a chemical in the brain that has a relaxing effect. You can start feeling panic and increased tension.
Alcohol also affects serotonin and other crucial neurotransmitters, making depressive symptoms worse. Bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and other mental health concerns that require ongoing medical treatment can also be exacerbated by the way alcohol affects medications and the entire brain structure.
Even if you don’t actively have mental health concerns but a close relative does, reducing your alcohol intake could help you lower your risks of developing the illness, too.
Sober Curious: A New and Promising Movement
If you’re not ready to be fully sober or you’d prefer to have a bit of freedom in whether you have a drink during a social event or celebration or not, the sober curious movement could be the perfect option. You can have a drink socially when you feel like it, but you are more mindful about each sip you have.
It’s an option that allows you to have a healthier relationship with alcohol so that you don’t find yourself depending on it when dealing with stress or needing it to celebrate good news. It might even be a stepping stone to becoming fully sober later on.
At All Points North, we offer assistance to those struggling with alcohol or who want to find a healthier way of dealing with mental health concerns that could be prompting them to drink. Call us at 855-510-4585 or fill out our confidential contact form to learn more about the many program options that we offer.
References
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- CDC. “Facts about U.S. Deaths from Excessive Alcohol Use.” Alcohol Use, 8 July 2024, www.cdc.gov/alcohol/facts-stats/index.html.
- Colrain, Ian M et al. “Alcohol and the sleeping brain.” Handbook of clinical neurology vol. 125 (2014): 415-31. doi:10.1016/B978-0-444-62619-6.00024-0
- Reiser, Danica . “Does Drinking Alcohol Kill Brain Cells.” Mayo Clinic Health System, 14 Apr. 2023, www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/hometown-health/speaking-of-health/does-drinking-alcohol-kill-brain-cells.
- Steiner, Jennifer L., et al. “Impact of Alcohol on Glycemic Control and Insulin Action.” Biomolecules, vol. 5, no. 4, 2015, pp. 2223-2246, https://doi.org/10.3390/biom5042223. Accessed 15 Dec. 2024.
- Wang, Zhanzhang, et al. “Knowledge Atlas of the Involvement of Glutamate and GABA in Alcohol Use Disorder: A Bibliometric and Scientometric Analysis.” Frontiers in Psychiatry, vol. 13, 2022, p. 965142, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.965142. Accessed 15 Dec. 2024.
