THREAD: How do you feel about your sobriety or recovery these days? Has it changed?
Is there an actual “backlash” or "anti-sobriety movement", is it surface disturbance, or are we just tired of performing goodness?
Hi! If you are feeling it, can you try and respond to these questions in the comments? I’ve been working on a book on topics related to this discussion and your shares go a very long way.
1. Has your relationship to sobriety or recovery changed in the past few years in relation to aging, diagnosis, hormones/peri-menopause, trauma work, medication, cannabis or psychedelics, harm reduction, burnout, wellness culture, internet sobriety culture, what’s happening in the world {open to interpretation!}, or just life?
2. If so, what does that look like for you?
3. Are you aware of a backlash against “sobriety culture” etc., and what do you make of it?
Hi buddies.
Though I’ve posted (and still post) sporadically, have an account, and scroll on occasion, I see myself as having left Instagram in 2021, which is when I had a little menty-b and found being out of my fucking mind incompatible with giving advice to strangers on how to live their best life. Way back then, I posted something smart about being lost and how I was gonna BRB, then never really got to the RB, and somehow five years came and went and now here I am, logging onto Instagram with as much technical confidence as my 81-y/o mother, and wondering if the single post I read about sobriety culture ending is something everyone is talking about or something a country singer said that’s being treated as fact.
Which is where you come in, and hopefully answer these questions. Is it true? Is it hype? Are we upset about sobriety culture now, or are we upset about something else?
If you’ve been here for a while, you probably know my own sobriety, as well as my relationship to “sobriety culture” (being one of the creators of it) has changed. I’m not going to rehash that all here because I love you so much and you can only take so many repeats, so there’s links down below if you’re new.
Thank you thank you thank you for your input—it's massively helpful.
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1. Has your relationship to sobriety or recovery changed in the past few years in relation to aging, diagnosis, hormones/peri-menopause, trauma work, medication, cannabis or psychedelics, harm reduction, burnout, wellness culture, internet sobriety culture, what’s happening in the world {open to interpretation!}, or just life?
Yes, it has changed.
3. If so, what does that look like for you?
I am six+ years sober (1.3.20) and my first three years of that sobriety was an absence of all substances (minus caffeine), with a brief period of giving up sugar as well. I took a break from my career during those years to work on said sobriety. In 2022, I accepted a position in my career field and accepted all the stressors that go along with it. In 2023, I had my first experience with gummies taking three over the course of a month. In 2024 I smoked a joint in a vineyard looking at the sun setting over a mountaintop and felt grateful to be alive. In 2025 I began using gummies more often recreationally and I still use them to that end today. I suppose I am going into detail to give you the gradual lifestyle creep that has happened. I would like to end the usage, but I am having a hard time finding alternative “rewards” and stress relief from my job.
5. Are you aware of a backlash against “sobriety culture” etc., and what do you make of it?
No, this is the first I am hearing of it. However, I am in the beverage industry, and I suppose there has always been tension in my field around this topic. Once sales reps find out I am sober (I don’t hide it, am open about it, but don’t wear a hat on my head announcing it either), they treat me with respect that may have more to do with the fact that I am the largest buyer of alcohol (for restaurants and hotels) in our small town than out of any real respect for my sobriety.
Against Sober Culture (Respectfully) is the title of a Substack post I ran across just yesterday. My first exposure to pushback of sober culture. I didn’t get very far reading it. She had to stop drinking for 3 months for a medical procedure and based her decision on that experience. It was not a compelling argument. I lost interest with her perspective pretty quickly.
My own sobriety path has not changed much through dealing with all the things you’ve listed. While other things in my life have shifted, my sobriety feels good and right.