Sobriety

When medical professionals research substance abuse and recovery topics, they often separate recovery goals into abstinence-based and non-abstinence-based categories. Alcoholics are more likely to pragmatically base their recovery goals on abstinence—for example, never drinking again and helping others achieve the same. People recovering from opioids and stimulants are more likely to formulate non-abstinence-based goals—for instance, boosting their physical and mental health. Working toward achieving recovery

Two films released in 2025 shine a different light on addiction and the hardships it can perpetuate. The Long Road Home is a documentary produced by Cindy Cash, one of four daughters of country music legend Johnny Cash. It goes deep into the myriad substance abuse issues her family endured through generations. Hazard is a dramatic film about a young Appalachian couple struggling to stay

In the middle of the 2024 NCAA football season, the head coaches of two of the highest-ranked teams in the Associated Press poll spoke to ESPN about their journeys to sobriety. Both men recovered from alcoholism. Lane Kiffin of Ole Miss explained that sobriety feels like freedom, while Steve Sarkisian of the University of Texas said it allows him to persevere. These two opinions illustrate

In the 2019 country music hit “One Beer” by Hardy, the protagonist’s life gets turned upside down, complete with an unwanted pregnancy and a shotgun wedding, after drinking a single Bud Light. Approximately 15 years before Hardy, underground rapper MF DOOM released a song with the same name, but the consequences were different because the beer in question was the prize for reducing rival MCs

Dry January is a social trend that started in the late 2000s with a small group of Long Island residents who upheld their New Year’s resolution to lose weight by starting with a detox month. By 2014, Dry January had been trademarked by Alcohol Change United Kingdom, a charity focused on reducing problematic liquor consumption. This trend was followed by Dry July, Sober October, and

In recent years, the topic of sobriety has been explored by prominent news outlets known for their lifestyle reporting. The New York Times and Los Angeles Times are just two of the publications that have dedicated various trend pieces to the sober living movement, the “California sober” trend, mocktail bars, sober lifestyle coaching, and other topics that align with various concepts of sobriety. On internet

For many mental health professionals who focus on addiction recovery, the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) in the late 1930s was one of the most important inventions of the 20th century. Many of the principles, practices, and traditions of AA have become standards of addiction recovery. For example, other programs, such as Gamblers Anonymous, adopted the 12 steps of AA, and then we have sobriety

  Thanks to the advent of the digital era, tracking the progress of behavioral concepts, societal trends, and cultural movements has become easier and more precise. The sober curious movement emerged shortly after the publication of Sober Curious: The Blissful Sleep, Greater Focus, Limitless Presence, and Deep Connection Awaiting Us All on the Other Side of Alcohol in 2018. British author Ruby Warrington didn’t expect her

CNN has been producing New Year’s Eve specials since the 1980s, but their most popular broadcasts have aired since Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen started to host the specials in 2017. For the 2022 special, CNN went with a sober format because the previous year’s broadcast resulted in Cohen getting visibly inebriated as he delivered an insensitive rant. While many CNN viewers applauded the network’s

Since 2022, thousands of young adults in the United Kingdom have observed “Sober October,” a lifestyle trend that began as a social media hashtag that replaced “Dry January,” the post-holidays period when many British people stay away from the excesses of December. Sober October is also part of the “sober curious” trend among young people who feel they can find happiness in sobriety instead of