A headline that I saw a couple of days ago about the rise in alcohol-related deaths in the U.S., Alcohol-related deaths more than doubled in last two decades, came back on my feed today from NPR, U.S. Alcohol-Related Deaths Have Doubled, Study Says. Sadly, I am not surprised by this study because I’ve been watching the numbers increase since I stopped drinking back in 2015. These statistics used to infuriate me because I knew that there were so many women and men out there just like me who had gotten sucked into a sort of vortex in middle age that started with what felt like normal daily drinking. The statistics proved that it was happening but every time one of these studies was published, another would follow saying that alcohol and certainly wine, was good for you.
If you are a daily drinker, if you are what is euphemistically called a “wine mom”, or if you are someone who started drinking routinely back around the beginning of this century because you read that drinking daily was good for your heart, would prevent cancer, might help you lose weight and was absolutely the coolest of the cool things that adults can do… please rethink the drink.
Something that I only began to realize after I stopped drinking and stepped back to look at the culture I grew up in, is that I have been SOLD addictive behavior. I, and you, and everybody in most western cultures, is sold the idea that adults should be able to drink daily without it becoming a problem. We’ve been sold the idea that drinking is essential to living a full, connected, and creative life. We have been sold the idea that if you become dependent on alcohol or addicted to alcohol, the problem is with you, not the drink. We have been sold the idea that only those with a predisposition, with a disease, need be wary of how much they drink and that sobriety is a heavy sort of punishment for those who cannot safely drink.
The most recent hard sell of this cultural ideal that drinking daily is and should be celebrated, came from France’s president and the cultural elite of that country in response to France’s first intended Dry January initiative
Dry January? France says ‘Non’ as winemakers cry foul
France has the third-highest per capita consumption of alcohol among the 36 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, according to a report from the club of wealthy nations this month.
Alcohol results in 41,000 deaths in France each year, according to France’s Public Health Agency, which urges people to limit themselves to two glasses a day — “and not every day.
But Macron — who once proclaimed
I drink wine at lunch and dinner! —
reportedly told winemakers in the Champagne region earlier this month that they had nothing to worry about.
“He told us
You can let people know there won’t be any Dry January
Maxime Toubart, president of the Champagne growers’ association, told the Vitisphere industry website “
Is that the attitude only in France? Of course not. You cannot walk into a PTA meeting or a Yoga class in the United States now without someone suggesting or offering wine. Convenient portable cans and extra-large 5-liter tetra pack boxes and bottles and magnums of wine fill endless shelves in every grocery store and many gas stations in the U.S. Spiked seltzers, pink gin, and fruit-flavored vodkas are sold like adult candy waiting for you at the end of a long hard day. The sale of alcohol as somehow benign is relentless. And yet…Alcohol-related deaths more than doubled in the last two decades… alcohol is not benign.
If you feel like you are drinking too much too often take a break. Open your mind to the possibility that you are being SOLD the idea that you need to drink with the same aggressive techniques that you are sold any product. Break the status quo… think for yourself.
Come hang out with us for a while, it’s free, no one will try to sell you anything at all except the motivation to think for yourself in a creative community. We’re private and anonymous as well and off the conventional social media streams which have become a flurry of relentless commercialism selling everything from products to lifestyles to political candidates.
BOOM Rethink the Drink … Our Dry January Posts are here. In a world where you’ll be questioned for not drinking with the crowd, we’ll encourage you to find your own path. Sign up and sign in via our Web Site here or download the free Mighty Networks app and find us at BOOM Community Rethink the Drink.
Guide to your First Month of Sobriety : Why and How to Quit
The conversation that we are having may surprise you. You may surprise yourself. Open your mind to the possibilities of living alcohol free. Even if just for a while. The Spirit is NOT in the bottle it’s in You!
Ask Yourself these questions ( you’ll find our answers inside BOOM at the linked titles)
If you can think of one thing that scares you, or scared you most about sobriety what would it be ?
What does Courage mean to you? Does it take courage to be alcohol free? Why?
and we’re there to help with answers to these as well
What made you *realize* that you had “crossed the line” and had a very serious alcohol problem?
Do you really PROMISE it’s better on the other side? Swear?
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