Drinking Culture is Everywhere

How do we move from a life where nearly everything social revolves around drinking alcohol to a life of sobriety, while those around us continue to drink?

How do we say no to alcohol and stay afloat when we are awash in an ocean of booze?

This is the wonderful world of Drinking Culture

Turn on the TV and see a beer commercial, bikini babes, and guys with six-pack abs, frolicking among coolers of beer. Going to the game?…let’s tailgate! You know the routine: arriving four to six hours before the game, eating unhealthy food, and staggering drunk by kickoff. Going to the movies?…drinks before arrival and wine & beer at the concession. Wedding reception, backyard BBQ?…gotta have alcohol.

But the easiest place to drink too much too often is in your own home. If you don’t have a drinking buddy as a partner, get creative to conceal how much booze you’re putting away. Home is usually the last refuge before we finally admit we have a drinking problem. 

Drinking culture is ingrained in us. How do we escape in the face of so many distractions? After all, we look like fish out of water when we don’t go along with the crowd. When we don’t drink, we become all too obviously “other“.

All the Joys of drinking that our culture sells are a big fat lie

Alcohol can cost us a job, a relationship, our freedom and self-esteem. We know alcohol can damage the liver, brain, and cause cancer. Yet alcohol remains the only drug, about which we are questioned if we don’t use. What would you think if a friend said, “It’s been a rough day, let’s go do a line of coke”? But it’s okay if you go get hammered on red wine or a “few” beers?

How can alcohol be glorified and glamorized, and also be the cause of so much anguish? We’ve been sold a bill of goods, a pig-in-a-poke, a fugazi. We’ve been conditioned to embrace and promote a highly addictive substance until it locks us in chains, until society (the same one that questions why we don’t drink), turns on us, shames us and labels us as alcoholics. WTF is wrong with this picture?

EVERYTHING!

Glamorize it, market it, push it, get us hooked, then stigmatize and shame us.

If we’re lucky we eventually tire of waking up with hangovers, or strangers, or not knowing how we got home. Or we’ve gotten a DUI or made a fool of ourselves in front of family or coworkers. Or we’re just pissed that we want to stop drinking and don’t know how or where to begin. 

How do we break this chain?

Let’s start here :

Do You Really Want to Stop Drinking?

and grab some tips and tools here

Tips and Tools for Dry January and Beyond

Join the Discussion in BOOM and Rethink the Drink!

The good news is that you have found Boom. This is where you find support and information without any judgement. In our Boom Community there is no “one size fits all” approach. The rules are mostly common sense and respect for one another (there is a list on the site if you need guidance).

It is helpful if you read the posts and the commentary, write your own posts and comments, and join the discussion. If you slip up, begin again. There is no competition here. Just don’t quit quitting.

The early days may be hard, but they will get easier as you gain sober momentum. Whatever happens, it is likely to have happened to someone here already. Learn from your experience and the experience of others. We want you to succeed. You can succeed.

We don’t believe the big lie in BOOM. If you want to break the chains of alcohol, you have come to the right place. Hop on the sober wagon with us. 

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