Nearly 90 years ago, when Bill Wilson and Bob Smith joined forces to create the program that would become known as Alcoholics Anonymous, there was no O'Doul's section in the beverage aisle. There was no word for trading in one’s alcohol consumption for weed, no designation of “California sober.” The first month of the year was not also known as Dryuary. Now, however, we’re consuming less alcohol than our parents and grandparents did, and exploring what it means to be sober curious more. But sobriety isn’t what it used to be.
“My science-backed view is that alcohol problems are massively heterogeneous, hugely complex, nuanced, and individual,” said Dr. James Morris, Chair of the New Directions in the Study of Alcohol Group at London South Bank University. “But the models, the terms and ideas that we have around them are very limited and categorical, and siphon people into certain stereotypes or ideas like abstinence or rock bottom or only sobriety, etc.”
