Thinking about drinking

According to a survey of over 1,500 American adults, heavy drinking during the pandemic, especially among women, has soared. If you’re asking yourself if your drinking (or any other addictive behavior) is problematic, read on. 

1. Brené Brown is likely the only person ever to go to a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous based on a genogram, a visual map of her family history. Seeing many alcoholic branches on her family tree, and acknowledging her own tendency to drink in a way that was at times self-destructive, on May 12, 1996 Brown joined AA and became sober. She considers sobriety to be her superpower and the main reason for her success as an author, speaker, and Netflix sensation. I have attended AA meetings in celebration of a loved one’s landmarks of sobriety, and have found them to be among the most moving experiences of my life. An atmosphere of nonjudgmental support enables alcoholics to be vulnerable and share their stories of addiction without shame. It seems almost magical how AA has been able to help so many people transform their lives, but perhaps the reason is on this sobriety medallion that combines the serenity prayer with the timeless principles of authenticity, community, and purpose. 

I keep this medallion on my key chain.

2. “It’s awful. Why do I want more?” is Dr. Harry Vanderspiegel’s reaction to his first taste of whiskey in one of my favorite escapist TV series, Resident Alien. I thought of this line as I was listening to Annie Grace talk about her experience with alcohol on a recent episode of the Ten Percent Happier podcast. Addictive behaviors of all kinds have increased during the pandemic as people try to cope with uncertainty, boredom, and loss. If you’re fighting the urge to overindulge but don't want to refer to yourself as an alcoholic or take a vow of sobriety, Annie Grace recommends that you approach your relationship with alcohol with self-compassion and curiosity. Explore your beliefs around drinking on three levels—substance, society and self—and determine if those perceptions are true. Regarding substance, one of the most potent beliefs about alcohol is that it’s the main ingredient of a good time. Grace points to how alcohol is unique in that it’s both a stimulant and a depressant. After a rush of euphoria that peaks about 20 minutes after the first drink, a slow downhill slide into depression follows that the next drink keeps at bay...and the next and the next until the inevitable downturn comes when alcohol reveals itself to be mostly depressing. Grace debunks the myths that society has built about drinking, and encourages each of us to question our assumptions about what alcohol does for and to us. If you awaken a sense of curiosity about your behavior around alcohol, you might discover that your beverage of choice actually tastes awful.

3. I didn’t set out to make this week’s 5-Minute Recharge all about drinking, but when I watched the Danish movie “Another Round” that's being touted as a likely Oscar contender, I knew I had the perfect accompaniment to Annie Grace’s scientific approach to drinking that she outlines in the book The Alcohol Experiment: a movie about an alcohol experiment. In “Another Round,” four middle-aged high school teachers test the hypothesis from Norwegian psychiatrist, Finn Sk?rderud that we would be happier if we maintained a blood alcohol level of 0.05% (but only during working hours). What could possibly go wrong? A lot! The movie is sobering, but not moralistic: it makes you think about the holes in self-confidence and joy in life that alcohol temporarily plasters over, the role that society plays in glorifying, normalizing, and ritualizing alcohol, and what you can do to fill your cup with something other than an intoxicating substance.

“Move don't mope,” is the message of 81 year-old TikTok fitness sensation Erika Rischko. Physical activity is a stimulant with anti-depressant properties.

 Links that recharge:

• 14 fixes for pandemic monotony The Atlantic
• Don't WFB (work from bed) BBC
• Go Ahead and Fail The Atlantic
• The high-performance lifestyle goes mainstream Axios
• 4 causes of Zoom fatigue and 4 simple fixes Stanford University

“When I got sober, I thought giving up [alcohol] was saying goodbye to all the fun and all the sparkle, and it turned out to be just the opposite. That’s when the sparkle started for me.”—Mary Karr

 Wishing you a sparkling day,

Lynne