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You Don’t Have To Give Up Drinking, You Could Be ’Soberish’ Instead

You Don’t Have To Give Up Drinking, You Could Be ’Soberish’ Instead
Carly Jacobs
soberish

Alcohol is such a loaded topic without even thinking about terms like ‘soberish’ or ‘sober curious’.

Even more so depending on where you come from. If you’re from Australia, the UK, New Zealand or America chances are alcohol is a big part of your life whether you drink or not.

I can remember travelling to Indonesia with World Vision many years ago and the young team there were so wonderful. They took us out for dinner and to karaoke… all totally booze free. I was cool with that but it was shocking to me how shocking it was to watch these young people socialise without alcohol. Not only was booze difficult to get being a predominately Muslim country but it just wasn’t a part of these young people’s lives and I was kind of jealous. My youth was centred around alcohol. Being a theatre kid, it was all about finishing a show and having a few drinks. After parties. Any kind of parties. I can’t imagine what it would have been like to be raised in a country where booze just wasn’t that big a deal.

I recently went down a very weird rabbit hole (that I explain further in this podcast episode) trying to find out what I’m most likely die from at this point in time according to my age and where I live. I’m not an especially morbid person but I bloody love statistics so I was like ‘Statistically, if I died tomorrow, what’s the most likely reason for my untimely death?’. I’m a cheery little cookie aren’t I?

So after a bit of digging I found out that people aged 25 to 44 (and according to my podcast stats that most of the listeners of this show, myself included) our number one cause of death is suicide. That’s probably not a shock to a lot of you, which is horrific and very sad because with the right resources and support suicide can be a preventable death. The second highest cause of death in our age group is classified as ‘accidental poisoning’. I admit when I first read that it gave me a bit of a giggle imagining people storing their rat poison next to the sugar and being like ‘Whoops!’. The truth is much bleaker than that. Accidental poisoning refers to death by accidental drug and alcohol overdose.

So here’s a scary truth bomb for you; if you are an Australian aged between 24 and 44 your mental health and drugs/alcohol are the biggest mortality risks to you. Both of those are amplified if you’re a man.

Yikes.

This episode isn’t designed to scare you (I’m still very much a classic if somewhat occasional binge drinker, even after recording this episode) it’s just a chat about alcohol, our relationship to alcohol, some facts about alcohol and maybe it might help empower you to cut back or quit if that’s something you’re toying with.

This week’s guest is Millie Gooch from Sober Girl Society. Millie is from the UK and after spending her 20s as an actual black out drunk, a few years ago she got sober and is making it her mission to empower other people to give up the booze and get back their lives.

In this episode we chat about…

  • Being non-judgemental in the sober and soberish space
  • Ditching the labels of sober and soberish
  • The hardest part of sobriety
  • Being sober in your mid-20s when everyone else is drunk
  • ‘Ladettes’ and the misuse of feminism in drinking culture
  • Advice for anyone who want to quit drinking but can’t quite find the right time
  • Unlearning the supposed ‘benefits’ of alcohol
  • Being kind, gentle and inclusive in your journey

So if you’ve been considering cutting back on the booze but you have no idea how to go about it, this episode is for you. Or, if you’re like me and want to drink 5 glasses of wine every 3 months and you’re not sure how you feel about it, this episode is also for you.

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