Kate Hawkesby: Sober October might be more than just a catchy name

So apart from school holidays starting today, guess what else we’re heading into? Sober October. Who knew? I thought Dry July was a thing and the only thing, but turns out there’s also Sober October. All I know is having not drunk alcohol in so long, I forget that alcohol free months are even a thing until I hear about them and remember that I don’t drink. It’s become such a non-event for me now, but it wasn’t always like that. When I first stopped drinking alcohol it was hard socially to explain it to people. People don’t take it very well when they’re standing enthusiastically in their lounge pouring everyone a glass of champagne and you say, “oh not for me thanks.” It’s got party pooper vibes all over it. Likewise when waiters come to the table in restaurants asking for drinks orders, it doesn’t have quite the same zing to say “peppermint tea for me please.” That doesn't really scream 'let's get this party started'. I’m sure people are trying to act more low key and less reactionary around people who don’t drink these days, but they’re not there yet. It’s usually followed by comments like, “Oh designated driver are we?” or, “had a big one last night did you?” Initially when I stopped drinking, almost 7 years ago now, it wasn’t that common here. Not as much as it is now. I felt I had to explain myself every time I declined an alcoholic drink – “oh I don’t not drink because I’m an alcoholic or anything I just choose not to..” These days I just say no thanks and leave it at that. But I raise all this because I was reading about Sober October and some stats on what a month without alcohol really does to your body. Because it’s a lot like dieting – they say you don’t want to be too extreme about it – and you don’t want to yo-yo in a way that takes your health backwards. The main thing stopping alcohol for a while does, experts agree, is improve your sleep quality, which in turn means you should have more energy. Energy eludes me because I get up at 3am everyday so I tend to feel permanently jetlagged, but the sleep quality I can definitely vouch for. Not waking up in the night with a heart racing and a liver trying to process alcohol makes for a much deeper sleep. Giving up alcohol, according to the experts, also apparently reduces your blood pressure. But they say just giving up for a month is not a cure-all from a health perspective, but what it can do is work as a reset for many people to rebalance or rethink how they drink. I gave up because I wasn’t a big drinker in the first place so it made no difference to me and I found I didn’t really miss it, (although how I didn’t take back up drinking during lockdown I’ll never know), but it’s really tough for many people for whom it’s a big part of their social or wind down routine. I know we have a big binge drinking problem in this country, but I think these one off alcohol free months are more for the everyday drinkers who’ve just crept into a habit they don’t think twice about. I don’t think people should be pressured either way, but if a month off alcohol helps reset how you view it, then maybe for some, that’s no bad thing.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.