The Most Common Reactions When You Say You’re Sober

Spoiler: It’s never ‘well done!’

Photo by Dave Lastovskiy on Unsplash

Giving up alcohol is a personal decision that can have monumental benefits on your health, happiness, anxiety levels and sleep quality. In fact, it has resounding benefits for your life as a whole.

But for some reason, it’s not an easy thing to tell other people. Because the reaction is almost never supportive or congratulatory. Instead it’s defensive, irritated or just plain old confused.

Here are the most common reactions I get when I tell people I’ve given up the juice.

‘Why?’

‘Why what?’

‘Well…why have you given up drinking?’

People get alarmed when you say you’ve given up alcohol. Their first thoughts are usually that you were a secret alcoholic. Maybe you were, but maybe you weren’t (I wasn’t).

At the end of the day, alcohol has many, many downsides. It’s a drug that prevents you from functioning at the level you normally do. It impairs your judgement. It costs a lot of money. It lowers or wipes out your inhibitions. It stops you from feeling your true feelings. And it leaves you with a hangover.

Are those not reasons enough?