Kyla Gemmell knew drinking alcohol set off a domino effect that didn’t fall in line with how she wanted to live. A night of drinking disrupted her sleep for days, which led her to skip her workout routine and reach for fatty and salty foods that weren’t nurturing her. At 28, a weekend out drinking would take her two weeks to recover from.
That’s why one day in mid-November, she decided to stop drinking for a year.
“I was drinking with some friends and just felt like crap the next day,” Gemmell told Salon in a phone interview. “I was like, ‘I’m done with this.’”
Gemmell is part of a growing “sober curious” movement, which promotes a more conscientious approach to drinking where people set intentions about how much and when they drink, if at all. Although “Dry January," “Sober October,” and other temporary abstinence trends come and go each year, the sober curious movement continues to grow. The movement has been around for about a decade but has recently grown more popular on social media, with influencers featuring it in their videos and the titular character of “Emily in Paris” even highlighting it on the latest season.
“The sober curious movement, which is about individual empowerment, is the first grassroots cultural movement of its kind,” said Ruby Warrington, whose book “Sober Curious” is credited with bringing the idea to the mainstream. “This is the beginning of a cultural shift when it comes to the role alcohol plays in society, similar to what we have seen with smoking.”
"This is the beginning of a cultural shift when it comes to the role alcohol plays in society."
Anyone can be sober curious, but some data suggests it is particularly popular among younger people. A 2020 study in JAMA Pediatrics found that the proportion of college students abstaining from alcohol rose from 20% to 28% between 2002 and 2018. In a 2023 Gallup poll, the portion of respondents under age 35 who drank declined 10% from the prior year and was lower than the national average.
“Gen Z has been fueling this movement toward a lot of things,” said Melise Panetta, a marketing lecturer at Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada. “One is being physically and mentally well — and not drinking is part of that for them.”
Research has found that the earlier people start drinking alcohol, the higher the odds of developing an alcohol use disorder later in life. Younger people may be drinking less alcohol because they have been exposed to so much information online at a young age and are more aware of its negative effects on health, Panetta said.
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“I liken it a little bit to the cigarette industry and how it evolved,” Panetta told Salon in a phone call. “You’re seeing similar trends with a lot of peer pressure back in the day, no networks for folks who really wanted to quit, and then that completely turned on its head … I think this is going to follow a similar path.”
Abstaining from alcohol even temporarily has shown to have health benefits. One 2016 study of participants who participated in “Dry January” said it improved their sleep. Another study in 2018 found people who abstained from alcohol had improved insulin sensitivity and blood pressure compared to a control group. And a study published earlier this year showed the brain could recover damage done to the cortex, the outer layer of the brain responsible for memory and problem solving, after about seven months of abstinence among people with alcohol use disorder.
Alcohol abstinence may also reduce anxiety and depression, although many people drink alcohol as a way to cope with life’s stressors, said Dr. Marisa Silveri, the director of the Neurodevelopmental Laboratory on Addictions and Mental Health at McLean Hospital. Like any drug, it comes down to the dose and frequency of use. Light and moderate drinking may actually reduce stress, but the question remains if the positive benefits of booze are outweighed by the impacts it can have on the liver, gut and brain.
“Neurobiologically, if you drink, during the period of actually being intoxicated, there is some relief because there are changes in neurochemicals that relate to depression and anxiety,” Silveri told Salon in a phone interview. “But the moment alcohol goes out of your system, all of those things come right back, and they actually come back to a worse degree.”
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Some evidence suggests an increasing number of people are substituting alcohol for cannabis — which is referred to as being “California sober.” In the federally funded Monitoring the Future survey, the proportion of respondents between ages 19 and 30 using cannabis has trended upward since it began in 1995, whereas alcohol use has trended downward. Among college students, the proportion who drank alcohol dropped by about 5% between 2023 and 2022, whereas cannabis use increased by about 5%.
“Many CBD and THC edibles are marketed as being alcohol replacements too,” Warrington said.
Some people who have alcohol use disorder might not be able to approach the substance with “curiosity,” and might prefer abstinence-only models or other treatment. But the sober curious movement is also growing alongside a deeper understanding of how drug and alcohol use works. After decades of touting abstinence-only initiatives that have failed to curb the overdose crisis and serve the 17 million U.S. adults who are alcohol dependent, drug policies are showing an increased acceptance of harm reduction strategies that meet people where they are and provide them with resources — understanding that complete abstinence might not be possible or desired.
Although there is still a long way to go to reduce the stigma around mental health and drug use, things have improved and those stigmas are at least now a part of the conversation, Silveri said. The drinking culture is experiencing a shift as well: Drinks are referred to as being “alcohol-free” instead of “nonalcoholic,” mocktails are becoming more commonplace on menus, and dry bars that don’t serve alcohol are popping up across the country.
“Mental health stigma is kind of a conversation now, where people can be outwardly talking about depression or anxiety,” Silveri said. “A lot of this has to do with social norms that reduce stigma around abstaining from alcohol.”
Gemmell has replaced nights out with friends with breakfast dates or lunches, and some of her closest friends are also abstaining from alcohol, which helps the social transition, she said.
“I am also learning that maybe I have some friends who are just drinking buddies or maybe we just got along because we got drinks together,” Gemmell said. “I’m kind of seeing how those friendships are playing out through this process.”
For her, alcohol was getting in the way of the intentions she has for the year to come, like moving her body and working out consistently to feel better throughout the week.
“[The idea] that we need alcohol to have fun is really dated,” Gemmell said. “I’m glad we are having this shift toward being fully present and feeling good.”
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