Fashion

Is Opting To Abstain The New Champagne? The Rise Of The "Sober Curious" Movement


Alcohol is the new cigarettes,” says New York-based Ruby Warrington, author of Sober Curious and founder of Club SÖDA NYC, an alcohol-free event series for teetotallers and those considering abstinence. “The same way smoking became a lot less glamorous, the more studies that come out about the long-term health implications of drinking, the harder it will be to justify the habit.”

Warrington reduced drinking when she started yoga, rarely drinks today and considers herself “sober curious”. “It’s about people choosing to question their relationship with alcohol,” she tells Vogue. “About the way they use it, the reasons why and the real impact on their overall wellbeing.”

Giving up alcohol might be a new trend, but it’s backed up by solid evidence of its health benefits. “The safest level of drinking is none,” was the concluding communiqué in the Global Burden of Disease Study published in The Lancet medical journal last year. The study reported that alcohol led to 2.8 million global deaths in 2016 and was the leading risk factor for death and disability in the 15-49 age group.

And there are plenty of people in the public eye putting this advice into practice – like American musician Anthony Rossomando, whose personal experience of giving up drinking led to co-writing “Shallow”, the Academy Award-winning song performed by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper in A Star is Born. “It is the hardest, easiest song I ever wrote,” he tells Vogue. “I was known for being a ‘life of the party’ kind of drinker. But the flipside is I would also hide out and use alone, crash into a depressive state that I couldn’t share with anyone.” He stopped drinking four years ago. “It was a medical doctor who actually switched the light on in a dark corner of my mind. Sometimes it’s best to hear the thing we don’t want to hear from someone we respect, without bias. I had convinced myself I was fine, while simultaneously couch surfing, breaking promises and dying on the inside.”

Anthony Rossomando accepting the Oscar for best song with Lady Gaga at the 2019 Academy Awards

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The World Health Organization’s 2018 report on alcohol and health showed that 237 million men and 46 million women of the estimated 2.3 billion global drinkers in 2016 suffered from alcohol-attributed addiction, disease or injury – predominantly in Europe and the Americas. Worldwide, almost a billion drinkers are “heavy episodic drinkers” – and although this figure has been going down, our current habits mean that the number is set to rise.

But better news is brewing. Over half (57 per cent or 3.1 billion people) of over-15s globally now abstain from drinking alcohol, while 12.5 per cent of the world population haven’t had a drink in the past 12 months. Of the world’s female population, 13.1 per cent declare themselves “former drinkers”, compared to 11.9 per cent of men. And according to the Office of National Statistics, the proportion of adults in the UK who say they drink alcohol is at its lowest level since 2005, with a two per cent rise in those not drinking at all.

British hairdresser Adam Reed stopped drinking over seven years ago. “I had an ever-growing drink problem that was leaving me with constant fear and in embarrassing situations,” he tells Vogue. “I’ve since worked with a therapist, who helped me realise that I suffered from social anxiety and was an alcoholic – not the best combination.” So he rerouted his social life. “I first went to AA, which didn’t really work for me. Instead, I had to totally stop going to places where alcohol was present. I went through a massive change and lost a huge amount of friends in the process. That was quite difficult, but it made me realise who really mattered in my life. I met my husband after stopping drinking. We now have an adopted son, many dogs and my life could not be further from what it was prior to stopping drinking.”

What are the health benefits of reducing your drinking?

“Reducing the amount you drink, or having several drink-free days, will lower your risk of serious diseases such as cancer, liver disease and stroke – and improve your overall health,” says GP Dr Sarah Jarvis MBE, medical advisor to the Drinkaware charity. She tells Vogue that alcohol is a contributory factor for seven types of cancer – bowel, breast, laryngeal (voice box), liver, mouth, oesophageal (food pipe) and pharyngeal (upper throat). “Not everyone who drinks will get cancer, but scientists have found that some cancers are more common in people who drink alcohol, with added risk for those who consume excessive amounts.”

Thankfully, alcohol-free drinks are flooding the market. With an influx of adaptogen-infused and kombucha-laced waters on supermarket shelves, in alcohol-free bars and at “mindful” drinking festivals, there’s never been a more socially inclusive time to stop. Budweiser, Peroni and Heineken have all launched 0% lagers in the last two years, with Heineken reporting a 7.7 per cent upturn last year – its best performance in over a decade, in part thanks to its alcohol-free range. In the US, Kin Euphorics’ herbal cocktails promise to “elevate your state without the hangover”, while in the UK, Seedlip, an upmarket non-alcoholic gin made predominantly from peas, hay, rosemary and thyme, sold out at its 2015 Selfridges launch within three weeks. The second batch sold out in three days; the third, in less than half an hour. It’s now one of the store’s best-selling drinks and is served at restaurants in Sweden, Italy, Belgium, Australia, Canada and the US.

“I’m physically healthier,” says Rossomando. “I wake up to the sun as opposed to hiding from it, and my energy is from sleep or exercise, instead of wired nerves or outside substances. Also, sobriety is a wonderful excuse for a bit more sugar or fat on occasion – perks!”

Is abstaining from alcohol part of the wellness wave?

“It’s a logical progression,” says Warrington. “If you’re investing a ton of time, money and energy in practices to help you feel better, it becomes more and more obvious that drinking is often at odds with this. For example, how alcohol spikes your anxiety (even though you were using it to ‘relax’), messes with your sleep, gives you bad skin and leads to questionable food choices!”

Fashion designer Henry Holland routinely abstains for weeks at a time since first quitting alcohol as part of a fitness regime last year. “I’m 35 and definitely feel like at this stage in my life I’m surrounded by people with a similar mindset,” he told the crowd at Warrington’s book launch in March. “We are, with our relationships and careers, in the right space to be comfortable not drinking.”

Adds Reed: “I was scared that my work would suffer due to the lack of ‘networking’ opportunity, but soon realised that it was better than me being seen in some of the states that I had been seen in.”

Are there any health benefits to drinking alcohol?

“There may potentially be a small benefit to very small amounts of red wine (up to 50ml – or a shot) on risk of cardiovascular disease if you’re aged between 50 to 60,” Dr Gautam Mehta, associate professor in hepatology at University College London tells Vogue. “However, this is completely offset by the risk of cancer. So there is, in fact, no safe limit of alcohol intake. It’s just a question of managing risk – just like crossing a busy road or travelling by aeroplane.”

Zoë Irwin, creative director at John Frieda, takes long drinking breaks throughout the year. “Times of sobriety have made me feel clear-headed and given me increased energy and better sleep,” she tells Vogue. “However, I love the taste of wine and the different warmth it gives my long extended suppers with friends, when the second glass brings a level of relaxation and openness to the conversation that meeting in a coffee shop or for lunch does not. By taking long periods of time without drinking, it has made me more considered over my consumption. I order a glass rather than sharing a bottle.”

Does drinking alcohol compromise the liver?

“In general, people won’t suffer chronic liver problems if they stick to current guidelines [up to 14 units a week],” says Dr Mehta. “Alcohol is detoxified by the liver and everyone has a different capacity for this. Most people who develop liver cirrhosis need to drink at high levels [more than 20 units a week] for a number of years. But alcohol can cause other problems, such as an increased risk of cancer, at much lower levels. An example is breast cancer – even one drink a day can increase risk by 15 per cent.”

Why are Gen Z and millennials drinking less?

While Gen X is coming to terms with past relationships with alcohol, it’s a different story for younger millennials and Gen Z. While The Lancet reports that, in 2016, more than a quarter of all 15- to 19-year-olds were drinking globally, the number of non-drinkers continues to rise – a UK study saw the number of non-drinkers aged 16 to 24 rise from 18 per cent in 2005 to 29 per cent in 2015. Numerous national studies show the same trend in North America and Japan. Researchers reckon this could be down to increased awareness of health risks, changes in the way they spend leisure time and a delayed initiation into alcohol consumption.

“I think social media has played a huge role in younger generations drinking less,” says Warrington. “For starters, being drunk in selfies is not a good look and so many modern ‘role models’ – i.e. the Kardashians – don’t drink.”

But what of alcohol and the creative genius?

Creativity and alcohol have long been linked – from Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh drinking absinthe and nibbling at his paints to French poet Arthur Rimbaud who, in A Season in Hell, wrote, “My life was a celebration where all hearts were open and all wines flowed.” But for every great artist of yesteryear battling addiction come many more global Gen Z activists battling to save the world today. “On a deeper level, it’s just not cool to be getting wasted when there are so many pressing issues in the world that will have a direct impact on young peoples’ lives in the future,” says Warrington. “This is not a time to be getting ‘out of it’. It’s a time to be very much in it.”

And the effect on productivity?

“It feels like you at least double the number of hours in the day because you’ve got all of the day and you’ve got all the hours the night before when you would have been in an alcohol coma or something,” says Holland.

“The most profound change is the improvement in my mental and spiritual health,” Rossomando concludes. “I have a deeper sense of awareness, gratitude and patience. Being a better listener makes me be of better service to others. This is a spiritual principle I wasn’t able to connect with during my drinking years.”

Even Ernest Hemingway declined to drink while writing. “Jeezus Christ! Have you ever heard of anyone who drank while he worked?” he told Writer’s Digest in 1961. “You’re thinking of Faulkner. He does sometimes – and I can tell right in the middle of a page when he’s had his first one.”





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