The Problem with Dry January

Back in 2013, an organization in the United Kingdom called Alcohol Concern (now Alcohol Change UK) founded the Dry January campaign to encourage people to abstain from drinking alcohol for the entire month of January. In its first year 4,000 people signed up to participate. By 2022 that figure had risen to 130,000. The movement has been endorsed by Public Health England, and adopted across several other European nations. In Australia there is a similar effort called Dry July.

Clearly these are popular movements, and have undoubtedly done an excellent job of highlighting the merits of taking a break from drinking. But as someone who used to wrestle with an overly exuberant drinking habit myself, and now working with others in the same situation, I’d like to humbly highlight what I see as 4 significant flaws inherent to the basic Dry January/July concepts (and this critique extends to most other 30-Day Sobriety “Challenges” as well).

Flaw #1: 30-days is Way Too Short

If drinking hasn’t risen to “problem status” in your life, then you probably don’t need to take a month off. The casual drinker who falls at the lower end of The Alcohol Drinker Spectrum and only consumes (for example) a “few” drinks per month…for them, taking 30 days off from alcohol may or may not offer much in the way of tangible health or overall life benefits. It’s probably a useful exercise in self-control though.

But for the folks who actually DO need to take some time off from drinking (and you know who you are :-) a 30-day break is nowhere near long enough to break alcohol's spell over you, and ultimately permit you to experience the myriad of benefits that a life without alcohol offers. This is after all a habit that probably took you many years (and perhaps even decades) to cultivate.

A 30-day hiatus, while a commendable start to be sure, just isn’t enough time to reverse course on the deep conditioning in place neurologically and psychologically.

Realistically, you’ll probably feel a bit out of whack for the first 7-14 days anyway as your brain chemistry recalibrates in absence of your habitual intake of this unique drug that functions as both stimulant and depressant all in one. It takes some time for your brain to adjust back to its proper baseline balance of neurotransmitters like glutamate, GABA, serotonin and dopamine.

And aside from the neurochemical factors involved, 90% of a habitual drinker’s relationship with alcohol is psychological. The deeply ingrained patterns of your daily and weekly routine, coupled with the triggers to drink all around you in the form of people, places, sounds, smells, etc…all of these psychological anchors took years to develop, and will take more than 30 days of living alcohol-free to unwind.

Having experimented with this myself on several occasions before committing to a life of continuous freedom from alcohol, and now working with others at varying stages on this path, I'd suggest that 60 days is the absolute bare minimum stretch required to begin breaking away from alcohol's deceptive gravitational pull over your psyche...with 100 days being a much better target.

This does NOT mean it will take that long for you to begin feeling better if you've been overdoing the booze. In fact, very often the most stark improvements in sleep, mental energy and overall well being are realized very early on.

But to RETAIN those benefits, the psychological shackles must be broken.  And the old well-worn drinking road (with all of its inherent headaches and complications) must be paved over many, many times with the new easier-going, clear-minded, better-judgement road.

And that process is the part that takes a while.

Honestly, a full year off from alcohol is a fantastic goal. And in the grand scheme of things, if you've been a drinker for 10, 20 or 30 years+...what's the big deal about trying life without it for one measly year!?

Just think, during that one-year booze-sabbatical, you will experience all of the events: holidays, birthday parties, anniversaries, summer vacations, concerts, work gatherings etc. with a perfectly clear mind.

And (I suspect) you will learn that you can enjoy every.single.one of these occasions every bit as much (and quite possibly more sans the inevitable booze-related complications).

Eventually, as those pestering voices and cravings fade away...then and only then can you see your old habit and this mendacious substance with clear eyes and a free mind.

Lastly, if the mere thought of taking 2 months, or 6 months or even 12 months off from drinking scares the hell out of you (as it did me at one time) then perhaps that's a powerful sign you are not entirely in control of this habit anymore.

Flaw #2: One-Month off = I Don’t Have a Drinking Problem

Many folks who are aware they’re drinking too much will force themselves to slog through a Dry January or other 30-Day Sobriety “Challenge”. But they unenthusiastically grin and bear it the whole time, longing for the end. And then they pat themselves on the back afterwards, convincing themselves they never really had a serious drinking problem in the first place. I mean if they DID have a drinking problem, there’s no way they could have taken 30 days off right!?

I have coached clients who’ve done this very thing, and I myself took as long as 60-days off at one point in my drinking career thinking I was somehow “resetting” my body and brain vis a vis alcohol.

Well, I can confirm first-hand that upon re-entry to the old routine, it was back to the old norm in short order.

As discussed in my YouTube video on this very subject (Your Drinking is a One-Way Street) there really isn’t a way to “rewind” or “reset” your drinking habit once it crosses a certain threshold. By taking a break, you are merely pressing the pause button on the movie called “Your Drinking Habit.”

As long as you remain on a pause from drinking (or a Sober Vacation as I like to call it) ALL of your drink-related problems and negative side-effects will disappear and stay that way. But if you resume drinking, generally speaking, you're just pressing “Play” on the same movie again. You will pick up where you left off.

So, while the fact that you can take a month off from drinking may indeed prove you have not crossed the threshold into severe physical dependency (yet)...it DOES NOT mean everything is A-Okay in your relationship with alcohol.

I mean, the fact you chose to take a break from drinking in the first place means there was probably a good reason, right?

Flaw #3: It Sounds “Hard”

Back when I was drinking too much and periodically considered taking a break, I came across the Dry January concept, along with a few other 30-Day No Drinking “Challenges”. And while they certainly meant well, in my opinion, they unintentionally emphasized the “difficulty” factor. Words like “No”, or “Challenge” or “Dry” made the process seem, well…unpleasant, and like I’d really be making a huge sacrifice to abstain for a whole month!

This may seem overly-focused on semantics. But again, when you consider that 90% of an unhealthy drinking habit is psychological, rest assured that 90% of your deprogramming efforts will also need to leverage psychology in your favor. To that end, the language you use matters. Language plays a huge role in shaping our thoughts. This is precisely why I chose to name my alcohol freedom program The Sober Vacation Transformation.

Because if you are drinking too much, and encountering negative side-effects from your habit…let’s face it, it’s hard work! And you could probably really use a vacation from it!

In reality, when you step away from your drinking routine (and its downsides) it is actually a relief, not a chore.

Flaw #4: You Also Need a Game Plan

It’s not enough to just not drink during your break from alcohol. That is a recipe for failure if you don’t have some sort of game plan on how to feed and bolster your resolve.

When those cravings come (and they will) you need to be focused on doing something else, and sometimes being somewhere else to teach your brain that you aren’t doing the old drinking routine right now.

Imagine if I told you NOT to think about Pink Elephants. What are you thinking about now? Ha! Exactly. If you know you’re NOT supposed to drink, you can guarantee it will be on your mind. So you need a plan to distract, destabilize and confront those thoughts.

During this break from your drinking, you will want to bolster your resolve with daily intake of pro-sobriety blogs, books, audiobooks, podcasts, YouTube channels etc. You don’t need to do all of them, just pick some that resonate with you and stick with them religiously. Every.single.day.

We swim in a pro-alcohol culture, and your mind is already predisposed to see drinking in a favorable light, along with your daily and weekly routine that used to involve regular boozing. So you will need to counter that with an aggressive re-programming effort.

You might also read and even post on some popular sobriety message forums (Reddit, Quora and FaceBook all have them). Developing camaraderie with others in the same situation can be highly motivational.

If you’ve already tried taking a break (or several) and failed to achieve your targeted duration every time, then consider doing a guided break that has a more structured system for you to follow, and a specific curriculum of information to consume as you travel down this new path.

Finally, you could consider hiring a Coach or Counselor to add accountability, and also help you see your drinking thoughts/patterns from an outside perspective.

Many people can travel this path alone and do so successfully. Others can make great progress via a guided program, and still others do best with some outside support from peers or a Coach (or both). There is no one-size fits all approach.

In the end, if you’re drinking more than your mind, body and life can handle…a break from drinking can work wonders for you. There are a host of tangible improvements to your life that are virtually guaranteed to manifest as a result.

So, whether you call it a Dry January, a Dry July or a Sober Vacation…if that healthy voice of concern inside you is suggesting you need to take one…it’s probably wise to listen and take action.