Soberchella

If you follow my Instagram, it’s not news that I’ve quit drinking. It’s been 4 weeks now so I’m reviewing the experience thus far. I’ve stopped drinking as a part of a “cleanse” several times now but in a temporary situation you have an internal countdown like “okay only 17 more days until I can have a glass of wine!” so it didn’t trigger the same mental state as it has now. Knowing you won’t ever have it again changes the way you see it, even after only 4 weeks.

I’ve thought about it for a very long time and never quite found the right time. I wanted to in February SO BADLY but then I remembered Coachella was coming up and there was no way I wasn’t having a drink there! Then I realized, this was actually the best possible time. I’m going to sound like an advertisement for a second but I was looking at the Coachella food list and was shocked to find Kombucha Bars, Matcha Bars, Coffee Bars, all kinds of bars serving alcohol free drinks that I love and not just your regular Redbull, water or Monster Energy drink festival selection. I’m not joking with you, I tried like 13 different kinda of Kombucha that are not available in Canada. The US has been holding out on us.

I was worried that I would feel stiff, and need something to loosen up but I honestly really love the music so much that my body was just buzzing naturally from hearing my favourite songs live. If you’re wondering what my favourite shows were (probably not but I’m going to tell you anyway) it was Billie Eilish and Whipped Cream. I love my Indie music and cute electro but there’s nothing quite like jumping and screaming to the heaviest shit that’s ever punched you in the fuckin face.

I was worried about what it would be like to be sober around people who are drinking and here is my honest review. It’s annoying. I can’t sugarcoat this part lol. It’s annoying but a very self reflective time that makes you realize what you were like at one point. Luckily it was too hot to drink for us northerners but I noticed that even after 2-3 drinks (a point where people generally say they don’t feel much) people would ask me a question and then not listen to the answer and then ask again a few minutes later. That was when I fully understood the power of sober conversation. People start talking louder and don’t really think about what they’re saying at that point too. In other news, the smell on people’s breath has started to hit my nostrils harder, where I used to love the smell of alcohol. So weird.

I don’t plan on backing out of events if people are drinking, it’s a bit radical in my opinion, but I do think I will value those sober bonding moments a lot more now. I also want to send a little thank you out to the world for making this so easy for me because I’ve wanted to be sober for a long time now.

One final point I wanted to touch on…

I’ve had a lot of people ask me why I couldn’t just cut down or if I’ve decided to stop because I was out of control or something along those lines. The answer is no. I was not an alcoholic. I went through a party phase in highschool and college. I blacked out quite a few times in my late teens and early 20’s but I’m 27 now and the true extent of it was shotgunning beers while camping and enjoying wine with dinner. I don’t think you need so have a problem to want to quit. I am becoming a holistic nutritionist and I know the effects of alcohol on the body and have chosen to respect my body by no longer mutilating my mood with alcohol. I haven’t cut out weed, but I very rarely smoke (like once a year) and don’t intend on replacing alcohol with weed either. I don’t want people to feel bad for me at parties that I don’t “get to” enjoy a drink because I wouldn’t enjoy it. I would feel very tired and sick and disappointed.

To leave on a lighter note, I really had a lot of fun and I am still kind of in shock that I didn’t drink so this has been an exciting experience so far and I can’t wait to continue finding out more about my sober self.

Namaste!