So it feels like such hard work keeping alcohol in your life, that when you finally let it go, you realize everything is actually easier. Yes, and it’s also the machine, you know, the giant marketing machinery around alcohol, like, for instance, that I’m sure it’s the same in the States, but the alcohol brands are still allowed to sponsor sports and they’ve done something really interesting this year and that they’ve started, you know, using there’s zero proof that you know, zero brewed beer, it but I think that’s a preemptive strike. We know now that being teetotal for one, three, even twelve months brings surprising joys and a recharged body. I don’t drink during weekdays” is so much more empowering and assertive than “I can’t drink during weekdays”. Each year we publish our Annual Report and Accounts which reviews our performance against our strategic objectives.

Sunshine Warm Sober by Catherine Gray | Waterstones Sunshine Warm Sober by Catherine Gray | Waterstones

So I think it’s important to be allowed to move on, while also recognizing that, you know, if your thoughts are straying back towards drinking, then you need to immerse yourself again. Making an alcohol-free nook at home, switching up some of your social venues for ones that don’t serve alcohol and having a new go-to drink (I like fresh lime and soda) will increase your chances of success exponentially. And that’s such a beautiful way to feel because, for instance, my birthdays, I used to hate birthdays, because I felt like another year had inexorably rolled by and I still hadn’t, you know, done the things that I was always intending to do. I don’t have a magic bullet to slay that conditioning, but simply being aware of the cue-trigger-response helps detonate its power. Whether you’re a dedicated boozehound, flirting with teetotalling, or already sober, this witty, gritty read may just change how you think about alcohol forever.When I think of trauma, I think of, you know, the really dark stuff, you know, bereavement and sexual abuse, and of course, those do feature in that question, but some of the other ones are less likely and more surprising. But if I hadn’t been in that situation, if I’d continued in full time work and been in a happy relationship, and that kind of thing, I could totally foresee that I would have drank into my 40s and beyond.

Sunshine Warm Sober by Catherine Gray | Waterstones

Yeah, I mean, I think you can get into a place where you are only living in the fact that you’re a non-drinker now. The disclosures about the negative experiences accompanying drinking were useful reminders, as was the fact that going without alcohol doesn’t have to mean going without joy, which is a lesson that bears repeating. There is so much that goes into putting together the tools you need to get through the first 30 days which are really the hardest. Most books on sobriety can say a lot of the same things, and if you're already sober they can be a bit unrevolutionary but this book was fantastic and very much aimed at those deep into their sobriety. The congratulations for clocking up sober year after sober year, previously gobsmacked and awed, become bored.It was a bit darker down there at times, and the gear to get there was more awkward and advanced, but the experience was equally as exquisite. My best advice for the newly hatched sober is to tell people you don’t drink / are not drinking tonight before the event itself, to lessen the likelihood of the booze-pushing in the moment. This hotly anticipated sequel enlists the help of experts and case studies, turning a curious, playful gaze onto provocative questions. Even though alcohol can worsen anxiety, I drank to anaesthetise said anxiety and although it then spiked when I quit, now I’m finally in a place where I can soothe myself out of a potential panic attack without deep-diving into a bottle of wine. I just love that you gave an example of like the big things and the little things that really helped you from you know, crying your eyes out to taking long baths to you know, how you went to sleep and carrying around my little pony to the big stuff like addictive voice recognition and joining 100 Day Challenge.

Sunshine Warm Sober by Catherine Gray | Hachette UK

So you’re, you know, around the idea of like, once an addict, always an addict, that you are no longer addicted to drinking, because you’re not drinking, but you have no doubt that if you were to pick up again, it would be a serious problem. And so, it was acutely important to me to represent other voices and experiences – including marginalised ones – of which there are 50+ in the book.And then when you look at Generation Z, which is kind of teens and early 20s, they are drinking even less again. If you find yourself at this dilemma junction, you’ve probably already spent many years trying and failing to ‘reduce volume’. In a landmark ruling in 2020, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) chastised the Scottish Gin Society for circulating memes that the ASA said ‘implied that gin could help people overcome emotional problems, and treat depression and pain. On one hand, it’s been akin to removing the pin from an old military grenade and chucking it on the ground to see if it’ll go kaboom. How has the process of writing about your sober journey been and have you found it helpful to be open about your personal experience?