“What’s in a name?"

"What's in a name? That which we call a drunk by any other name would slur just as much.”

I’m not sure how much I agree with that. Finding a name for myself as I navigate these booze-free waters seems important.

Let’s look at what we have:

Alcoholic, dependent drinker, lush, drunk, boozehound, boozer, addict, binge drinker, pisshead, wino, alkie. 

All of these sound a bit (a lot) slurry. The kind of words often said disparagingly, judgmentally, in hushed tones, or spat out as an insult.

But what are the options?

Clare Pooley suggests a rebrand of how we speak about Those Who Do Not Drink (like my Harry Potter reference?).

The legend that is Catherine Gray owned her label, recovering alcoholic, but then later chose to let it go (explained brilliantly in her book Sunshine Warm Sober. She also (maybe slightly tongue-in-cheek) coined the idea of Sober Smurf - the recovery approach where you paint yourself blue and walk around town declaring yourself the Sober Smurf. I do quite like that.

Holly Whitaker goes with teetotaller (and has an awesome periodic symbol style tattoo ‘Tt’  to match the title).

For me, I don’t feel like I’m peppy enough to go with Sober Warrior (though absolutely love the idea of being able to say I'm part of the Sober Revolution).

I don't have enough gall to say I’m a non-drinker (“Ahem… you mean apart from all those years that you were very much a ‘oui-drinker’”).

I don’t like abstainer because it sounds like I’m having to resist something, rather than simply not invite or welcome a negative substance into my life and body. I like AF (alcohol free), more than clean-drinker, which to me just sounds like I’m rich enough to afford the good spirits. But even alcohol free implies that alcohol-full is the norm (which it is, unfortunately, but that doesn’t mean my sober title needs to reflect that).

I personally think ‘I don’t drink’ is a suitable enough ‘name’, until I get something better. Though being British and well, me, it’ll probably take a long time to evolve from the more indirect, non-committal ‘I’m not drinking.’ (the presumed subtext being ‘...right now’).

What names work for you?

#soberlife #sober #recovery #soberAF #soberliving #soberoctober