Ten years ago, with 40,000 participants, Dry January began, an initiative promoted by Alcohol Change UK to raise awareness among the local and global population about the effects of alcohol consumption. The proposal was simple: give up cocktails, spirits, wine, beer, or any other alcoholic beverage for the entire first month of the year. Zero tolerance for the brave who dared to make the commitment to themselves and see what happens to their bodies and their lives after 31 days without alcohol.
This year, with more than 130,000 registered participants officially—and estimates that hundreds of thousands more are participating unofficially—Dry January is all the rage. Thanks to social media outreach and the testimonials of celebrities who have joined in previous years, Dry January is a New Year's resolution on many people's lists. The hashtag #dryjanuary has nearly half a million posts on Instagram and more than 135 million views on TikTok. However, despite being a trend today that thousands of people want to join, live alcohol-free, or even experiment with the idea of abstinence, it remains the exception rather than the rule. On the same platform, TikTok, hashtags like #alcohol, #alcoholic, and #alcoholism have 11 billion, 1.6 billion, and 732 million views, respectively. Far exceeding the unprecedented success of the Dry January 2023 campaign.
Quitting alcohol isn't easy. In the latest version of the Big Book of the Alcoholics Anonymous program, the figures provided show a 50% success rate in the rehabilitation process. The document also details that, even with therapeutic intervention, a study conducted within the framework of the AA program in 2014 showed that nearly 30% of those surveyed relapsed after one year of sobriety. But the original objective of Dry January—and one that has been relegated to the background in recent years—is not to rehabilitate alcoholics. Its purpose is perhaps less ambitious, but no less important in combating alcohol addiction. Dry January seeks to raise awareness and help prevent an addiction that, according to the World Health Organization, is responsible for 3 million deaths a year.
The WHO explains that problematic alcohol consumption is the cause of more than 200 illnesses and injuries. But, above all, it exposes young people to risks of death or disability that under normal conditions would not affect a person of their age. Harmful alcohol consumption is responsible for almost 141% of deaths among adults between the ages of 20 and 39. Therefore, according to the official Alcohol Change UK website, the focus of the Dry January campaign is on marking a break from what for many has been a period of excessive alcohol consumption during the end of the year, in order to generate a "total reset of body and mind."
During periods of celebration, the consumption of legal psychoactive substances like alcohol increases considerably, and many people are unaware of the line between healthy and addictive. One of the major problems with addiction to these substances, whose consumption is not only legal but also widespread and accepted—even promoted—in social settings, is determining the line between normal consumption, problematic consumption, and addiction. Paola Ancarola is a clinical psychologist at Grupo Mentaliza and specializes in addiction treatment. The therapist explains that there is indeed a kind of middle ground between normal consumption and addictive behavior when it comes to alcohol. "The gray area is the multiple concepts and defense mechanisms that exist around alcohol consumption, that is, minimizing consumption, denying the consequences assumed or risky situations experienced due to consumption, the possibility of having quit some harmful habit and therefore the belief that another could be quit, etc.," she explains. Paola adds that it's important to have a clear understanding of what's happening internally and how we relate to alcohol as individuals. And for that, initiatives like Dry January, which make visible for each individual how easy or difficult it is to quit drinking alcohol or how much or little we consume on a daily basis, can be very helpful. "I think it mobilizes a lot of internal awareness that there could be a difficulty or dependence on alcohol. Because stopping drinking goes hand in hand with appreciating a series of experiences that, when consuming, become invisible," the psychologist comments. "It's an experience of raising awareness about regulating consumption and is probably very helpful in understanding whether or not there's a problem."
Furthermore, the specialist explains that in the case of alcohol, limits are rather individual and vary from case to case. Therefore, having this internal record is an important pillar when addressing an addiction and beginning treatment. “The limit is quite specific, in the sense that sometimes it can be a family intervention or an internal feeling that one is in danger,” she explains. “But, in general, we could say that it mostly has to do with situations in which one perceives that one has hit rock bottom and there is a tendency toward self-preservation, which could determine the intention to stop consumption and/or its possible treatment.” The specialist explains that throughout her experience treating patients with alcohol addiction, there are many cases in which addicts do not have a clear notion that they have fallen into an addiction. “Often, addiction sneaks in, or the difficulties of substance use and abuse are overlooked as part of the life problems that bring a patient to consult,” she comments.
While Dry January has spread across the internet today like a viral trend, leading followers to share recipes for mocktails and alcohol-free drinks and to keep track of the weight they can lose in a month of sobriety, this New Year's resolution can be even more transcendent. Perhaps even an epiphany for those who, without realizing it, have gradually increased their consumption and have gradually fallen into the behaviors of an addiction that sometimes doesn't happen suddenly or leave them in the dust. Because alcohol keeps addicts from being functional people who hide their problem. But that doesn't make their addiction any less complex or harmful.
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