I don’t know who needs to hear this, but you don’t have to be “an alcoholic” to want to stop drinking.

Whatever your conception of “an alcoholic” is, your brain will find reasons to convince you that you are not one. Even if drinking is ruining your life & relationships, and making you feel like ass.

You are cool to not drink for whatever reason you like. Because you don’t like hangovers. Because you don’t like being out of control. Because it makes you anxious. Because you think it tastes weird.

We normalize alcohol use (&, frankly, misuse / abuse) to an absolutely absurd degree. It’s making so many of us disconnected & unhappy.

It’s also valid to stop drinking or not drink intermittently. It’s valid to be sober (permanently or temporarily) but not feel like sober communities like AA are a good fit for you.

You can be a non-drinker in whatever way works best for you. This is the advice I needed years ago, & it might have saved me a lot of stress & heartache.

This feels especially pertinent right now when a lot of folks are anxious & isolated, & struggling with coping mechanisms. You can say no to Zoom cocktail hour! You can say no to wine mom memes! You don’t need an excuse or a justification!

If you are someone with a positive or neutral relationship w/ alcohol, please scroll on - these tweets are not for you! Enjoy your nice thing bc nice things are hard to come by right now. I support your happiness & right to pleasure.

But if, like me, you are someone whose relationship w/ alcohol became toxic & damaging, please know you are not alone in navigating these waters. It is ok to want different pleasures, different coping mechanisms. You can do it