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Sep 21, 2022Liked by Angela Garbes

I'll be sober 1 year in 3 weeks. It's the best thing I've ever done and while I still think I'll be sippin a glass of delicious red wine in Rome or Paris one day, this year (and probably the next one too) it was the booze free world I needed to be in to reground myself, to show up for my kids and partner and I finally have a daily routine that centers Joy. I couldnt do or access any of that while I was riding the alcohol fueled anxiety train -- just how Im made. Doesnt mean I still dont think about it all the time tho -- when I do/ if I do drink again - it will be red wine. and this insane carrot juice mezcal cocktail that was one of my last drinks from this amazing Haitian restaurant here in New Orleans -Fritai. (It's the worst part of not drinking - I really enjoy a delicious cocktail. But my body and heart stopped loving the effects.) So if you don't quit drinking -- make sure to drink those extra extra extra yummy ones for me!! Sending Love. -Elysha

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Really relating to this, as someone who is pretty clearly not an alcoholic, but doesnt always love their relationship with alcohol. I did my college thesis on alcoholic blackouts (not a joke) and the one thing that distinguished blackouts from other drinking experiences was not how crazy people got, but how ashamed they felt. I was sober for my birthday party this year, and I was actually just as impulsive and zany as always (my husband's work partner was wearing a very cool shirt and I touched her boobs many many times), but I didnt feel like an asshole the next day (maybe I should have??). Also makes me think about Cal Newport's thing about how if you're doing to detox from digital devices, half of the work is figuring out what else you meaningfully do with your time??

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Sep 22, 2022Liked by Angela Garbes

I feel like a broken record, but once again I am so connected to your writing. I feel this so much. I am an incredibly indulgent person when it comes to food, alcohol, edibles, anything to get me out of my head, or enhance things. I love how you describe it. And I often think about how you talk about food in essential labor. I’m sober-curious. Or at least enhancements-dialed-down-curious. I like the idea of the seltzer. Replacing a ritual with another ritual so the deprivation doesn’t starve you.

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