The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober: Discovering a happy, healthy, wealthy alcohol-free life

by Catherine Gray

But, giving up drinking felt like an enormous loss. A bereavement.

Yes, you can no longer drink that magical potion to take social situations from level-two ‘insecure’ to level-eight ‘pogo-ing around a dancefloor’. You need to learn how to chug through levels three to seven for real, rather than using the dark art of an addictive drug. But once you learn the superpower of socializing sober, it never leaves you.

Life was too sharp, too painful, too real and too loud when I was sober. Drinking softened the edges and blurred the clarity. It turned an intimidating Andy Warhol pop-art world into a misty Monet watercolour.