Status Updates From This Naked Mind

Annie Grace focuses heavily on cultural gaslighting. She deconstructs why your subconscious got wired this way in the first place, pointing to alcohol marketing and societal peer pressure. Her method is intellectual and cognitive: if you can logically dismantle the illusion that alcohol provides a benefit, the unconscious desire will collapse.

If someone says, "I quit smoking cigarettes," everyone celebrates. If someone says, "I'm not eating refined sugar anymore," people ask for tips. But if someone says, "I'm not drinking anymore," the immediate social reaction is often awkwardness, pity, or a defensive, "Why? Do you have a problem?"

My current impression is that, while she has an interesting and perhaps effective take, Annie Grace (an Xennial) wrote this book for people who are her juniors or one phase behind her in life—i.e., her stories are based on early career, young kids, or pressure to “impress” in social situations. It would be more interesting (to me) to read a version for midlife and beyond.