# Chapter 63

Lest you think I am the only person in the world thinking about actually removing alcohol from my life, here are some stats. There is a world wide moment or trend called Sober Curious these days, and the SODA moment I am following is a subgroup of Sober Curious. (Ruby Warrington’s book by the same title is a good primer). First of all 33% of the public don’t drink at all. According to a recent Nielsen study 47% of USA adults are trying to reduce their alcohol consumption this year. Pinterest witnessed a 746% increase in “sober living” searches in the past 12 months. And according to Nielsen client solutions director Matt Compton, alcohol consumption has been in decline for a number of years. (These stats come from an article by Rina Raphael at fastcompany.com) 1 in 6 drinking bars are closing!

So you can see, Dr. D isn’t the only fish in the pond that is realizing that beer, while I really enjoy it, brings me little benefit, and takes a great deal of health, production and clarity from my life. I can’t afford its price! Like most things in the West, it is polarizing and a big drama, but the reality is, that more and more people are deciding that they don’t have to lubricate with alcohol in order to produce, socialize or date, or chill or relax or to unwind.

People want to feel strong and powerful and filled with potential and promise. As sad as it makes me feel to say this, beer often robs me of these things, not in a hurricane fashion, but in a trickle of corrosion that makes it difficult to track the scale of the damage because it happens over such a long period of time. But as a good sign, people are way more health-aware today, and have better tools to see how they are doing, I have great hope that people find their strong, powerful, potential and promise.