MID MOCKTOBER THOUGHTS: DRINKING IS THE NEW SMOKING

We're halfway through Mocktober, and we've been hearing nonstop from our friends that they're quitting alcohol. They're sick of feeling foggy and sluggish, don't have time for hangovers and frankly don't like booze wrinkles either. This is a conversation that would have been impossible for me to have two years ago, when I still lived in denial, believing that "having a glass of red wine per day was good for me". If you're ready for some unbranded, raw founder content, read on ... 

It was the last hangover that did me in. After taking most of the summer off alcohol, I went back into it with reckless abandon at a Labor Day wedding. I’d already started to enjoy a lot of social situations without alcohol, but a wedding without drinking? That seemed too extreme. So I went for it (last one on the dance floor, as usual), and returned from that champagne-soaked evening needing a vacation from my vacation.

Was that really necessary? I thought as I slowly became more conscious of how terrible I felt, even days after the peak hangover had subsided.

It’s a question we’ve asked ourselves far too many times, but simply override because we can’t imagine our lives without alcohol. And if the FDA allows it to be on the shelves of our grocery store without a massive “THIS IS REALLY BAD FOR YOU” warning, why question it?

Turns out the younger generations are. Because alcohol is about to be canceled.

In the past two months, major media outlets reported that “no one is drinking anymore” (Vogue), “alcohol messes with your emotions” (NY Times) and “more and more people [are] evaluat[ing] the relationship that alcohol plays in their lives” (CNN). Studies show that only 21 percent of Gen Z drinks alcohol regularly, in comparison to 42 percent of Millennials. As we see the younger generations giving up alcohol, Vice Magazine’s recent take really hits home: “alcohol has lost its cool.”

For those of us who associate good times with alcohol, this news can feel threatening. We’ve been conditioned to think that we need alcohol to fully experience a night out and believe that as long as we aren’t getting sloppy whilst carefully ordering “low-sugar” drinks, we’re being responsible. We love the familiar feeling of relaxation we get from that first sip.

We’ve always known hangovers can’t be good for us, but we’ve normalized them, blaming our low-grade anxiety and depression on our jobs, relationships and gluten, while completely ignoring the fact that we’re regularly pouring ethanol down our throats. Masters of quick fixes, we buy electrolytes, take sweaty workout classes, get facials, and do cleanses to counteract the damage from our evening wine habit.