Meeting the Sober Self, Recognizing the Drinking Self

Abstract

Experimentation in Temporary Sobriety Initiatives Temporary Sobriety Initiatives (TSIs), popular month-long campaigns in which people abstain from alcohol to raise money for charity, aim to change participants' relationship with alcohol. Identifying the structural and practical mechanisms of TSIs that facilitate the desired changes are important elements in understanding their popularity and purported effectiveness as public health campaigns. Drawing upon indepth interviews with 15 Australian FebFast participants, this article argues that TSI participants, often guided by campaign organisers, loosely adopt the self-tracking and self-experimentation practices of the Quantified Self (QS) movement, which open up aspects of oneself and of alcohol that are normally hidden in order to facilitate self-improvement via discovery. Drew Leder's corporeal phenomenology of absence and presence underpins the analysis of how TSI participants contrast deliberate periods of sobriety and inattentive normal drinking to convert abstract knowledge about alcohol and its effects into personally salient information based on lived experience. In doing so, participants shift the valence of their ambivalence about drinking, even at moderate levels, and convert it from the less behaviourally impactful potential ambivalence to its more influential felt form. Through such experiments, TSI participants problematize their drinking, make real the physical, psychological and social impacts of alcohol, and even redefine what they know it to be.

Voices of Temporary Sobriety – A Diary Study of an Alcohol-Free Month in Hungary

“…On the other hand, alcohol consumption consciousness appears to be more selfreflective attitude according to the analysis of the diaries, and is supportive of the findings by de Visser et al (2016) and Fry (2011). Qualitative analyses by Yeomans (2019) and Cherrier and Gurrieri (2014) are also consistent with the findings of the present study because sober month can help participants to facilitate self-improvement via redefining their relationship toward alcohol (Robert, 2018) and develop techniques and strategies to refuse alcohol (Conroy & de Visser, 2014), and to gain a more complex perspective about drinking in generaleven in cultures where regular consumption is deeply embedded within the society (Pennay et al, 2016).…”

Process evaluation of the Belgian one-month-without alcohol campaign ‘Tournée Minérale’: a mixed method approach

“…First, the abstinence experience during the beginning of TMC was perceived to be a facilitator to continue this behavior. In-depth interviews with FebFast participants (TAC in Australia) also showed that participants perceived not drinking for a month to be a self-discovery as it stimulated to create new beliefs which, in turn, facilitated abstinence [ 18 ]. However, our quantitative process evaluation showed that participants who failed the challenge (and did drink during February) mainly did this in the third and fourth week of the campaign.…”

Étude sur la notoriété du Dry January en Suisse et sur les changements de consommation d’alcool à l’occasion du Dry January 2023

“…Dieser letzte Punkt ist besonders wichtig, wenn man bedenkt, dass die Literatur bei einer offiziellen Teilnahme aufgrund der ermutigenden Nachrichten in der App und dem Austausch mit anderen Teilnehmenden mehr positive Auswirkungen (über den reinen Konsum hinaus) aufzeigt. (Robert, 2018) ; en diminuant sa consommation, créer une « opportunité pour réfléchir au rapport de chacune et chacun à l'alcool et de questionner sa propre consommation » (GREA, 2020, p.1).…”