Can We De-Glamorize the NA Industry?
Asking for a friend
As a sober person, one already privy to a counterculture lifestyle, I’m asking us to deglamorize the NA industry and turn our focus deeper.
On The Rise
The NA beverage industry is booming. Market Data Forecasting estimates the evaluation to reach US $1.60 trillion by the end of 2028 (1). Yes, trillion. The normalization of NA beverages seemingly everywhere has helped many people in recovery not get questioned or receive that look when ordering an O’Toole’s. And thank god for the commodification in that we can order something better than that. Obviously, there are more benefits here, not just for the wellness of those already of age, but to build a new foundation for the generations to come.
And sure, having various NA options at your disposal for a replacement drink can allow you to participate in your usual daily rituals, social gatherings, and annual events as a proud sober person. It gives us something else from the fridge to grab as we break our nightly habit of reaching for alcohol.
But without the deeper work, we’re really only replacing one outlet for another. On top of that, by buying into this industry, collectively we are missing the bigger messaging that is so subtle, yet so damaging and what is at the heart of recovery.
What’s being promoted by the NA industry is this: you can do this same life, just alcohol-free.
So, What’s The Problem?
GREAT you might think! That would actually solve all my problems. You think “drunk you” is the problem and if we just get a handle on her, or eliminate her, life will get better!
But a life with any kind of product that can come in and fix the issue at hand, isn’t going to fix us. Haven’t we learned this already?
Plus, in my experience, it won’t ever compare to the real thing. I’m sorry to say, but it just won’t.
Because it doesn’t have to.
Holding the belief that the magic elixir to life is not in the taking part of alcohol, but the reduction of it is still giving it too much power.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the taste of an Athletic Beer on a crisp summer day as well as the next white girl living in the PNW, but it still leaves me feeling empty, just as drinking the real thing always did.
There’s a part of me that wonders if it was ever really the chemical components of alcohol that left me high and dry, or if it was really the emptiness I felt in my life. If I’m honest with myself, there’s always been something deeper that has led me to reach for the substance. It’s from that deep place of longing, searching, filling, that has done more damage than a drink. From this truth, I understand why it’s easier to point the finger at the outer poison.
Though try as we might, painting the car is not going to fix what’s under the hood.
Another Way
At what point do we ever actually stop? Stop buying into the billion-dollar industries, stop buying into what society tells us we need, whether perceivably “better” or not.
At what point do we look at ourselves and ask, is this what I want in my life?
Do I want the same activities, the same routines, the same me, just alcohol-free?
It’s dark. It’s deep. It’s dramatic but it’s transformative.
This is where the real magic is my friends.
Once I started the hard work of looking at myself honestly, dismantling beliefs around alcohol and really embodying this reality, I discovered I really don’t actually enjoy baseball games. Or trivia nights. Or bad comedy shows. Or unwinding at the end of the day in front of a TV. NA drink in hand or not.
Everything I had fallen into while drinking was small. It was designed to keep me hidden and protected. It was designed around people and activities to feed the beast of addiction instead. But the replacement of the drink, is still keeping me small.
My gentle suggestion is that you’ve been given a gift, no matter how you had to battle and get to where you are. I didn’t necessarily hit rock bottom, but I also chipped away at the glass bottle surrounding me for far too long that I found myself somewhere amongst a pile of broken shards and decided I could build it differently.
I could build me differently.
The Actual Gift
It is worth exploring what life could be like away from the bar scene, away from the late night hangs, the housewarmings, the long lake days, whatever activity it was to you that was designed to be fun because you’re drunk and everyone else is too.
Yes, it’s great that we can participate with our friends and still maintain our integrity to our sobriety, but is it enough?
What could life be like if instead we crossed a new threshold, faced some discomfort and said yes to the activities that actually set our hearts on fire?
We might meet some new groups of people. We might have an awakening in our life that our job is not in fact our calling. We might finally leave the relationship we keep putting up with because we no longer want to be alcohol free just to fit into the old ways of being. What a drag, huh?
Through some new boundaries and exploration you can show up for your friends, your family, and most of all you, in a different way.
Whether you made a “choice” to get sober or not, your commitment to a new life is the highest honor. The rebirth you are experiencing is a privilege not many experience.
This is the gift.
Don’t settle for the replacement of a lousy NA wine when you could be saying YES to living your life to your highest fucking potential.
One worth more than the entire NA industry combined.
Source:
(1) https://www.marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/non-alcoholic-beverage-market
