The BN'er trend

Stopping drinking

With smoking, we have all pretty much stopped. At least during office hours, but drinking, that's something harder to push out of the system. Wine stands for coziness because there is something to celebrate. You are also civilized when you drink wine and shake off knowledge of wine from your sleeve. With a soda at the table, it all comes across as a bit childish.

But there are many festivities in life. And versatile as wine (just like the cigarette by the way) is also always ready in case of sadness or boredom. So before you know it, you're sipping a glass daily. Wieke recently wrote when you cross the dangerous line, and that is (I say ‘THUS’) at seven drinks. I always thought fourteen, and that number was quickly reached for me. Okay, during weekdays I (in principle) don't drink, but on Fridays, three glasses of white go down easily. Then Saturday often brings a dinner where you start with an aperitif, then two glasses of wine with the meal, and come on, a limoncello for dessert. Because it's hard to walk on one leg, you take another: the counter is at eight. Then I want to soak up Sunday and to celebrate, I take a glass of wine at lunch. And one at the end of the day during drinks. And another. I believe I'm already at eleven, and to be very honest, I could have easily had a dinner on Thursday where I could have drunk two glasses.

During the lockdowns, it was crowded at the glass recycling bins because everyone was trying to fend off boredom and seek comfort by having a drink.

And apparently, it went from bad to worse. 2022 seems to be the alcohol coming-out year, where one after another turns their back on the bottle and openly admits to drinking too much.

First, there was Evi Hanssen with her book ‘Since I Stopped Drinking’, then it was Guus and Manon Meeuwis who stopped drinking, and Frits Wester also quit after he had himself admitted to a clinic in South Africa. I was personally touched by Lucie Woesthoff, who shared on Instagram when and why she found it enough with alcohol. Not a heavy drinker, but someone who felt that the habit crept in and who was disrupted (sometimes positively, sometimes negatively) by the effects of alcohol. After Lucy, Jessie Jazz Vuijk followed with a candid confession: ‘I had to gulp down two or three Chardonnays with a hangover to prevent sweating attacks.’

Whether I'm ready for sobriety, I don't know, but all those stories do make me think a bit longer about whether a glass is worth it all. And just think of the alcohol-free beers of today: a solution. And let's please not make it complicated if someone doesn't want to drink alcohol. You wouldn't do that if someone refuses a cigarette, would you? Well then.

I would almost say cheers, but maybe amen is better in this case.