The Story Behind Dry Challenges

Welcome back to Social Experiment, a newsletter about sobriety from a cultural lens. 👋

We’re sending out acceptances into our September MVP cohort, preparing to kick-off after the holiday weekend. Stay tuned!

Tonight we wrapped up our last Guest Speaker Interview featuring Derek Brown, Founder of Positive Damage. He’s one to watch in the space.

He recently wrote about his experience with the Straight Edge movement. I highly recommend giving it a read.

We believe that you don’t have to wait until Sober October or Dry January to become a more mindful drinker or stop drinking altogether.

Drinking Challenges have exploded in popularity over the past several years.

It takes 21 days of repetition to instill a new habit, so these “Dry” Challenges are a great (social) experiment to track how your daily life improves over the course of the month.

There’s no shortage of research around behavior change and habit formation to support this.

The rise in consumer demand for Dry January, even with one quick search query on Google, is impressive.

Despite its popularity in recent years, these sobriety challenges have a long history. The origin story starts in the UK over a decade ago by a woman training for her first half marathon who decided to create a Dry Month.

Alcohol Change UK helped snowball the movement, from trademarking Dry January to securing funding from the UK governing body, Public Health England.

Hilary Sheinbaum dives into details on this subject, as well as featuring tips and tools on how to make the most of your “month off,” in her book the Dry Challenge.

If you aren’t sober just yet, or used to be sober and you’re ready to dive back in, consider taking the leap while trying out a Dry Challenge. 🔥

If you’re ready to commit to your sobriety, join the Movement.