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After the final rosé
A selection of stories on sobriety
As Human Parts contributor Seizan Egyo once wrote, “If you’re thinking about getting sober, you probably should.”
I took my first intentional break from drinking alcohol a few summers ago, after having the dark realization that sobriety was perhaps the last high I had yet to experience (welcome to my brain, hope you brought a flashlight).
I was in my early thirties and already drinking less than I had in spryer, bounce-backier times. I remember some friends thinking this made my timing counterintuitive: Why abstain now, when I wasn’t drinking that often to begin with? In my eyes, being halfway there was reason enough. Plus, I’d recently started taking Lexapro, which for me turned drinking into more of a chore than a way to blow off steam. I decided to take four weeks off to see how it felt, and ended up abstaining for seven.
But while I did return to the Drink, the time away transformed my relationship with it for good. For one thing, I lost the tolerance I’d been maintaining for almost two decades. Now I drink…
