This is Annie Grace and you're listening to this naked mind podcast where without

judgment, pain, or rules, we explore the role of alcohol in our lives and culture.

Hi friends, this is Annie Grace and I am the author of this naked mind and I am answering questions.

And today's question comes from Australia and she asks why does it feel like living an alcohol-free

life can be so lonely? I feel sort of separate from my friends and my social group and nobody

really wants to talk to me about what I'm going through and what can I do to help it not be so

lonely. So I think that there's a few answers here and I think that you know, first of all, loneliness

can definitely, first of all let's talk about alcohol in our culture and our society and I think

we have made a mistake in gotten ourselves a bit confused because we've done alcohol in every

conceivable social situation from, I mean the last baby shower I was at there was alcohol there

which of course the mom can't even drink so it's you know kind of sad for her if she's a drinker

and the last funeral I was at there was alcohol there as well and of course every barbecue, every

social situation, the movie theater we normally go to recently opened line for ordering beer and

wine to go to the movies so we have made alcohol present in every social situation and I think

then it's easy for us to say well alcohol equates being social and being together and community

and then not drinking equals not being social and not being together and not being part of the

community and I think that's really sad because it's just not true I mean you don't have to look

much further than kids or you know societies where drinking isn't prevalent like Hindu societies

where they party for days on end for weddings and whatnot and and don't drink to know that yeah alcohol

is part of our social life but it's not the glue that binds us humans together there's something

much deeper than that and much more profound than that but that being said we are social creatures

we desperately need connection we desperately need to be part of something and when you're part

...