Dry January was started by Alcohol Change UK in 2013. The thinking behind it was to encourage people to examine their alcohol drinking, especially after a period of traditional celebrations where alcohol often features quite prominently. It fits in nicely with making New Year resolutions that involve a degree of self-improvement – whether this be about food choices, being more active, learning new skills, giving up smoking, or any of another hundred ways we could all be “better people”.
Participants are encouraged not to consume alcohol for the whole month of January, ideally from midnight on New Year’s Eve, but realistically from when you wake up on January 1st after a night of celebration! I did my first Dry January in 2013 and then intermittently until my last venture in 2018. After 7 years, I thought it was time to do it again. I routinely monitor my drinking and this past year I have only had 25 days when I did not consume an alcoholic drink. Often this would just be a can of beer or a glass of wine, or sometimes (?) a bit of both. But alcohol is alcohol. I can think of all sorts of reasons why this has been the case this year – lots of changes, challenges and stress, for example. But I think an important factor has been a change in my thinking, a kind of “Why shouldn’t I do something I enjoy?” [More prosaically, “Time for a beer, WTF?”]. In previous years I had developed the habit of having two alcohol-free days each week.
I think the key word in the preceding paragraph is “habit”. We know that habits can be good or bad for us, but they share certain qualities. Habits are predictable and follow a well-rehearsed pattern. The cigarette with a cup of coffee in the morning, the sweet snack with a cup of tea later in the day, mayonnaise on your chips, locking the front door of your home when you leave…and so forth. As such, habits are cognitively undemanding – you do not have to think about it, you do not have to prevaricate, it is just the way it is, the way it has always been, and the way it always will be. Habits are efficient, they do not make high energy demands because we have become “skilled” in these activities. Our minds can wander hither and thither as we make our morning cup of tea, no need to focus on the task at hand.
As well as helping us to challenge and examine our relationship with alcohol, Dry January gives us the opportunity to explore and develop new habits. You have to structure things differently if you are not drinking alcohol. It could be just a simple of matter of swapping to a non-alcoholic drink at those times you would normally drink alcohol. However, I think it gives us the opportunity to make more radical changes. When I have my first can of beer in the evening, it signals the end of the day. I am not going to do much else now except watch TV. But if I am not drinking I could be engaged in more productive activities – creative writing, catching up with my friends on social media, studying a new subject, doing a bit of yoga…and so forth. Thus in some ways these activities become distractions from the temptation to drink.
Research has shown that a significant number of people who complete Dry January adopt new habits that extend into the rest of the year and lead to an overall reduction in their use of alcohol. Here is the key to changing habits – make small changes and then build on those changes. As Mark Twain noted, habits cannot be thrown out of the window – you have to lead them downstairs one step at a time.
Another key element in changing habits is the process of decision-making. If you make a conscious commitment to do something then there is no internal debate about the action you should take – “I have chosen to do Dry January so drinking alcohol is not an option”. The less committed a decision is then the more open it is to challenge. Here we are into the realms of motivation. We can help ourselves make “good decisions” by how we structure our environment. A simple ploy would be to put all alcohol out of reach – it would take effort to access it (the same strategy works for biscuit tins too!). We are talking about choice architecture as explained by nudge theory (the work of Thaler and Sunstein). Wow – motivation, habit formation, decision-making. This is starting to sound like an introductory psychology class!
Finally, we need to have reasons to make changes in our habits. The habits that served us well at one stage in our life might be those that are causing us problems at a later stage. A temper tantrum might work wonders for a toddler in a supermarket, but the same strategy of throwing yourself to the ground and screaming will not work in the office when your boss refuses to give you a pay rise. The harmful effects of alcohol consumption have been well documented. Here I want to focus on the positives of not drinking. I would expect to find improvements in the quality of my sleep, higher energy levels, clearer thinking, and weight loss (I often eat salty and fatty highly-processed snacks when I have a beer, not to mention the calories contained in alcohol – maybe a future post?). Less readily observable improvements will include reduced blood pressure, lower cancer risk and a better functioning liver.
Now, the challenge begins. The gauntlet has been thrown down, Will I succeed? Follow these posts to find out about my progress and more about alcohol.
Understand Yourself Better 