At the time I’m writing this, we’re just a few days into the recommended onset of suggested “social distancing” as a result of the Coronavirus outbreak.

As I made my obligatory trip to the grocery store to stock up on a few supplies, I watched as people filled their carts with extra wine bottles, preparing for the possible period of isolation, I thought, “Wow, there has truly never been a better time to be sober...I’ve literally been training for this.”

So, while many are freaking out at the prospect of social distancing, I’m realizing that my alcohol-free lifestyle is going to serve as an amazing tool as we’re encouraged to practice social distancing. I’m embracing this time as a necessary mandate to look within and slow down. But, I’ve also spent the last three years doing the work to get to a point where the prospect of being mostly alone in my home isn’t frightening to me.

However, I know there are several of you who don’t yet share my same sentiment. I know that the prospect of being isolated is daunting.

The good news is that I’m here to reflect back to you the goodness that is being alcohol-free. So, whether you’re currently alcohol-free or just sober-curious, I’d love to share with you how I’m choosing to look at being alcohol-free as an absolute gift during times like these.

“Alcohol doesn’t make things more interesting; it makes your mind stupid so that things that would otherwise have bored it are suddenly enough to occupy it.”

For years, I’d get the Sunday Scaries. That feeling of anxiety that set in when I started to think about going back to reality after the weekend. I’d have a sense of sadness and dread. It would be difficult to wind down and fall asleep on Sunday night. The anxiety would spill over into Monday morning as I’d trudge back into the office...have you been there?

Typically, I’d be fading out of a hangover that started at happy hour on Friday night. I’d meet up with my other young, successful contemporaries and we’d lament about the workweek with a few cocktails, eventually staying up until the late hours of the evening. 

Often, we’d each rise the next morning feeling less-than stellar and start a plan to meet up for brunch (read: mimosas and bloody Mary’s) to quell our hangovers, perhaps repeating the entire saga for Saturday night.

I never questioned this process...it’s just what single people in their 20s and 30s did. We were all successful, properly functioning people who’d unwind and celebrate the week by tying it on hard during the weekend...again, I ask: Have you been there?

If so, let me share my two-part antidote for beating the Sunday Scaries with you. But first, let me warn you that my approach goes against the grain just a bit. But, if you’re curious and brave and have even the tiniest bit of a feeling you are meant for something extraordinary in this life, I invite you to keep reading with an open mind.

Hi, my name is Amanda and I’m not an alcoholic. In fact, back in my drinking days, I was what you would have considered a run-of-the-mill social drinker. I drank just like everyone else in my social circle: a glass of wine with dinner here or there, happy hours, social events. But, as a single, thirty-something - the social events were plentiful. There’d be dinner and drinks with friends and a round of bar hopping on Friday night followed by brunch on Saturday to recover before being productive (or at least attempting to) for a few hours and going back out Saturday night.