Are You A Gray Area Drinker? And How To Quit.
If you are reading this, you may be questioning whether or not you are a gray area drinker. One thing is for certain, I used to be. Back in 2018, I was at a point in my life where my alcohol intake had become more frequent. Daily.
My standards for when it was appropriate to drink had changed. I made it acceptable to drink on more and more weeknights, and earlier and earlier on the weekends. I spent years (more than a decade, actually) trying to achieve a balance with my drinking, but it wasn’t working for me.
Definition: Gray Area Drinking
Firstly, gray area drinking is just that - a gray area. Which means it is not black nor white, but somewhere in the middle. Or some combination of the two.
According to the American Addiction Centers, gray area drinking can be described as “a space between two extreme behaviors: drinking within the realm between acceptably moderate alcohol usage, and a diagnosable alcohol use disorder (AUD).”
The definition above may have provoked another question: So what is acceptably moderate alcohol usage?
According to the Mayo clinic, “In the United States, moderate drinking for healthy adults is different for men and women. It means on days when a person does drink, women do not have more than one drink and men do not have more than two drinks.” Another way of looking at it is through the lens of the CDC, which states that 8 drinks (or more) per week is considered heavy drinking. One survey reports that 36 million Americans are gray area drinkers.
Additionally, I will often cite the term “gray area drinker” as a way to describe those who have a daily habit of drinking in social settings or when at home alone. Even so, they may not show the usual signs of alcohol abuse, appearing to have a grip on their drinking. Gray area drinkers are not yet dependent on or addicted to alcohol in a clinical sense.
How To Tell If You Are A Gray Area Drinker
Now you have read through the above definitions of gray area drinking. You can decide for yourself if you are a gray area drinker or not. That’s up to you. But I think gray area drinking can be better understood by reflecting on how exactly drinking is impacting your life. It’s not always about how many drinks you are having any given day, but rather how it is impacting you - how it makes you feel in your life.
Remember, there are many shades of gray area drinking.
A few examples of how gray area drinking may present itself
You finish up the work day and head straight for an alcoholic beverage to wind down.
You are uncomfortable in social situations without an alcoholic beverage in hand.
You can’t seem to go more than a day or two without drinking,
You wake up with regret and shame because of drinking too much.
You create rules around drinking and then break them.
You are secretly worried about your drinking.
You are tired of waking up at 3 am with a headache, reaching for a glass of water and then tossing and turning until the alarm goes off.
How To Quit Drinking
As I mentioned at the start of this blog, by 2018 drinking had become such a major part of my life it consumed me. But something in me knew that it was not sustainable. I didn’t want to wake up each morning wishing I hadn’t drank the night before. I finally realized that it wasn’t moderation that I needed. What I needed was to ditch alcohol. It took me about 18 months but I did it. And through this process my work as a Sober Coach began.
The key to long-term sobriety is not about just trying to “stop drinking. It’s about taking back control of your physiology, understanding how to rewire your psychology, and creating connections, relationships, and a LIFE that you no longer need to decompress from at the end of the day.
Many people that fall into the category of “Gray Area Drinker” may be questioning their relationship with alcohol, yet are unaware of the emotional or physical impacts of their drinking. In a survey conducted by American Addiction Centers, 1 in 3* survey respondents think gray area drinking is unproblematic.
Maybe you have identified for yourself that your drinking is problematic. If that’s you, I see you, I’ve been there, and I am rooting you on. Wherever you may be on your journey with removing alcohol from your life, evaluating your relationship is one way to get started.
Download Sober Shift - My Free Guide
This is why I’ve created a digital resource where you’ll learn exactly what I did to turn the corner in my own journey.
This guide includes a downloadable PDF and a 30 minute video of me guiding you through your goal setting and visualizing the future version of yourself you are meant to be.
We don’t become gray area drinkers overnight. It happens over time, so we shouldn’t expect to quit overnight.
*The survey conducted by American Addiction Centers was completed by 3,704 respondents in Feb. 2022.
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