Why more young Aussies are drinking less

Already, and this is the daily This is the daily os.

Oh, now it makes sense. Good morning and welcome to the Daily Ours. It's Friday, the ninth of January. I'm Emma Gillespie.

I'm Emily Donahue.

The new year is often a time for reflections, goal setting, and resolutions, but January can also follow for some of us, a period of heavy or frequent drinking as part of the festive season. But the hangover from that festive season is actually seeing an increasing number of young people reducing or re evaluating their relationship with alcohol. This is what's known as the sober curiosity movement. I'm sure you've heard

Hello, thanks for having me.

Thank you for being here. You've been going deep on sober curiosity, and I feel like it is a movement that we're hearing a lot more about, but still a relatively new one. So I guess, and what is it? Where do we start? How do I become someone who is sober curious?

So the term came from a twenty eighteen book by an author called Ruby Warrington, and that book is called Sober Curious, okay, And someone who is sober curious is not fully sober, but they're making more conscious decisions around

So sober curious doesn't necessarily mean someone is ditching alcohol altogether. They're just, I guess, becoming more mindful about when they consume it.

Is that right, yes, one hundred percent. And some sober curious people like Dom I'll tell you a little bit about later, start off sober curious and then they I've write in after feeling better when they're alcohol free. And it's certainly an effective way to reduce the beloved anxiety.

Yeah, anxiety in January is a special kind of anxiety, okay. So sober curiosity can look like just changing a few of your habits, reducing how much you drink, but it can act as this kind of gateway, I suppose to cutting out alcohol all together. How common is sober curiosity here in Australia.

So a twenty twenty five study by the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education found that forty four percent of Australians who do drink want to consume less or stop drinking altogether, which is more than the twenty twenty study which was twenty nine percent of respondents.

Wow.

Okay, so around one in three Aussies was sober curious in twenty twenty five years later that increased to nearly half. What about young people specifically.

So, according to the latest National Drug and Alcohol Survey data, the number of eighteen to twenty four year olds who are abstaining from alcohol increased from thirteen percent in two thousand and seven to twenty three percent, so almost a quarter in twenty twenty two to twenty twenty three.

Okay, And that's the latest available data we have from that survey. So I guess we can assume that that number has increased even further in the last couple of years. I'm interested to understand sober curiosity on a global scale, I guess m because we've got that data from Australia. We know Australians are thinking at least about drinking less, but what about elsewhere in the world.

Yes, so we are in a social media world where trends can transcend countries and nations, and the trend is definitely not limited to Australia. A US based survey in December twenty twenty four found that sixty five percent of gen Z respondents and fifty seven percent of millennial respondents were trying to drink less in the twenty twenty five New Year.

Wow, that's a lot of young people both generations straddled by that data there. I guess the big question m is why, what is the reason that people take an interest in sober curiosity?

Sure, so if we look at those surveys and that pole, it found in the US that around forty percent of the gen Z respondents so that they are drinking less to improve their mental health, and half of sober GenZ participants that they simply just don't want to drink alcohol. Back home, the Fair study Yeah, which was an age specific found that people didn't want to drink for a variety of reasons, mostly for their physical health, but also for their mental health and to improve their sleep.

Okay, that's so interesting that the divide is almost even amongst young people. According to that US survey, we've got nearly half saying they want to drink less for mental health benefits, nearly half saying that they just don't want to drink alcohol. Fascinating kind of generational comparison there. I'm also interested in the kind of marketing side of sober curiosity. I guess we've seen a real shift in the last few years in how beverage companies have approached their marketing.

Yeah, I'm sure you've seen more alcohol free options at a bottle shop or at a bar, at a restaurant.

Yeah. Absolutely.

I spoke with the Alcohol Beverages Australia executive director Alistair Coo, and he said that alcoholic drink producers are changing and innovating in response to more consumers being quote deliberate about what they drink.

Yeah, I've certainly noticed more options. You know, cocktail menus will often have a corresponding mocktail menu or entire you know, pages and pages of alcohol free options. Now, one market that seems to have grown a lot is the alcohol free beer market especially right.

Yes, for sure. So am Z estimated that the zero alcohol beer market is going to grow from one hundred and fifty million leaders produced in twenty twenty four to three hundred million leaders produced in twenty twenty eight. So that's double in four years.

Wow. A lot of people drinking a lot of alcohol free beer.

Definitely, And one of those brands is Heaps Normal, which was launched in twenty twenty by Andy Miller, Ben Holdstock and Jordie Smith. And he told me that since founding Heaps Normal, he noticed that the drinking culture has and I quote shifted from it being weird not to drink to it being weird to ask somebody why they're not drinking.

Yeah, that social conversation has been a really interesting shift for sure.

Yeah, definitely. And rather than opting for soft drinks, water or coffee, sober curious people are sometimes drawn to more sophisticated beverages, maybe those that replicate what they had when

Wow, that is really interesting because I suppose this market boom has seen a lot of alcohol free or love alcohol products emerge that taste just like the quote unquote real things. So fascinating perspective there, Emily, you actually spoke to someone who has lived this journey and gone through many evolutions. What did you learn about sober curiosity from that person?

Yeah, that's right. I spoke to podcaster and wellness advocate Dominique Alissa, who quit drinking in October twenty twenty four after she had one year of a sober curious period.

Right, So she was sober curious then completely quit.

Yes, yeah, and she marked one year of sobriety in October last year. So here's some of what she had to say about her journey with sobriety.

It started off as a healthy relationship with alcohol where it was fun and going out to then every weekend having to drink, and then relying on it to fall asleep at night because I couldn't shut down my thoughts.

Dom said the beginning of her sober journey was difficult, but now she's really driven by the message of choice.

It's just a way of life, and I feel so fulfilled and I feel so passionate about sharing this message to young people that if you feel that you drink just because you have to, maybe consider going sober.

I know. One of the things that can make it hard for people who are sober curious, and we've touched on this a little bit, is the social aspect of drinking. You know, you hear people say, oh, I'm worried that if I quit alcohol or I drink less, my friends will grill me or ask questions that I don't want to talk about, or they won't include me in activities, that sort of fomo that comes with anything associated with socialization.

Yes, And a very interesting story. Actually, she got married last year in Italy and instead of having a champagne to greet her guests at the cocktail hour, she actually had marchart, which is her favorite alcohol free alternative.

There you go yes.

So rather than toasting with champagne with her loved ones, they brought out the marcher and they were able to have an alcohol free moment together.

What I realized in my sobriety is that I love the motion of having a drink and cheersing it, but it doesn't need to be alcohol. If you have a glass that looks like an alcoholic drink, no one will even question you, So if you don't want to even talk about it, don't worry.

So if someone around you is trying to drink less this year advocates, so you should really cheer them on for it. If they're having a drink with you, make it a non alcoholic one, or pack something alcohol free for them so you can still have that moment together. You can still spend time in the summer months in the sunshine, yet not around alcohol.

Amazing. I think a big one here too, is we often take other people's actions really personally, and I don't know why. In the Australian drinking culture, of someone's drinking less or not drinking, sometimes we feel like maybe that's an attack or a comment on our own consumption habits. And I think the learning here from all the experts you've spoken to is this is a really personal decision that some people make. It may not be for everyone, but you know, choice can't be a bad thing of course.

My name is Lily Madden and I'm a proud Aarunda Bunjelung Calcuttin woman from Gadigol Country.

The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island and nations. We pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries, both past and present.