The rise of sober curiosity among Gen Z and Millennials

Danay Jones had a sophisticated relationship with alcohol.

She moved typically, by highschool, school, and new cities, and ingesting grew to become the best option to join with new folks.

As time went on, what was as soon as seen as social foreign money was a burden characterised by authorized points, psychological well being challenges, and protracted bodily issues. On the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jones decided.

“I don’t know what’s going to occur with this world, but when we’re going to proceed, I must be sober,” she stated. “I began remedy, discovered a psychiatrist, and commenced exercising and working towards yoga, however what I wanted was group.”

Danay Jones, founding father of Sober Ladies Houston, hosts alcohol-free social occasions throughout the town for girls in restoration and people exploring sober curiosity. Courtesy: Danay Jones

So she constructed one. In 2022, Jones based Sober Ladies Houston, a nonprofit creating alcohol-free social areas for girls in restoration and people who are “sober curious”, folks selecting to be extra intentional about when, why, and the way a lot they drink. Right this moment, the group hosts occasions throughout Houston, from concert events to eating places to venues with dwell DJs, the place the one rule is: You come sober.

Throughout Houston, a metropolis lengthy synonymous with Sunday Funday brunches, rooftop completely happy hours, and a nightlife tradition, there’s a shift. A rising variety of millennials and Gen Z people are rethinking their relationship with alcohol. Not quitting without end, essentially. Not labeling themselves as addicts. Simply pausing. Getting curious. Selecting to be current.

They name it sober curiosity. And it’s reshaping not simply particular person lives, however Houston’s hospitality business, its wellness tradition, and the best way a whole technology socializes.

What’s it?

Regardless of its rising cultural footprint, “sober curious” doesn’t exist as a scientific analysis. Bridget McCauley, chief scientific officer at The Council on Restoration, Houston’s main nonprofit group serving folks with dependancy and substance use issues, is obvious in regards to the distinction.

“The scientific classifications we’ve are substance use issues, which embody alcohol use dysfunction,” McCauley says. “Sober curiosity actually is a lower in ingesting and a normalization of taking breaks.”

However that doesn’t imply McCauley dismisses it. Removed from it. At The Council on Restoration, she says, the aim has all the time been to assist folks construct consciousness to allow them to make a selection. Sober curiosity, she argues, is a robust software for precisely that.

“The sober curious motion permits us to consider, ‘What’s my relationship with alcohol?’ After which, what do I would like it to be?”— Bridget McCauley, Chief Medical Officer, The Council on Restoration

The motion gained consumer-facing momentum by occasions like Dry January and Sober October, which encourage members to take a month-long break from ingesting. However practitioners like McCauley see a deeper shift beneath the hashtags and wellness tendencies.

“This technology has been capable of give language to what was not beforehand mentioned in an older technology, about breaking a number of the cycles,” she stated. “I can see now that my relative used substances to manage. And I do know I might need that genetic predisposition. I’m going to take steps to forestall it.”

The numbers

The info mirrors what Houston’s wellness group is already witnessing on the bottom. In response to a 2025 shopper survey by NCSolutions, practically half of People (49%) say they plan to drink much less alcohol this 12 months, a 44% enhance from 2023. The development is most pronounced amongst youthful generations.

65%

Gen Z plans to drink much less in 2025

Supply: NCSolutions, 2025

22%

enhance in non-alcoholic beer purchases, Dec. 2023–Nov. 2024

Supply: NCSolutions Buy Information

30%

of People participated in Dry January 2025 — a 36% leap from 2024

Supply: NCSolutions / Bev Trade

Era Z is consuming roughly 20% much less alcohol per capita than millennials or child boomers, based on a number of analyses. And roughly half of all Gen Z adults in america have by no means had an alcoholic drink in any respect. By August 2025, Gallup reported that solely 54% of People stated they drank alcohol, the bottom price recorded within the survey’s practically 90-year historical past.

The non-alcoholic beverage market is predicted to develop by $281.3 billion between 2024 and 2028. Non-alcoholic beer quantity alone rose to 175% between 2019 and 2024, with business analysts predicting it would develop into the world’s second-largest beer section by the tip of 2025.

“Over the previous two or three years, you’ve got actually seen an uptake in non-alcoholic drinks at native eating places, bars, and institutions,” says Jones. “Not solely as a result of alcohol firms have taken discover, however as a result of eating places at the moment are shopping for nonalcoholic spirits and making lovely mocktails with contemporary juices, similar to you’ll an everyday cocktail.”

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Inside the Black group particularly, the sober curious dialog carries further weight.

The American Psychological Affiliation stories that Black People endure disproportionately extra detrimental penalties from alcohol use, extra accidents, diseases, authorized penalties, and alcohol-related well being issues, together with increased charges of coronary heart illness, most cancers, and cirrhosis.

“Within the Black group, there’s a lot disgrace nonetheless round being an alcoholic or having any sort of subject,” Jones says. “We have a good time, we celebration, we’ve time. So being that one one who says, ‘Really, that’s not for me,’ it’s been onerous to actually stand on that.”

She describes the dynamic of household reunions the place everybody asks, “The place’s your drink?” The uncle whose alcoholism has develop into a operating joke. The social expectation that letting free is the way you belong.

Andreah Campbell, a sobriety advocate who grew to become passionate in regards to the motion by her work alongside Jones, speaks to what the language shift means for many who don’t establish as addicts however are questioning their habits.

“Sober curious seems like somebody who’s curious about probably pulling away from alcohol, and it’s not so harsh,” Campbell says. “It doesn’t really feel such as you’re being punished or labeled. It’s extra like, ‘Hey, simply in case you’re , right here’s an possibility, no judgment.’”

Campbell, who got here to the motion by tutorial research and a group well being internship, describes listening to girls in restoration share their journeys as “virtually therapeutic.”

“I by no means had the guts to guage folks for having a battle,” she says. “After I listened to those girls inform us about their journeys, their triumphs, their struggles, and their optimism, it actually reveals how highly effective being a spirit is.”

Sober curiosity as prevention and its limits

McCauley locations the sober curious motion primarily within the class of prevention somewhat than remedy. For somebody with a real alcohol use dysfunction — which she describes as a power, relapsing mind illness, sober curiosity alone will not be a scientific intervention.

“For somebody who has a substance use dysfunction, sober curiosity doesn’t cease the ingesting,” she explains. “However it permits us to step into an area the place we are able to say: we’ve tried this, and now we have to enhance the intervention.”

She additionally raises a nuanced warning in regards to the zero-proof financial system itself. The ritualistic nature of holding a mocktail in a bar setting can, for some folks already in restoration, set off what she calls “need cues” — activating the psychological associations tied to ingesting.

“It may give a false sense of safety,” McCauley says. “And we haven’t but seen the long-term knowledge on whether or not normalizing the visible of ‘having a drink’ in social settings, even with out alcohol, contributes to increased use down the street.”

That’s why the mission of Sober Ladies Houston goes past abstinence. It’s about proving that pleasure, connection, and a full social life usually are not contingent on alcohol.

“The one rule at my occasions is it’s a must to be sober,” Jones says. “What you do after that, I’ve assets for that. However it’s nearly experiencing social enjoyable with none enhancements.”

The occasions appear like strange Houston nightlife, as a result of they’re. Live shows. Eating places. Venues with DJs and dance flooring. The distinction is the corporate.

“When there’s a bunch of us all ingesting mocktails and dancing, you ain’t fascinated by alcohol,” Jones says. “It’s not even a query.”

The concept that one thing lengthy handled as non-public points in Black households is shifting towards openness, with self-reflection on one’s relationship with alcohol being framed as an act of self-awareness somewhat than an indication of weak point.

“My technology, these new generations, are altering what they grew up in and doing one thing totally different,” Jones says. “Everyone seems to be breaking generational curses. Everyone seems to be striving to be the perfect particular person they’re. We’re all therapeutic and simply making an attempt to assist one another.”