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\u201cFor years, I was asking myself whether or not I was an alcoholic versus really asking myself whether or not alcohol was actually providing any benefit to me. And for me, it was just like, This realization when I stopped drinking that I had been asking the wrong question for my whole drinking career and like, why are we not asking the question? We're just like, we're drinking, it's compulsory in our society. It's exceptional if you don't drink. And then it's also this very addictive drug that's marketed to us in a way that totally overrides our ability to like make rational choices around it. It's like the most socially accepted drug that you can use and like, we just don't have meaningful conversations or informed consent or any, you know, so for me, a huge part of me quitting drinking, which I did in 2013, it was this realization of Intellectually understanding I had been asking the wrong question which for me was a huge empowerment and part of the reason I was able to quit.\u201d\n\nSo says Holly Whitaker, author of the New York Times bestselling Quit Like a Woman: The Radical Choice to Not Drink in a Culture Obsessed with Alcohol. I had heard about Holly long before I met her, primarily because she was disrupting recovery culture and many people did not like this. But the more I learned about her, the more I spoke to her, the more I witnessed her impact on culture, the more I was completely taken by both her brilliance and her willingness to say the things. Be warned: If you read her book, you\u2019ll never think about alcohol again. In its pages, she recontextualizes the way we\u2019ve been trained to normalize booze\u2014and also the way the current recovery scene is shaped for the consciousness, and egos, of men. She\u2019s created companies in the vein of a feminine-centered recovery, and it feels like she\u2019s just getting started in the way we talk about addictive substances\u2014and addiction. Those who struggle will find a lot of relief in her words, and I understand why.\xa0\n\nMORE FROM HOLLY WHITAKER:\nQuit Like a Woman: The Radical Choice to Not Drink in a Culture Obsessed with Alcohol\nHolly\u2019s Newsletter\nHolly\u2019s Website\nHolly\u2019s Podcast\nFollow Holly on Instagram\n\nFurther Listening on Pulling the Thread:\nADDICTION: Anna Lembke, M.D., \u201cNavigating an Addictive Culture\u201d\nTRAUMA: Gabor Mat\xe9, M.D., \u201cWhen Stress Becomes Illness\u201d\nBINGE EATING DISORDER: Susan Burton, \u201cWhose Pain Counts?\u201d\n \nTo learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy\n \n Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices