- We are ten days into Dry January and by now, those going sober may be feeling the effects- especially if they have more of a relationship with alcohol than they thought.
- In this story, 23ABC's Ava Kershner talks about the effects of withdrawing alcohol cold turkey- and highlights a local business with an extensive mocktail menu.
“Dry January gives an opportunity to test out whether stopping alcohol use is a problem or not,” said Ana Olvera, the Kern Behavioral Health Administrator for the Substance Abuse Disorder Division.
Dry January has taken over new years resolutions, giving people the chance to leave the drinking that comes with lots of holiday events in the previous year.
However, it may be harder than you think.
“People with a problem like alcoholism have tried several times to either reduce or stop their use and they are not able to so that can become pretty telling,” said Olvera.
And cutting out drinking cold turkey for the new year, may have some damaging effects for those who don't realize how much they depend on alcohol.
“Alcohol is one of the substances that is most damaging to the body in general from things you wouldn’t expect from your lungs, your stomach, or your liver, obviously so stopping use might cause withdrawal that’s physically dangerous. It could cause seizures or delirium tremens and pretty serious consequences,” said Olvera.
Aside from physical symptoms, giving up alcohol may be hard in social situations.
But one locally owned business is trying to make it easier with their extensive mocktail menu, with many drinks based on the real thing.
“Little Miss Pac-Man is a non-alcoholic version of one of our regular cocktails on our drink menu, called the Miss Pac-Man,” said Ryann Florez, a Bartender and Event Server at the BLVD.
Ryann Florez, a bartender at the BLVD, says that no matter the month, or the reason for a non alcoholic drink, their mocktails are popular.
“On a busy night, and we get slammed on the well- little Miss Pac-Mans, blueberry sours, dragon fruit lemonades. We have a full selection of mock tails on our menu, so you would be surprised- kids, adults, everybody, they order them all the time,” said Florez.
The BLVD’s reason for creating the non alcoholic menu is not just due to their family friendly business, but to include those living a sober lifestyle.
“It’s really important to us because the owner of the BLVD does not drink alcohol so we like to create drinks that are fun and exciting so not only children, other adults that don’t drink can enjoy them as well,” said Shanowa Canada, the BLVD’s Director of Sales and Marketing.
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