Chrissy Teigen Shares Her Complicated Feelings About Sobriety

At the turn of the year, just as many were contemplating participating in Dry January, Chrissy Teigan announced to fans that she'd already been doing the work of breaking up with alcohol and was celebrating four weeks sober. Per USA Today, Tiegan was inspired by the book Quite Like a Woman: The Radical Choice to Not Drink in a Culture Obsessed with Alcohol, which she recommended to her followers as "a great read" regardless of whether or not they plan on changing their drinking habits.

Now, two months in, the "Cravings" author answered a tweet from @gaudofdeath asking, "Are you totally no booze now? Do you miss wine?" with, "I don't miss the taste of wine. I miss the feeling. I'm hyper and anxious now. Don't miss the feeling after. Overall: extremely happy lol (via Twitter). Many of the replies included support for Tiegan's choices and offered solidarity with missing the relaxation of a glass of wine, or the ritual associated with it, but not its after-effects.

One user replied, "I also went dry at the beginning of the year. I'm a nurse who was coping with the stress through wine. Don't miss the feeling the next day. But, miss the taste and relaxation. What are you doing to relax instead?" while further down in the replies, several suggestions were made for non-alcoholic spirits and other stand-ins.

With the start of February, comes the end of Dry January, a common social experiment with sobriety, where people abstain from alcohol for the first month of the year. For some, it's a way to jumpstart health goals, or to balance out the excess of the holidays, and for some, it's about reevaluating their relationship with alcohol.

For many, this year may have more weight than most. As Dr. Joseph R. Volpicelli, executive director at the Institute of Addiction Medicine, told GQ, "Many people have leaned into alcohol to cope with stress or boredom, or because working from home leads to an increased opportunity to drink. For this reason, Dry January may prompt a deeper rethink about their drinking relationship." But The New York Times noted that the assault on the Capitol just six days into the new year, had many joking about a "damp January" and reaching for the nearest bottles.

Though Chrissy Teigan admits that she hasn't found a substitute to help manage her anxiety, "I live in a perpetual hole of anxiety and nervousness lol I can't find my new 'thing'," (via Twitter) she seems happy with her commitment to sobriety. On Jan 20, she shared a photo of her family at the Washington Monument, celebrating Joe Biden's inauguration. She wrote, "[J]ust incredible to be here. sober. I know that's weird but it's like...a different world for me. everything is new and better. very happy."