One Community’s Fight to r/StopDrinking

Badges

One of the community’s most notable features is its badges. Though other subreddits have badges (e.g., r/NFL has badges that show your favorite team’s logo), this subreddit’s badges serve a purpose similar to that of AA chips. User badges count the days since a member’s last drink.

Real-Time Chat

For emergency situations, the board has a special Internet Relay Chat (IRC) feature that allows users to receive a more active peer-to-peer experience. In one instance, one user urged another, who posted she was contemplating suicide, to get on an IRC to ensure the user could receive more immediate help. That said, the subreddit’s subscribers are wisely told not to give medical advice; the guidelines encourage users to seek medical advice from qualified, non-anonymous professionals instead.

Alcohol Assessment Test

If a redditor is unsure whether or not he or she needs help dealing with alcohol, a survey (posted in the group’s sidebar) is available to help him or her identify a drinking problem.

Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day is a little tougher for people who sometimes turn to drinks to help them cope with failing relationships. A holiday that celebrates romance can be a cruel reminder to some of what they no longer have, and many posts allude to those tough times. What’s interesting is here we see a spike of posts occurring the day before Valentine’s Day, possibly because people are anxious the holiday might cause them to relapse.

Cinco de Mayo

Cinco de Mayo, the Mexican Independence Day, is another holiday worth considering. Looking at posts around this time, users seemed to be fine with not drinking on Cinco de Mayo. Considering the tradition of celebrating Cinco de Mayo in the U.S. seems to be exclusively for drinking and less for gathering with friends, this seems like a fairly easy holiday to dodge. Indeed, many people reported making it through this holiday with ease. One of the most curious things, however, is when the Cinco de Mayo spike occurs. The spike on May 8 registers nearly twice the number of posts as May 5 does.

Mother’s Day & Father’s Day

Weekends such as Mother’s Day and Father’s Day present a challenge for the community. These holidays sparked conversations about family issues that lead to alcohol abuse, parents’ struggles with alcoholism, and issues dealing with recently deceased parents. This pair of holidays that celebrate family relationships had a noticeable increase in number of posts declaring relapses.

Fourth of July

Fourth of July weekend is a rough one for r/StopDrinking. There are a fairly constant number of posts around the time of the holiday, with a slight dip in activity on July 4 itself. Though there were next to no reports of relapses, there were many users posting about how difficult it is not to cave in and drink. Where many other holidays have posts in which people report success, those on America’s birthday feature fewer “smiles” and more “clenched teeth” as people try to survive the weekend with their sobriety intact.

Halloween

Halloween, though a time where we celebrate the macabre, is actually one of the most upbeat holidays on r/StopDrinking. Almost all of the posts our Halloween search turned up were those from people reporting success in staying sober. Halloween is also statistically different from the other holidays. Instead of having a dip in activity from the previous day, October 30, activity on the subreddit increased on the holiday itself. Still, November 1 is a bigger day for posting.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a mixed bag. The majority of posts are from people announcing their intent or success in staying sober through Thanksgiving. Many users discussed positive feelings about their sobriety. A few posters discussed trouble staying strong, and a few admitted to relapses. But perhaps the post that was the most indicative of this community’s spirit was one in which a redditor in southern Illinois invited other users in the area – relative strangers – over for a sober Thanksgiving dinner.

Christmas

Christmas is supposed to be a time of cheer. But with all the parties, it can be more like a recovering alcoholic’s end-of-the-year boss fight. As such, we see a huge spike in posts on Christmas Eve, as users prepare for the holiday; a sharp dip follows, and then an increase in activity continues following the holiday. Posts from this time of year run the gamut. Some posts are proud and upbeat proclamations of milestones or simply just well wishes for a happy (and sober) Christmas. Some talk about struggles in staying sober during the holiday season. Some are guilty admissions of falling off the wagon. In fact, next to Father’s Day, Christmas was the holiday that had the most posts in which people announced a relapse.