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There are more challenges involved in stopping drinking than simply no longer consuming the substance itself, says bar operator Jason Rothwell. For men in particular, it can often mean losing a sense of identity and belonging
For the best part of nine years, I’ ve stood behind the bar of my own venue watching people come together. I’ ve seen friendships built, relationships formed, problems shared, and – at times – quiet struggles hidden in plain sight. On the surface, it looks like people are just having a drink. But if you stand there long enough, you begin to realise something deeper is happening. The pub isn’ t just a place – it’ s a structure, a rhythm. For many, particularly men, it’ s part of who they are.
And that’ s where my research begins. My PhD, The stigma of sobriety: auto-ethnographic reflections on alcohol, masculinity, and the hospitality-health divide in modern British culture, is rooted in a simple but underexplored question – what happens when alcohol is removed from environments where identity, belonging, and connection have long been built around it?
CULTURAL DNA For many northern men, alcohol isn’ t just something you do – it’ s something you’ re surrounded by from the very beginning. Birthdays, weddings, funerals, catching up with friends – it all revolves around the pub. Over time, this becomes normal, part of the cultural DNA. So when alcohol is removed – whether by choice, necessity, or medical advice – it’ s not just the drink that disappears. It can feel like everything connected to it disappears too.
I see this not just as a researcher, but as someone embedded in the environment I’ m studying. I run a venue. I’ ve lived in these spaces. And increasingly, I’ ve observed them from the outside as well – spending sustained periods sober, standing in the same room but experiencing it very differently. As a researcher, I believe it’ s important to understand a subject from all angles, and those periods of sobriety have provided a valuable grounding – allowing me to experience first-hand the social dynamics, tensions, and subtle disconnections that can emerge when you step outside the norm. There’ s a moment in most evenings where the atmosphere shifts. Early on, everything feels balanced. Conversation flows, people are aligned. But as the drinks build, something changes – the pace, the humour, the energy. If you’ re sober, you feel it at once. You’ re not excluded, just out of step with the rhythm of the room.
That feeling – of being present, but not quite aligned – is one of the biggest challenges facing people who are trying to reduce or stop drinking. Alongside this, there’ s often a dual pressure at play. On the one hand, there can be subtle – or at times more direct – social pressure to join in. What might be dismissed as light-hearted encouragement can become a form of‘ sober shaming’, where not drinking is treated as something that needs to be explained or corrected.
But beyond that external pressure, there’ s a deeper internal challenge. The feeling
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24 • DRINK AND DRUGS NEWS • MAY 2026 WWW. DRINKANDDRUGSNEWS. COM