Danay Jones had a complicated relationship with alcohol.
She moved often, through high school, college, and new cities, and drinking became the easiest way to connect with new people.
As time went on, what was once seen as social currency turned into a burden characterized by legal issues, mental health challenges, and persistent physical problems. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jones made a decision.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen with this world, but if we’re going to continue, I need to be sober,” she said. “I started therapy, found a psychiatrist, and began exercising and practicing yoga, but what I needed was community.”
So she built one. In 2022, Jones founded Sober Girls Houston, a nonprofit creating alcohol-free social spaces for women in recovery and those who are “sober curious”, people choosing to be more intentional about when, why, and how much they drink. Today, the organization hosts events all over Houston, from concerts to restaurants to venues with live DJs, where the only rule is: You come sober.
Across Houston, a city long synonymous with Sunday Funday brunches, rooftop happy hours, and a nightlife culture, there is a shift. A growing number of millennials and Gen Z individuals are rethinking their relationship with alcohol. Not quitting forever, necessarily. Not labeling themselves as addicts. Just pausing. Getting curious. Choosing to be present.
They call it sober curiosity. And it’s reshaping not just individual lives, but Houston’s hospitality industry, its wellness culture, and the way an entire generation socializes.
What is it?
Despite its growing cultural footprint, “sober curious” does not exist as a clinical diagnosis. Bridget McCauley, chief clinical officer at The Council on Recovery, Houston’s leading nonprofit organization serving people with addiction and substance use disorders, is clear about the distinction.
“The clinical classifications we have are substance use disorders, which include alcohol use disorder,” McCauley says. “Sober curiosity really is a decrease in drinking and a normalization of taking breaks.”
But that doesn’t mean McCauley dismisses it. Far from it. At The Council on Recovery, she says, the goal has always been to help people build awareness so they can make a choice. Sober curiosity, she argues, is a powerful tool for exactly that.
“The sober curious movement allows us to think about, ‘What is my relationship with alcohol?’ And then, what do I want it to be?”
— Bridget McCauley, Chief Clinical Officer, The Council on Recovery
The movement gained consumer-facing momentum through events like Dry January and Sober October, which encourage participants to take a month-long break from drinking. But practitioners like McCauley see a deeper shift underneath the hashtags and wellness trends.
“This generation has been able to give language to what was not previously discussed in an older generation, about breaking some of the cycles,” she said. “I can see now that my relative used substances to cope. And I know I might have that genetic predisposition. I’m going to take steps to prevent it.”
The numbers
The data mirrors what Houston’s wellness community is already witnessing on the ground. According to a 2025 consumer survey by NCSolutions, nearly half of Americans (49%) say they plan to drink less alcohol this year, a 44% increase from 2023. The trend is most pronounced among younger generations.
65%
Gen Z plans to drink less in 2025
Source: NCSolutions, 2025
22%
increase in non-alcoholic beer purchases, Dec. 2023–Nov. 2024
Source: NCSolutions Purchase Data
30%
of Americans participated in Dry January 2025 — a 36% jump from 2024
Source: NCSolutions / Bev Industry
Generation Z is consuming roughly 20% less alcohol per capita than millennials or baby boomers, according to multiple analyses. And roughly half of all Gen Z adults in the United States have never had an alcoholic drink at all. By August 2025, Gallup reported that only 54% of Americans said they drank alcohol, the lowest rate recorded in the survey’s nearly 90-year history.
The non-alcoholic beverage market is expected to grow by $281.3 billion between 2024 and 2028. Non-alcoholic beer volume alone rose to 175% between 2019 and 2024, with industry analysts predicting it will become the world’s second-largest beer segment by the end of 2025.
“Over the past two or three years, you have really seen an uptake in non-alcoholic beverages at local restaurants, bars, and establishments,” says Jones. “Not only because alcohol companies have taken notice, but because restaurants are now buying nonalcoholic spirits and making beautiful mocktails with fresh juices, just like you would a regular cocktail.”
Impact on the Black community
Within the Black community specifically, the sober curious conversation carries additional weight.
The American Psychological Association reports that Black Americans suffer disproportionately more negative consequences from alcohol use, more injuries, illnesses, legal consequences, and alcohol-related health complications, including higher rates of heart disease, cancer, and cirrhosis.
“In the Black community, there’s so much shame still around being an alcoholic or having any type of issue,” Jones says. “We celebrate, we party, we have a good time. So being that one person who says, ‘Actually, that’s not for me,’ it’s been hard to really stand on that.”
She describes the dynamic of family reunions where everyone asks, “Where’s your drink?” The uncle whose alcoholism has become a running joke. The social expectation that letting loose is how you belong.
Andreah Campbell, a sobriety advocate who became passionate about the movement through her work alongside Jones, speaks to what the language shift means for those who don’t identify as addicts but are questioning their habits.
“Sober curious sounds like someone who’s interested in possibly pulling away from alcohol, and it’s not so harsh,” Campbell says. “It doesn’t feel like you’re being punished or labeled. It’s more like, ‘Hey, just in case you’re interested, here’s an option, no judgment.’”
Campbell, who came to the movement through academic study and a community health internship, describes listening to women in recovery share their journeys as “almost therapeutic.”
“I never had the heart to judge people for having a struggle,” she says. “When I listened to these women tell us about their journeys, their triumphs, their struggles, and their optimism, it really shows how powerful being a spirit is.”
Sober curiosity as prevention and its limits
McCauley places the sober curious movement primarily in the category of prevention rather than treatment. For someone with a genuine alcohol use disorder — which she describes as a chronic, relapsing brain disease, sober curiosity alone is not a clinical intervention.
“For someone who has a substance use disorder, sober curiosity doesn’t stop the drinking,” she explains. “But it allows us to step into a space where we can say: we’ve tried this, and now we need to increase the intervention.”
She also raises a nuanced caution about the zero-proof economy itself. The ritualistic nature of holding a mocktail in a bar setting can, for some people already in recovery, trigger what she calls “desire cues” — activating the psychological associations tied to drinking.
“It can give a false sense of security,” McCauley says. “And we haven’t yet seen the long-term data on whether normalizing the visual of ‘having a drink’ in social settings, even without alcohol, contributes to higher use down the road.”
That’s why the mission of Sober Girls Houston goes beyond abstinence. It is about proving that joy, connection, and a full social life are not contingent on alcohol.
“The only rule at my events is you have to be sober,” Jones says. “What you do after that, I have resources for that. But it’s just about experiencing social fun without any enhancements.”
The events look like ordinary Houston nightlife, because they are. Concerts. Restaurants. Venues with DJs and dance floors. The difference is the company.
“When there’s a group of us all drinking mocktails and dancing, you ain’t thinking about alcohol,” Jones says. “It’s not even a question.”
The idea that something long treated as private issues in Black families is shifting toward openness, with self-reflection on one’s relationship with alcohol being framed as an act of self-awareness rather than a sign of weakness.
“My generation, these new generations, are changing what they grew up in and doing something different,” Jones says. “Everyone is breaking generational curses. Everyone is striving to be the best person they are. We are all healing and just trying to help each other.”
Where to start your sober curious journey
• Sober Girls Houston — sobergirlshouston.com • @sobergirlshouston
• The Council on Recovery — councilonrecovery.org • (713) 942-4100
• Sober Black Girls Club — soberblackgirlsclub.com • @soberblackgirlsclub
• SAMHSA National Helpline — 1-800-662-4357 (free, confidential, 24/7)
• The Women’s Home Houston — thewomenshome.org • (713) 522-8912
