Dry January (NPR)

how about this question - why do you drink? (Laughter).

I spoke to this woman named Blair Benson. She's in her 30s. She lives in Rochester, N.Y., where she says the winters are long and cold. And she says when she asked herself all of these questions, what she came up with was a pretty simple answer.

BLAIR BENSON: One day I realized, honestly, there was just a lot of boredom (laughter) going on and thought, well, this is kind of silly.

INSKEEP: Maybe there's something else to do.

AUBREY: Right. I mean, partially, people do drink out of boredom. I mean, alcohol is so ubiquitous in our culture. Not only do we drink at weddings and funerals and ballgames and office happy hours, it's not that uncommon to drink for no reason at all, just sort of on autopilot. And so when you put the brakes on that and you give yourself a chance to reflect on the behavior, Blair Benson says she realized, after a break, she kind of felt better not drinking. She didn't wake up feeling bloated or hungover.Article