Sober October Link-Up – Week 5

Tough love, practical guidance, gentle encouragement (trick or treat!)

Welcome! Each week this Sober October, we’re sharing a link-up featuring supportive reads and resources from the alcohol-free Substack community.

Find past link-ups here, and scroll down for this week’s edition.

While Sober October is coming to a close, you can still expect alcohol-free, sober support twice a week, year-round, at Sober App Substack. Here’s a look at what we feature:

• My Sobriety Story: In this Q&A series, sober folks share their journeys, including their decision to get sober, the surprises they encountered, their biggest challenges and rewards, and the advice they’d offer to those newly sober or considering sobriety. Want to answer a few questions and share your story? Email our newsletter manager and editor (me!) here.

• Personal Essays: Dive into essays on socializing while sober, parenting while sober, creativity in recovery, grief in recovery, bouncing back after relapse, spiritual awakenings, the intersection of alcohol and other addictions, and much more.

• Sober Support: Find caring support, occasional tough love, and actionable tips, including guidance on getting and staying sober, coming out as sober, building sober friendships and community, and tackling common challenges.

• Meet the Experts: These Q&As feature sober professionals who offer insights on recovery along with their personal sobriety stories. Past contributors include an award-winning filmmaker, a psychotherapist, a shamanic practitioner, an astrologer, a Zen priest, and sober authors and entrepreneurs.

• Sober Community: Explore posts showcasing our amazing contributors, along with crowd-sourced features built around community prompts.

• AF Link-Ups: This will now be a monthly feature. Look for the next link-up in late November!

Across these offerings, you’ll hear from:

• People from diverse backgrounds and generations

• People newly sober, sober for decades, and everywhere in between

• People who’ve used a wide range of recovery tools and programs

• People following AA-based paths and those taking non-AA approaches

• People who describe their alcohol-free lives in different ways and with different labels

Wherever you are on your journey, these voices remind us that there are many ways to recover and to create a full, vibrant life in sobriety.

We’d love to hear from you too! Share your favorite alcohol-free writers and resources in the comments, and if you’re sober, feel free to include a link to your own publication or website. We celebrate and welcome all paths to getting and staying alcohol free.

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Sober journeys & reflections

• Sober is the Name of the Game: But No Sober is the Same, All Things Mankin(d)

• Sobriety, menopause, and the slow thaw back to love, Kate Baily

• Is It Ok If I Stay Sober? Kristen Bear

• 8 Years Alcohol-Free, Dani Cirignano

• I Was That Kind of Drinker, Allison Deraney

• Five Years After I Told the World I Was an Alcoholic, Jessica Dueñas

• Celebrations, Sans Champagne, The Healing Rack

• Chinese Bamboo: A Metaphor for Overcoming Alcohol, Mindful Sobriety

• A conversation with my younger self, Dee Rambeau

• The sober waitress, Kasey Reilley

• The Night I Apologized to a Picture Frame, Shane Willbanks

Tough love, practical guidance, gentle encouragement (trick or treat!)

• 5 Questions to Ask Yourself if You Think You Drink Too Much, Sydney Allen

• A Little Win is Never Little, Louisa Evans - Beyond Sobriety

• Getting sober taught me why New Year’s resolutions fail, Ed Latimore

• How “everything in moderation” is just settling for mediocrity, Dr. Dana Leigh Lyons, DTCM (written for Dry January but relevant for Sober October and beyond!)

• For the Woman Who Drinks to Slow Down: Practical Ways to Find Rest Without Wine, Christy Osborne and Meade Holland Shirley

• Is Alcohol A Trick Or A Treat, Samantha Perkins

• What I’d Say to Someone Who Wants to Quit Drinking Without Rehab or Groups, Adam PT

• Clear Conversations: Creative Minds in Sobriety, Josh Woll and guests

Quit lit round-ups & sober resource guides

• Quit Lit Review: 11 Books to Help You Get and Stay Sober, Julie Fontes (whose Like a Normal Person podcast also includes captivating quit-lit conversations and readings)

• A Few of My Favorite Recovery Memoirs, Elizabeth Jannuzzi (who hosts a quit lit book club!)

• No One Right Way: Finding Your Own Path in Sobriety, Keri

• SoberStack™, Dr. Dana Leigh Lyons, DTCM (a newsletter directory featuring 178 alcohol-free writers spanning diverse backgrounds, focus areas, and paths of recovery)

• Recovery Resources, Katie MacBride

5 more alcohol-free voices

• Ebony L, Meticulously Organised Chaos - by Ebony Nash

• Shoshana Ray, Beauty, Terror, & Everything In Between

• Lisa Stanton, PhD, The Unlearning Gazette

• Jessica Watkins, Jesus Loves A Hot Mess

• Wiser Without Wine

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How was your Sober October… and how are you feeling about November? Share—or just say hello—in the comments!

And before you go, would you take a second to tap that little heart? It lets others know there’s something helpful here and grows our sober community.

We know that sharing about recovery and sobriety can feel vulnerable. Like in recovery groups, we ask that commenters in this space refrain from giving unsolicited advice or spreading hate and division. Thank you for helping us foster a kind and inclusive community!

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Dr. Dana Leigh Lyons, DTCM is a Doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine sharing heart-sourced guidance on body-mind-spirit wellness. She manages Sober App Substack alongside writing her own newsletter: PERFECT HUNGER™, feeding your hunger for a more beautiful, more nourishing life.

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If you’re sober and interested in contributing to Sober.com, we’d love to hear from you. Reach out to our newsletter manager and editor here for submission guidelines.