For our latest installment, we spoke with Holly Whitaker, the founder of an online sobriety program calledTempest.
The program incorporates mindfulness practices, behavioral therapy, andpositive psychologywith an eye totrauma-informed care.
It also provides a community of peers and people with expertise in sobriety for constant support.
Adobe Stock / Nadia Snopek / Morgan Johnson
Here, Whitaker talks about how Tempest works and how things have changed since the pandemic hit.
(Her responses have been edited and condensed for clarity.)
- SELF: When did you start Tempest, and why?
I created it in 2014 as a response to my own experience.
I worked in health care, and I hadalcohol use disorderand aneating disorder.
I also didnt identify as analcoholic.That label didnt help me heal.
It kept me in a box I no longer lived in.
Instead, I identified as anondrinker.
Labels can feel empowering for some.
But you dont need to identify as an alcoholic to stop drinking.
This was a philosophy that I developed in the early stages of my recovery journey.
I wanted to create an aspirational, desirable path to recovery that was more accessible than the traditional roads.
How does Tempest work?
And what does it offer?
Historically, weve run an eight-week program based on three pillars: content, community, and care.
Theres always an online community with small breakout groups and larger Q&As and support group calls.
And for the care component, we have hired peer-trained coaches.
Most people in the community choose not to be anonymous.
More and more, people show up vulnerable, to be seen in their struggle and in their healing.
How else have things changed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic?
Topics include recovery tools, ways to deal with isolation,how to manage anxiety, and more.
We moved that into virtual support groups and virtual local meetups: theVirtual Bridge Club.
How have you personally been coping with the pandemic, and have you found it trying on your sobriety?
What tools do you use to stay sober right now?
The way Ive been able to cope is by drawing on the lessons I learned during early recovery.
This hasnt been a time that has made me, personally, want to drink.
Its been a time that has made me grateful for my sobriety, or my ability to be present.
We help people to build lives they dont need to escape from.
And yes, that means even lives lived during a pandemic.
But its important to pay attention to the pull and have that awareness around your relationship with alcohol.
Theres not this magic moment where you turn into someone who will be sober.
What we can do is allow ourselves to start integrating different realities and behavior.
Its almost like a leaning toward that really tender discomfort that we have around an unhealthy relationship with alcohol.
