Dry January: The Sober Movement

Like the origin of wine, the genesis of Dry January — a month-long goal of sobriety — is a bit murky. 

One origin story is that the first reported Dry January was in 2008 by Frank Posillico in Huntington, New York who was said to have experienced major weight loss and increased pep in his step.

Then there was another guy named John Ore who challenged himself to stop drinking for one January, in which he called “drynuary.” 

There was even a column about Dry January in the “Seattle Times” by Nicole Brodeur in 2015 who had been inspired by a friend who tried it many years before that date. 

And some even suggest that the practice goes all the back to 1942 when Finland had their own “Sober January” to help them fight the Soviet Union. 

Regardless of where, when or how it officially started, the organization that has made the biggest impact on Dry January around the world is Alcohol Change UK. It’s a charity that promotes reducing the harm to society that is caused by alcohol.

The charity was formed from the merger of Alcohol Concern and Alcohol Research UK in April 2017, with both organizations being founded in the early 1980s. The merged organization reported that at least 175,000 people signed up on their website to participate in the movement in 2023. And about 15 percent of U.S. adults, that same year, have reportedly made the same pledge.

That’s more than 260 million Americans. And that’s just the people who made it officially online. 

That’s a big difference from the 4,000 people that signed up when the campaign was initially developed in 2013. That was when a member, Emily Robinson, informed others in the organization about the health benefits she gained by not drinking for the month in preparation for a half marathon just two years prior.