Why Virtual Sobriety?

December 15th, 2024

Virtual Sobriety started off as an idea back in 2020. COVID had shut down most of the country, and although I was still working, I found myself with a lot of free time. Granted, I wasn't unique in that, but it got me thinking. I saw people becoming more and more disconnected from each other, and I saw drug and alcohol use on the rise. It was such an alienating time that it made sense for this to happen, but due to my background, I felt like something should be done.

Twitch and Twitter became some of my biggest go-to platforms during COVID. Being so deep into recovery, I felt that sober culture wasn't being represented well enough. It seemed like every other stream involved people doing drunk/high streams or somehow revolving around getting messed up. I was over 10 years sober at the time, but even I was caught off guard when I would see people drinking or smoking live. I worried about those who were fresh in recovery and what this could do to their well-being. I could see how easy it would be for people's walls to be chipped away and for them to fall back into old habits. I wanted to create a space where people could come and feel safe—a place where they could be themselves without worrying about being triggered.

With that, Virtual Sobriety was born. To say that my time streaming on Twitch was successful would be a gross exaggeration. I won't lie and say that I was the most popular streamer or that I was making a ton of money. I was lucky if I had five people in my chat at any given time. After all, this was basically a hobby more than it was a career. That doesn't mean I didn't make friends along the way or promote my message that it was okay to be young and sober. I wanted people to know that you could still have fun while being sober—that you could still be social and meet new people while being in a safe space. On that front, I still view my time on Twitch as a success.

Obviously, over time, the lockdown lifted, and life started to get back to some kind of normalcy. I went back to working 60+ hours a week at restaurants and lost my focus on what Virtual Sobriety could have become. I let the community slip away, and part of me still very much regrets that. However, I am still in contact with a few people I met during that time, which shows me that I was on the right track.

Since I decided to get into coding, I figured it was time to bring Virtual Sobriety back. I know this website isn't much at the moment, but I hope for it to become much more. I want those who are sober to feel accepted. I want to lessen the stigma around sobriety. I want there to be a community outside of AA/NA where people, regardless of age or time in recovery, can feel a sense of normalcy. I fell out of the rooms early in my recovery, and I know I would have loved to have had something like this to fall back on. I hope this can be that for someone else.

Sobriety is everything to me. To this day, it remains the most important thing I have done. It is one of my biggest accomplishments, and getting clean was the first time I was truly proud of myself. I hope you will join me on this journey and that we can build something greater together.

Virtual Sobriety is my passion project. I thank you for taking the time to read this and for getting a bit of insight into what I am planning here. So, from the bottom of my heart, welcome to not just my, but Our Virtual Sobriety.

Thank you,
Craig

AKA: Virtual Sobriety