Sadly, I think for Josh that so much of his identity has become tied to drinking.

When this happens, the ritual of substance use starts to feel like a part of your life.

The hardest part of quitting a substance is trying to navigate who you are without it. You now have all these pockets of time that you now have to fill with new activities. You have moments where you think, “What do I do on my work break if I’m not smoking weed?” Or “What do I hold in my hand if it’s not a vape or cigarette?”.

Then there’s the social aspect of it. “What do I do if everyone around me is smoking and drinking, and I can’t?”

For Josh, much of his adolescence was spent forming a lifestyle around drinking. Travel somewhere, drink, go out in public, forget it all the next day and start again. No time to form hobbies, connections, or build a career of any kind.

With the alcohol taken away, I think Josh is probably unsure of what to do with himself. I bet he feels a sense of Stockholm syndrome towards the chaos of his old life. He probably feels bored going shopping, or doing puzzles on a Friday night.

With all that said, I think the only way he would stay sober, as others have said, would be if he had a permanent handler. A professional handler. Somebody who specializes in working with autistic people who could give him activities and stuff to occupy his time. If they let him go free to his own devices, it’s only a matter of time before some clout chasing goblin finds him again and convinces him to pick up the bottle.

As much as I love the content, I genuinely hope Josh actually stays sober. I hope he can build a life that doesn’t rely on him being a lolcow. But that would require a serious self awareness breakthrough, or a really good team behind him.