In a promise to no one but myself, I was to spend the entire trip, from Las Vegas and back, sober. Although my experiment might have been be a bit unusual, Peg O’Connor, PhD, addiction expert, professor of philosophy at Gustavus Adolphus College and author of Higher and Friendly Powers: Transforming Addiction and Suffering, says that we should all be examining our alcohol use regardless of whether we have a problematic relationship with drinking or not to see what kind of role it plays in our lives. She points out that many of us have become unintentional with our drinking, meaning that we often don’t give a conscious thought to how this behavior is affecting us and our health on both a physical and mental level. If you find it hard to cut back or even incredibly easy, Dr. O’Connor says that’s information we can use on how to move forward with our level of consumption, or whether or not we need more help than we thought.