Seasonal Shifts & Drinking: The Hidden Trigger Leaders Need to Watch
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In my 20+ years of working as an addiction counselor, I can say this with certainty: seasonal change is one of the most reliable triggers for a spike in drinking.
Do you get anxious at the end of summer?
If you suffer from social anxiety or are introverted, the office feels quieter in the summer when enough people are on vacation, this means fewer people to make small talk with on the elevators and in the lunchroom. When the office goes back to normal, the sun starts setting earlier (by the way where did we land with the daylight savings controversy?).
What Causes the Spike in Drinking?
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) 2025 report to congress noted environmental impacts of drinking, more darkness means changes in mood. If you’re drinking in the gray area, this is the time to be more mindful of your patterns.
The Mayo Clinic describes Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) as depressive symptoms that resolve in the spring or early summer. I once worked with a client who moved back home to the Mid-Atlantic area from a very sunny, west coast state and relapsed after 12+ years of total abstinence. She cried and blamed herself for not having enough “willpower”.
Once she understood SAD and how the darkness, rain, and cold conditions can impact her mood, she realized that she hadn’t experienced these weather conditions in a while. Moreover, the hobbies she enjoyed such as kayaking, and yoga in the park, were conducive to warm weather. She hadn’t adopted replacement/indoor activities, which caused a great deal of unstructured time.
SAD + boredom + major life change + fewer coping strategies = more clarity about her relapse. Â This was not a willpower issue!
Why Seasonal Drinking Hits Leaders with Anxiety Hard
Leaders are trained to solve problems, hit targets, and push through discomfort. Those are exactly the skills that make seasonal stress harder to catch early. You are used to overriding your own signals and probably built a career on doing more when things get hard.
That instinct works well in a boardroom. It does not work well against your own biology. Seasonal shifts in light, sleep, and workload are not problems you can outperform. They are conditions you have to work with, not against.
Leaders who try to power through seasonal stress the same way they power through a deadline usually end up reaching for something to numb the friction. Alcohol is fast, legal, socially accepted, and everywhere this time of year. It is the path of least resistance.
At home, the season brings its own version of pressure. School schedules shift. Family gatherings get planned. Travel gets booked. The mental load of managing a household goes up right as your energy is going down.
Your Body Feels the Shift Before You Do
When the seasons change, your body changes with them. Less daylight throws off your circadian rhythm. Your sleep gets lighter and less restorative. Your energy dips in the afternoon. Your mood can feel flatter, or your anxiety can feel and harder to lift.
At the same time, most leaders hit a wall of new demands right when the light starts to fade. Budget season. Year-end targets (like dreaded performance appraisals!). Back to school logistics at home. Holiday planning starts in September now (fine by this pumpkin spice princess). Do you see what’s happening? Your body is asking for more rest at the exact moment your life is asking for more output.
That gap between what your body needs and what your role demands creates a specific kind of tension. Alcohol steps in to fill it. The problem is that alcohol does not close the gap. It masks it, and every season, the gap comes back a little wider. Check out this previous blog post for more information about the Alcohol-Anxiety Loop.
What Helps?
Once you start noticing the gap between what your role demands and what your body needs, you can begin building something else into that gap. Alcohol coaching and habit tracking can help you learn to identify these.
Name the pattern before the season peaks. Most leaders do not notice the seasonal spike until they are already in it. Look back at last year, what was happening in your day-to-day life? Did your drinking pick up around this time?
Protect your evening light and sleep. Less daylight during the day means your evenings matter more. Dimming screens earlier, getting outside during lunch, and protecting a consistent bedtime will do more for your energy than an extra drink ever will.
Get honest about the "business as usual" drinking. Client dinners and holiday parties do not require a drink in your hand to be successful. Practicing one low key way to decline a drink or a moderation technique that feels natural to you, so you are not caught off guard in the moment. I teach several methods for this in Mindful Drinking Skills for Anxious Leaders.
Talk to someone who understands the leadership angle. Most support around drinking is built for people in crisis. High performing leaders need something different: a private, skills based approach that respects your schedule and your image and treats sobriety as a mark of strength rather than a fix for a problem.
The Bottom Line
The best thing about changing seasons? It’s totally predictable! The change of season is not a small thing. It shifts your biology and your calendar at the same time, and it does it every single year. If your drinking tends to climb this time of year, it is a predictable response to predictable pressure.
Alcohol coaching can teach you how to see the pattern coming, build a plan for it, and choose tools that support them instead of numbing them. That shift, more than any single choice to skip a drink, is what changes the season from something you survive into something you lead through.
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If you’re a leader on a wellness journey that doesn’t include alcohol, I’d love your feedback!
Vanessa is an Alcohol Coach with over 20 years of experience working in behavioral health and addictions as a clinician and clinical supervisor. She built Skilled Concepts, LLC to educate and inform high-performing leaders who want to change their relationship with alcohol, and prevent burnout. She offers asynchronous coaching ​with ongoing skill building, rapid feedback, and personalized support-all without waiting for a scheduled session. Vanessa subscribes to alternative methods of changing habits including moderation, mindful drinking, and complete abstinence. ​
Other ways to connect:
Connect with me on social media, LinkedIn or email me at info@skilledconcepts.com.Â
