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Top 30 Holly Whitaker Quotes (2025 Update)

Holly Whitaker Quote: “Addiction begins with the hope that something “out there” can instantly fill up the emptiness inside. – JEAN KILBOURNE.”

1. “Addiction begins with the hope that something “out there” can instantly fill up the emptiness inside. – JEAN KILBOURNE.”

— Holly Whitaker

Holly Whitaker Quote: “The goal here is to create a situation you no longer have to escape, or a life you don’t have to numb. The achievement of sobriety is not the point; it’s a by-product of the work. The work is the point. Addiction is the hook that gets you in the door, and quitting is the catalyst to heal deeper wounds.”

2. “The goal here is to create a situation you no longer have to escape, or a life you don’t have to numb. The achievement of sobriety is not the point; it’s a by-product of the work. The work is the point. Addiction is the hook that gets you in the door, and quitting is the catalyst to heal deeper wounds.”

— Holly Whitaker

Holly Whitaker Quote: “When you find yourself in that place where someone else’s truth makes you fearful of trusting your own, remember this: Only you got yourself here, and it is safe to trust that you can take yourself the rest of the way.”

3. “When you find yourself in that place where someone else’s truth makes you fearful of trusting your own, remember this: Only you got yourself here, and it is safe to trust that you can take yourself the rest of the way.”

— Holly Whitaker

Holly Whitaker Quote: “Sobriety, if it is anything, is paying attention, seeing the wonder and the beauty around us that we so easily sprint by on our way to the next thing. And this is more than fun; this is actually living.”

4. “Sobriety, if it is anything, is paying attention, seeing the wonder and the beauty around us that we so easily sprint by on our way to the next thing. And this is more than fun; this is actually living.”

— Holly Whitaker

Holly Whitaker Quote: “Addiction and recovery and sobriety are nothing more than your call to adventure, your ticket to everything you’ve ever told yourself you can’t be, and every dream you’ve ever had. This is your great adventure.”

5. “Addiction and recovery and sobriety are nothing more than your call to adventure, your ticket to everything you’ve ever told yourself you can’t be, and every dream you’ve ever had. This is your great adventure.”

— Holly Whitaker

Holly Whitaker Quote: “You want a moment.”

6. “You want a moment.”

— Holly Whitaker

Holly Whitaker Quote: “Today I don’t think of myself as being in recovery from illness. I think of myself as being on a mission to recover the truest version of myself, and as being in recovery from long exposure to a sick society that actively wants to destroy all that is good about me. Consequently, I get to do a bunch of rad things to manage life better, so I don’t need to escape.”

7. “Today I don’t think of myself as being in recovery from illness. I think of myself as being on a mission to recover the truest version of myself, and as being in recovery from long exposure to a sick society that actively wants to destroy all that is good about me. Consequently, I get to do a bunch of rad things to manage life better, so I don’t need to escape.”

— Holly Whitaker

Holly Whitaker Quote: “To properly heal from addiction, we need a holistic approach. We need to create a life we don’t need to escape.”

8. “To properly heal from addiction, we need a holistic approach. We need to create a life we don’t need to escape.”

— Holly Whitaker

Holly Whitaker Quote: “Disappoint other people with your no; don’t disappoint yourself with a yes you’ll later resent.”

9. “Disappoint other people with your no; don’t disappoint yourself with a yes you’ll later resent.”

— Holly Whitaker

Holly Whitaker Quote: “Alcohol is the only drug in the world where, when you stop taking it, you are seen as having a disease.”

10. “Alcohol is the only drug in the world where, when you stop taking it, you are seen as having a disease.”

— Holly Whitaker

Holly Whitaker Quote: “What I am saying is, alcohol is addictive to everyone. Yet we’ve created a separate disease called alcoholism and forced it upon the minority of the population who are willing to admit they can’t control their drinking, and because of that, we’ve focused on what’s wrong with those few humans rather than on what’s wrong with our alcohol-centric culture or the substance itself.”

11. “What I am saying is, alcohol is addictive to everyone. Yet we’ve created a separate disease called alcoholism and forced it upon the minority of the population who are willing to admit they can’t control their drinking, and because of that, we’ve focused on what’s wrong with those few humans rather than on what’s wrong with our alcohol-centric culture or the substance itself.”

— Holly Whitaker

Holly Whitaker Quote: “Spending a night out drinking is akin to dismantling every piece of protection we have – our cognition, our decision making, our reaction time, our memory, our standards, our voice. If we thought about alcohol in this way – as something that undermines our collective momentum and personal agency and vitality and self-worth – what would that mean for us? What if we all rejected the poison – then what? I’ll tell you what: world domination, bitches.”

12. “Spending a night out drinking is akin to dismantling every piece of protection we have – our cognition, our decision making, our reaction time, our memory, our standards, our voice. If we thought about alcohol in this way – as something that undermines our collective momentum and personal agency and vitality and self-worth – what would that mean for us? What if we all rejected the poison – then what? I’ll tell you what: world domination, bitches.”

— Holly Whitaker

Holly Whitaker Quote: “My passage into sobriety was both slow and fast. Slow, in that it took me seventeen years to realize alcohol had never done me any favors, seventeen years of trying to control it and master it and make it work for me like I imagined it worked for all the other people.”

13. “My passage into sobriety was both slow and fast. Slow, in that it took me seventeen years to realize alcohol had never done me any favors, seventeen years of trying to control it and master it and make it work for me like I imagined it worked for all the other people.”

— Holly Whitaker

Holly Whitaker Quote: “My work and my career trajectory were suffocating and inescapable, and they simultaneously became my escape. Work became the only place in the world where I knew how to be the worthy, together version of myself, and so work became the central force in my life.”

14. “My work and my career trajectory were suffocating and inescapable, and they simultaneously became my escape. Work became the only place in the world where I knew how to be the worthy, together version of myself, and so work became the central force in my life.”

— Holly Whitaker

Holly Whitaker Quote: “I also realized I no longer had to put up with people who made me feel less than, or react to people who provoked me. I didn’t have to be the mean one or the intolerant one or the nice one or the one who settles or the one no one respects. I didn’t have to hang around with people I couldn’t be myself with, or people who didn’t like me, or people I didn’t like, or people who cratered parts of me. I didn’t have to compete for love, or earn love, or manipulate for love. If sobriety.”

15. “I also realized I no longer had to put up with people who made me feel less than, or react to people who provoked me. I didn’t have to be the mean one or the intolerant one or the nice one or the one who settles or the one no one respects. I didn’t have to hang around with people I couldn’t be myself with, or people who didn’t like me, or people I didn’t like, or people who cratered parts of me. I didn’t have to compete for love, or earn love, or manipulate for love. If sobriety.”

— Holly Whitaker

Holly Whitaker Quote: “Guilt is always preferable to the thing that might give you brownie points for being a good person but ruin your mental health. Choose guilt over resentment, because guilt is a natural part of life, a thing we can work with and absolve ourselves of, while resentment is something that we heap on other people who weren’t asking for it anyway.”

16. “Guilt is always preferable to the thing that might give you brownie points for being a good person but ruin your mental health. Choose guilt over resentment, because guilt is a natural part of life, a thing we can work with and absolve ourselves of, while resentment is something that we heap on other people who weren’t asking for it anyway.”

— Holly Whitaker

Holly Whitaker Quote: “For me, going home sober at the end of the night and waking up without a hangover felt like the most wonderfully delicious thing I’d ever experienced.”

17. “For me, going home sober at the end of the night and waking up without a hangover felt like the most wonderfully delicious thing I’d ever experienced.”

— Holly Whitaker

Holly Whitaker Quote: “The reason you are turning to a substance to cope is as complicated as you are, and the only way you can get at what is causing you to need to numb out and escape is to look at the things that are driving that discomfort and to start adding solutions there.”

18. “The reason you are turning to a substance to cope is as complicated as you are, and the only way you can get at what is causing you to need to numb out and escape is to look at the things that are driving that discomfort and to start adding solutions there.”

— Holly Whitaker

Holly Whitaker Quote: “We go from being able to naturally act like kids to thinking the only time we get to access this state is when we’re a few drinks in.”

19. “We go from being able to naturally act like kids to thinking the only time we get to access this state is when we’re a few drinks in.”

— Holly Whitaker

Holly Whitaker Quote: “As Mark Twain said, “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”

20. “As Mark Twain said, “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”

— Holly Whitaker

Holly Whitaker Quote: “Healing means breaking this cycle of thought, and we don’t change how we think about ourselves by wishing it different; we change by actively engaging with different words, phrases, and beliefs, and repeating these mantras to ourselves until they interrupt the old hateful story and make a new loving one.”

21. “Healing means breaking this cycle of thought, and we don’t change how we think about ourselves by wishing it different; we change by actively engaging with different words, phrases, and beliefs, and repeating these mantras to ourselves until they interrupt the old hateful story and make a new loving one.”

— Holly Whitaker

Holly Whitaker Quote: “Women don’t need to be groomed to apologize further. They need to be groomed to be worthy of their own apologies to themselves.”

22. “Women don’t need to be groomed to apologize further. They need to be groomed to be worthy of their own apologies to themselves.”

— Holly Whitaker

Holly Whitaker Quote: “Finally, my hope, because here is the part of your dating life where you no longer date to find someone to fill the emptiness. You look for someone to share the fullness that you both already are.”

23. “Finally, my hope, because here is the part of your dating life where you no longer date to find someone to fill the emptiness. You look for someone to share the fullness that you both already are.”

— Holly Whitaker

Holly Whitaker Quote: “Creating is more than fun – it is total and complete absorption.”

24. “Creating is more than fun – it is total and complete absorption.”

— Holly Whitaker

Holly Whitaker Quote: “If you feel moved to stand up or give back, do something about it.”

25. “If you feel moved to stand up or give back, do something about it.”

— Holly Whitaker

Holly Whitaker Quote: “RASINS, or Recognize, Allow, set aside the Story, Investigate what is happening in your body, Name the sensations, and Surf. The goal is to learn to relax into the craving rather than distract ourselves from it; using the practice, we learn to stay in discomfort and witness our suffering, instead of creating more suffering.”

26. “RASINS, or Recognize, Allow, set aside the Story, Investigate what is happening in your body, Name the sensations, and Surf. The goal is to learn to relax into the craving rather than distract ourselves from it; using the practice, we learn to stay in discomfort and witness our suffering, instead of creating more suffering.”

— Holly Whitaker

Holly Whitaker Quote: “Is alcohol getting in the way of my happiness, my life, my self-esteem? Is it getting in the way of my dreams, or maybe just not working for me? Does it cost more than it gives, does it shrink more than it expands, does it cut pieces out of me I can’t reclaim? Does it make me hate myself, even just a little bit?”

27. “Is alcohol getting in the way of my happiness, my life, my self-esteem? Is it getting in the way of my dreams, or maybe just not working for me? Does it cost more than it gives, does it shrink more than it expands, does it cut pieces out of me I can’t reclaim? Does it make me hate myself, even just a little bit?”

— Holly Whitaker

Holly Whitaker Quote: “I use my voice, even if it is shaky, even if it is sometimes too angry. I don’t let people convince me that I’m not kind because I am holding a ground that so many women before me were murdered or tortured or imprisoned for holding, or trying to hold.”

28. “I use my voice, even if it is shaky, even if it is sometimes too angry. I don’t let people convince me that I’m not kind because I am holding a ground that so many women before me were murdered or tortured or imprisoned for holding, or trying to hold.”

— Holly Whitaker

Holly Whitaker Quote: “Because AA is the pervasive model, and because most people – with or without direct experience – understand AA is what you do when you have a problem with the drink, society expects you to participate in AA. To a degree, a drinking problem implies you are subject to its rules. It also implies you have lost the capacity, or even the right, to know what’s best for you.”

29. “Because AA is the pervasive model, and because most people – with or without direct experience – understand AA is what you do when you have a problem with the drink, society expects you to participate in AA. To a degree, a drinking problem implies you are subject to its rules. It also implies you have lost the capacity, or even the right, to know what’s best for you.”

— Holly Whitaker

Holly Whitaker Quote: “Guilt is always preferable to the thing that might give you brownie points for being a good person but ruin your mental health.”

30. “Guilt is always preferable to the thing that might give you brownie points for being a good person but ruin your mental health.”

— Holly Whitaker

Holly Whitaker Quote: “I didn’t say “maybe tonight” or debate it at all. I didn’t question whether I’d made the right decision; I fiercely honored the one I’d made. I had a unified mind, not a split one, so I didn’t need to call on my willpower.”

31. “I didn’t say “maybe tonight” or debate it at all. I didn’t question whether I’d made the right decision; I fiercely honored the one I’d made. I had a unified mind, not a split one, so I didn’t need to call on my willpower.”

— Holly Whitaker

Holly Whitaker Quote: “I’d accidentally built an approach to healing that raised up every single corner of my life.”

32. “I’d accidentally built an approach to healing that raised up every single corner of my life.”

— Holly Whitaker

Holly Whitaker Quote: “We love to protect alcohol and our right to consume it, and to vilify people who can’t handle it. We venerate the substance; we demonize those who get sick from using it.”

33. “We love to protect alcohol and our right to consume it, and to vilify people who can’t handle it. We venerate the substance; we demonize those who get sick from using it.”

— Holly Whitaker

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