"It was a private promise to myself that I was never going to drink in this condo. I don’t have to tell you that I didn’t keep that promise." In the fall of 2016, an old friend called to tell me she’d been sober for six months and hoped it was a down payment on forever. This was a woman with whom I joyfully drank during our junior year abroad in London. In our later years as mothers, we joked about drinking vodka — aka “water” — while our kids were in the bath. My first horrified thought was