Sober October, Dry January and Dry July: For one quarter of a year, these campaigns provide a motivation for people to come together and challenge themselves to go without alcohol.

It isn't a surprise to Annie Grace that these periods to reduce alcohol consumption are becoming more popular. The author of "This Naked Mind: Control Alcohol" said she is seeing more and more people evaluate the relationship that alcohol plays in their lives.

How much is too much? The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention classifies moderate drinking as two drinks or less in a day for men and one drink or less for women. But two-thirds of adult drinkers report drinking more than those levels at least once a month, according to the CDC.

And the pandemic didn't help. A December 2020 study found that 60% of respondents increased drinking over the year and more than a third said they engaged in binge drinking, which is defined as five or more drinks on an occasion for men and four for women.

Studies show that alcohol isn't good for healthy living. There is no safe amount when it comes to heart health, according to the World Heart Federation. And even moderate drinking reserved for the weekend can have social, emotional and psychological impacts, according to a 2022 study.

Sober October could be a step to cutting out alcohol entirely, but it doesn't have to be, said biological psychologist Aaron White, senior scientific adviser to the director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

Whatever your level of drinking, a monthlong sobriety challenge could help you be more mindful about your drinking, White added.

Who benefits?

You may think you might not need a break from drinking because you don't have signs of substance abuse disorder: your drinking causing serious impairment, health problems, disability or issues meeting responsibilities.

But problematic drinking is a spectrum -- not just a binary between addicted and fine, Grace said. You may drink a little but not feel good about why or how you drink. You may drink a lot but feel doing so functions well in your life.

Even people who don't drink heavily may find themselves with less control over when and how much they drink than they would like, Grace said.

She was one of those people. Grace didn't feel she needed treatment programs, but she found that reducing her drinking was a struggle, which to her was a sign that something needed to change.

Taking on a sobriety challenge doesn't mean you have to quit forever, but it can help you be more thoughtful in your decisions around drinking rather than doing it because it's what you usually do, White said.

"It gives somebody a chance to cultivate alternatives," he added.

How does it help?

Even in just a month, there is evidence that reduced alcohol consumption can be good for your physical health.

"Most people who drink excessively have fatty livers," White said. "Even taking a break for a month is enough to just bring your liver enzymes down and for your liver to look healthier."

Some people may find with less or no alcohol they sleep better and make better food choices for themselves, White said.

And for emotional health, a short-term challenge can point out feelings and routines that could be improved, Grace added.

Many of the people she works with -- even moderate drinkers -- describe their relationship with alcohol as something they are not in full control of, she said.

She encourages people who are using a sobriety challenge to take note of when they feel the urge to drink and what purpose it serves. Does it make you feel part of a community to share a drink at a party? Is that glass of wine after a long day a reliable sense of comfort?

Maybe the drink is an easy way -- but not the best -- to get those needs met, Grace said. Taking note and trying to find those things without a drink could open you up to new ways of fulfilling those feelings, White added.

How to be successful

There are a couple of stumbling blocks to plan for during a sober month, Grace said.

One is overcoming the desire to drink, and experts had different approaches to solve that problem.

Reducing drinking can have a similar effect as dieting -- the more you tell yourself you can't have it, the more you want it, said Natalie Mokari, a registered dietitian nutritionist in Charlotte, North Carolina.

She recommends starting with one less drink than you would usually have at each occasion or breaking a daily habit by limiting drinking to certain days. You can also have a sparkling water in between drinks or make weaker cocktails than usual to reduce your alcohol consumption, she said.

White said it is important not to feel shame if you end up drinking during your sobriety challenge. Don't throw out the whole experience by beating yourself up over a glass of wine, he added.

Grace recommended leading with curiosity and information. Learning more about the psychology and biology of alcohol really helped reduce her desire to drink, she said, and approaching her urges with curiosity rather than judgment allowed her to learn more about the role alcohol played in her life.

There is also social pressure to drink. How do you not drink when everyone else is? Especially if friends get uncomfortable when they don't see you with the beer you always have?

The first thing is to remember that people may make you feel bad because they are uncomfortable about their own relationship with drinking, Grace said.

It often helps to have a nonalcoholic drink in your hand at social events, White said, so the offer to have a drink doesn't even come up.

Don't binge on Nov. 1

If you are hoping to curb your habits or boost your health, it is important not to see crossing the finish line as the time to overindulge, Mokari said.

Dramatically reducing your consumption over that time can lower your tolerance, and what was enough for a buzz today could result in a much higher level of intoxication than you expect 30 days later, White said.

You may also be undoing the changes in habit you have been building over the course of the month by going back even harder once it's over, Grace added.

"In our society, even saying 'I want to take a break' is super brave," she said. "If you don't change how you feel about it but white-knuckle it the whole month, it becomes like this forbidden fruit syndrome."

Related video above: Was COVID-19 pandemic to blame for alcohol-related death spike?The rate of deaths that can be directly attributed to alcohol rose nearly 30% in the U.S. during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to new government data.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had already said the overall number of such deaths rose in 2020 and 2021. Two reports from the CDC this week provided further details on which groups have the highest death rates and which states are seeing the largest numbers."Alcohol is often overlooked" as a public health problem, said Marissa Esser, who leads the CDC's alcohol program. "But it is a leading preventable cause of death."A report released Friday focused on more than a dozen kinds of "alcohol-induced" deaths that were wholly blamed on drinking. Examples include alcohol-caused liver or pancreas failure, alcohol poisoning, withdrawal and certain other diseases. There were more than 52,000 such deaths last year, up from 39,000 in 2019.The rate of such deaths had been increasing in the two decades before the pandemic, by 7% or less each year.In 2020, they rose 26%, to about 13 deaths per 100,000 Americans. That's the highest rate recorded in at least 40 years, said the study's lead author, Merianne Spencer.Such deaths are 2 1/2 times more common in men than in women, but rose for both in 2020, the study found. The rate continued to be highest for people ages 55 to 64, but rose dramatically for certain other groups, including jumping 42% among women ages 35 to 44.The second report, published earlier this week in JAMA Network Open, looked at a wider range of deaths that could be linked to drinking, such as motor vehicle accidents, suicides, falls and cancers.More than 140,000 of that broader category of alcohol-related deaths occur annually, based on data from 2015 to 2019, the researchers said. CDC researchers say about 82,000 of those deaths are from drinking too much over a long period of time and 58,000 from causes tied to acute intoxication.The study found that as many as 1 in 8 deaths among U.S. adults ages 20 to 64 were alcohol-related deaths. New Mexico was the state with the highest percentage of alcohol-related deaths, 22%. Mississippi had the lowest, 9%Excessive drinking is associated with chronic dangers such as liver cancer, high blood pressure, stroke and heart disease. Drinking by pregnant women can lead to miscarriage, stillbirth or birth defects. And health officials say alcohol is a factor in as many as one-third of serious falls among the elderly.It's also a risk to others through drunken driving or alcohol-fueled violence. Surveys suggest that more than half the alcohol sold in the U.S. is consumed during binge drinking episodes.Even before the pandemic, U.S. alcohol consumption was trending up, and Americans were drinking more than when Prohibition was enacted. But deaths may have increased since the COVID-19 pandemic began for several reasons, including people with alcohol-related illnesses may have had more trouble getting medical care, Esser said.She added that the research points to a need to look at steps to reduce alcohol consumption, including increasing alcohol taxes and enacting measures that limit where people can buy beer, wine and liquor.

AMES, NY. -- In upstate New York sits a tiny village nestled in a quilt of green patches dusted with snow in the winter.

“When you’re in a small town, everyone knows everyone,” homeowner Nick Drummond said.

The village is called Ames. Population: 150 people – give or take a few.

“We’re one of the smallest incorporated villages in New York state,” village historian Stacy Ward said.

The villagers say rural life has a peaceful charm.

“I love it here," village blacksmith Michael McCarthy said. "I think it’s a quiet little village.”

It attracts people looking for a getaway from the hustle and bustle of city life.

“In Ames, you'll find very friendly people, very rural landscape, beautiful old houses and the Ames museum,” public historian Alicia Jettner said.

The rich history and quaint lifestyle are what eventually drew Nick Drummond and Patrick Bakker to the area.

“We sort of have our growing little flock of chickens and they’re the best and they are a constant source of entertainment,” Drummond said.

“The history is still so visible and alive,” Drummond's partner Patrick Bakker said.

Little did they know the house they moved into would have evidence of its history left behind.

“Every building has a story to tell," Drummond said. "And it’s really a matter of peeling back all the different parts and pieces and sort of analyzing them. You’d be surprised by what you can find.”

What they found took them back to an era when American life was very different.

“It came with some crazy local urban legend that it was built by a bootlegger,” Drummond said.

It was a legend that seemed too fantastical to be true. But then, Drummond and Bakker started the process of renovation and one of the first spots they wanted to tackle was the mudroom.

“I started pulling these rotten wood boards kind of where the foundation would have been under the mudroom and that’s when the first package came out,” Drummond said.

The Grand Discovery

Drummond and Bakker are the owners of the Bootlegger Bungalow.

Before it got its infamous name, Drummond and Bakker moved into the century-old house knowing it would need a face-lift. One of their first projects was to transform the mudroom into a powder room.

“Throughout the house’s whole life, the mudroom has just been an unfinished room," Drummond said. "There was never any wall sheathing or anything like that. It was basically just a shack added to the back of the house at some time around 1920.”

It didn’t take much prying and pulling at decaying walls and floorboards for the house’s mysterious history to begin spilling out.

“I was in the process of removing this rotted wood skirting that went around the mudroom sort of where the foundation would be if it was a truly finished structure, and as I’m peeling back the boards on one of the sides, all of the sudden all this hay falls out and I was very confused," Drummond said. "And at first, I was like ‘oh this must be insulation’ – of course all this is taking place within a few seconds in my head -- and then I look and I’m like ‘well wait a second, what’s that glass thing? And then I pull it up and I’m looking at this old liquor bottle. And then I’m looking at the other package and there’s these other little tops poking out of the hay. And then I look back at the wall and there’s like the edge of this other package tied up with string and I’m like, ‘Holy crap, this is like a stash of booze.’”

Brown paper packages tied up with string filled with an alcohol lover’s favorite thing.

“I was totally excited and we ended up finding the rest of the mudroom was lined with these packages,” Drummond said.

“At the end of the day we were just sitting, and we were like, ‘We really like the house so much more now,'” Bakker said.

Drummond and Bakker figured there had to be more. A little trap door called them to venture under the floor. Drummond crawled into the two-foot space filled with gravel and cobwebs and came across a bunch of boards sealed with flathead screws.

“No one would have gone through the trouble of using a bunch of flathead screws for something like that," Drummond said. "Unless they wanted to remove it in the future. So I saw that and I was like, ‘Oh my God, we have to look inside the floors.'”

All it took was a pry bar to peel back the century-old wood. Peeking into the space like a treasure box, Drummond encountered bottles upon bottles of different sizes. Most of them were empty.

The empty bottles were a slight let-down compared to those still full of whiskey. So Drummond continued his search to other parts under the mudroom floor that hadn’t seen the light of day since the 1920s. He discovered more bottles of Gaelic Whiskey bringing the count up to 72. Seven bundles were found in the wall. Five more were found in the floor.

“All the booze that we found is actually a brand that’s still around today," Drummond said. "It’s called Old Smuggler; it is a whiskey blend. It would have been imported from Scotland. More likely than not, it went from Scotland to Canada, and then was smuggled from Canada to New York. And so even though it seems like we’re in the middle of nowhere… we would have been relatively well connected in terms of the Erie Canal and other transport methods. So if you were a bootlegger in this area, it would have been a good location to sort of get booze into the city – into New York.”

So who was the person who hid all this booze?

“He was a barren baron who smuggled old smuggler – of course he was.”

The Infamous Bootlegger

The Bootlegger Bungalow and the man who left bundles of Gaelic Whiskey stashed in the house piqued the interest of more than just the homeowners.

The 100+ newspaper articles written about him prove he was the talk of the town during his time.

“He was known as the count… Count Humpfner," Drummond said. "That was totally a self-proclaimed title. They found out after this death that he made the entire thing up. I love that; I’m just going to start calling myself the Countess of Ames.”

Count Adolf Humpfner plays leading role amongst a cast of supporting characters whose names are almost too wild to be taken seriously.

“Luscious Beers, Harry Berry, Count Humpfner, the missing widow. It’s like all these parts are to a dramatic screenplay or something," Drummond said.

There are no photos to be found of the notorious Count Humpfner, but a newspaper clipping from the 1930s makes it easier to picture what type of man he was.

“This was after his death," Drummond said. "They were auctioning off the contents of his house. And it’s kind of amazing reading through this crazy list of auction items because it gave you such a good sense of who Count Humpfner was. I mean… the guy had a buffalo robe. I don’t even know what that was. But I’m just imagining this tall heavy-set German guy walking around in a Buffalo robe surrounded by dozens of cash registers. It’s fantastic. I love it. I love thinking about that.”

Dr. Richard Hamm is a professor of history at the University at Albany and an expert on the Prohibition era.

“What do you need to do this? Basically, you needed to have the desire to break the law, make some money, a car, and a boat,” Dr. Hamm said. “This was a product of the Anti-Saloon League. The tremendous standard encyclopedia of the alcohol problem in six volumes.”

Starting in the 1830s and 40s, Dr. Hamm says there was a growing temperance movement to make abstinence from liquor the moral and legal standard in the U.S.

“We were a drunken society," Dr. Hamm said. "And there was a reaction to this. There was first a reaction to this isn’t healthy because after all these are the people who vote and create the government.”

At the same time, he says there was a religious impulse to drive out sin and Christian women started forming unions and leagues to dry out the nation state by state. By 1920, they were successful on a national scale.

“In 1920, the United States adopts a policy that it would be illegal to transport, and sell, and store for sale alcohol for beverage purposes.”

However, the criminalization didn’t cut back the desire to drink. The dangerous yet profitable bootlegger market was born.

Dr. Hamm says it wasn’t so difficult to smuggle in alcohol from other countries. Especially on the northern border considering Canada was a country that allowed alcohol imports.

“It was hard not to pass it up when it was so easy,” Dr. Hamm said.

The border patrol – created in the 1920s – only had 450 agents.

“That’s 450 agents for 7,500 miles of border," Dr. Hamm said.

If you were suspected of carrying spirits you were in trouble.

“The prohibition laws both state and national gave very expansive search and seizure powers to government officials,” Dr. Hamm said.

That is likely why Count Humpfner hid his Gaelic Whisky so well.

“Finding this many bottles is just extraordinary," Dr. Hamm said.

Humpfner died mysteriously in 1932, a year before the end of national prohibition.

“He suddenly said something like ‘something’s not right’ and then he collapsed,” Drummond said.

He was rushed to the hospital, but didn't make it.

“They come back to the house. They end up finding a bunch of papers and things all over the house. They find 45 grand in cash – which is like finding 500-thousand bucks in someone’s living room – they find multiple aliases, foreign bank accounts, multiple deeds, like 23 deeds to properties in New York City," Dr. Hamm said.

Many tried to claim his fortune, but it ended up going to his wife who had run away after an unsuccessful divorce.

“She would send him letters and found send ‘a thousand kisses’ at the end of every letter," Drummond said. "So in typical 1906 fashion, if you send a letter to someone telling them you love them, you can’t possibly be beaten. So basically they threw the case out, and they said, 'Look, she loves him, she sent a thousand kisses, we won’t grant the divorce.' And she ran away. And it’s funny because he actually sabotaged the divorce proceedings, they never actually were divorced, and she ended up getting the fortune.”

Drummond said Bakker say they don’t know if she had any kids. However, they do believe he was the man she described because the only written word from him was the biggest lie of his life.

“He published an article in the paper written by him and it was this thing basically saying, ‘Any suggestion that I am associated with this still is blasphemous and if you say anything I will stick my lawyers on you. And how dare you attack my good character; I have nothing to do with it.' And so it’s great – the one thing we have from him is him denying he was a bootlegger,” Drummond said.

A Special Visitor

Thanks to the incredible tale of the Bootlegger Bungalow, a man who was once the talk of the town is back in the spotlight with the gossip-mill churning at the museum, the flower shop down the road, the Blacksmith’s forge and within the historic homes that line the one intersection of the village.

“I thought it was really interesting. I was like ‘oh wow!’ Ya know it’s not something I expected,” public historian Alicia Jettner said.

“It’s amazing to me that they were able to hide it for almost 100 years,” village blacksmith Michael Mcarthy said.

“Course it was during Prohibition and so it was a dry place, but clearly not that dry,” village historian Stacy Ward said.

“To find a case of alcohol in Ames, New York in the middle of the state is a little surprising. To find it at all is kind of amazing,” Richard Hamm said.

"I mean we lived there a year and we walked on top of that floor everyday not knowing what was underneath there," Bakker said. "That’s such a crazy thought.”

Actually, two other families had lived in the house not knowing they were sitting on a gold mine. A young woman who lived in the house only a decade after Count Humpfner’s death found out about the discovery through social media and paid Drummond and Bakker a visit.

Now 96-years-old, Frances Skoda moved into the house with her family back in 1941. Skoda's parents bought the house only eight years after national prohibition ended, and owned it for nearly three decades, but she says they never knew about the dozens of whisky bottles hidden around the house.

“I was flabbergasted," Skoda said. "I had no idea. I don’t think even mom or dad knew it.”

Skoda and her niece Gail got a tour of the latest home-in-progress. Along with them, black-and-white photo proof of what it used to look like. Flooded with memories from her young-adult life, she took over the role of tour guide, filling in historical gaps that connect the home’s prohibition past to its modern renovations.

“I was glad to come. I haven’t been here in a long time. It’s good to be back," Skoda said.

The Bootlegger Bungalow is leaving a lasting impression on many people from one generation to the next.

“It made us think about things through a different lens and all of the sudden preservation of certain parts of the house we had never thought of before became important to us," Drummond said. "I mean the mudroom which we had never really thought much of, it was just a shack. And now all of the sudden it’s at the center of all this craziness and now the question is sort of ‘how do we restore this in a sensitive way, how do we pay homage to this incredible history.’”

“If it was up to me, we probably would have ripped up the floor as soon as we found the first thing but Nick is very good in realizing how something that historic is only historic and original once,” Bakker said.

They are laying a sturdy foundation for new memories and being careful not to paint over a house that has become a character itself.

“After finding the booze, we sort of initially thought that might be the end of the story, but in a lot of ways it was the beginning,” Drummond said.

“I’m sure we’ll move in the future, but I don’t think we’ll sell the house," Bakker said. "I think we’ll keep it just because of the story it has now.”

As for the booze, they’ve already heard from many interested collectors.

“Value is hard because it’s very much bottle-by-bottle and depends on the condition and fill level, but for most of the full bottles, we were told to expect values between 500 to 1,200,” Drummond said.

If you’ve been wondering all this time whether or not the whiskey's drinkable, Drummond and Bakker did a tasting of their own.

“I mean, I’m not really a whiskey drinker, but it’s drinkable!” Drummond said.

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so U. S. Labor Secretary marty Walsh is joining us right now. Mrs Secretary, we appreciate your time today. I want to start with the latest jobs report, the US added 235,000 jobs in august however, that is far less than the roughly one million jobs a month added in june and july, why is there such a dramatic discrepancy in the jobs numbers this summer? Well, I think there's, I think there's a couple things going on here. One is, if you look at this jobs report a positive side of it, we added 203,000 the private sector, which is a good number when you think about uh previous months. Uh we also saw a growth in manufacturing, which is another good number. Uh the area that we didn't see any growth at all was in hospitality and leisure and restaurants Uh in in the last three months, those who have been the biggest areas of gain that we've seen. So I think that the delta variant has definitely had an impact on this report as we think about moving forward. Uh and you know, maybe the end of the summer a little bit as well, but certainly it tells us we still have work to do here before we get fully recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic. And that leads me right into this employers particularly in new Hampshire in that service and hospitality industries, they've really been struggling to find workers and they've been forced to cut their hours, Why are there so many unfilled jobs, I think, you know, to get that question all the time. And I think two of the real uh big obstacles are one uh, is the fear of covid 19. Uh, and people still concerned about uh contracting covid 19, uh, concerned about people who are refused to get vaccinated and working with them and maybe going out. Uh, that's one of the reasons. I think the second reason I would say and maybe not in disorder is the lack of childcare. Many parents have no place for their kids to go. Uh, particularly single mothers in the daytime. Where can they go when they go to work? Uh, school started last week. I think that the month of the month of september we could see some good growth here because parents will have school open for the kids to go to? Uh, the one concern that we all have is what, what's the, what's going to happen with the variant? Where will we be with the delta variant? Where we be with with the numbers and hopefully we can have the trend turned down. I know in new Hampshire and massachusetts, the delta variant wasn't, it didn't have as big of an impact to say, you know, florida and other states, but still, uh, there's a concern out there, even still a lot of people, they need to make a living. I mean, are these people who just aren't planning to return to the economy or do you expect them to come back? I think a lot of people are gonna come back. I'm not sure like how some people are surviving. I think, you know, I don't know if people were moving in with their parents or or doubling up with families, but certainly, uh, you know, the we need to get americans back to work here for our economy to continue to move forward. We've added 4,000,004 and a half million jobs since President biden has taken office. Uh, we've averaged 750,000 jobs the last three months. So we have seen good growth and you know, the thing that we're dealing with is a pandemic. There's no playbook. We don't, you know, this is all day by day new to us as far as it's not, it's not a typical recession and it's it's it's, you know, we have to continue to look and see how do we, we move our economy forward there there is some investments that the president wants to make and the cares economy, there's some investments the president wants to make uh, in in the in the in the bipartisan infrastructure bill. Both Senator Shaheen and Hassan supported that bill, which is a good bill. It's that bill that's going to make major investment in roads and bridges and broadband access for rural America and you know, clean drinking water. We still have too many people in this country drink outlet pipe. So there's a good investment bill heading heading towards the Senate right towards the Congress right now. So we do have to be focused on on how do we continue to build our economy? We've seen the concerns that the delta variant is causing across the country are their concerns that the delta variants or even other variants could cause further surges and derail the economic recovery. Yeah, there's no question about it. I think that uh, I wouldn't necessarily call today's job numbers of derailment, but certainly I think it was very impactful the delta variant to those to the bottom line of today's jobs report. Uh, so, you know, the president has been very clear on, on insisting and pushing people to be vaccinated. We're seeing in these areas where we have high vaccine rates. Uh, less number cases of delta very and less cases of coronavirus and the folks that are getting the virus that have been vaccinated. Uh, the illness of that is far less severe than people who are not vaccinated. There's a critical shortage, a shortage of nurses in new Hampshire and many other states. What is the administration's plan to help get more nurses and other health care workers into the pipeline? I was in Arizona two weeks ago with the mayor of phoenix and I met with three ceo executives from the health care industry there and they were talking about this exact issue of lack of nurses or shortage of nurses and and quite honestly over the next 10 years, that shortage is going to be greater. Um I had a meeting today with my team here at the Department of Labor to talk about the infrastructure bill, the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the cares economy infrastructure bill about the ability for us to create a training program to work with hospitals and nursing schools around the country to really close that gap if we don't make a major investment in nursing in this country over the course of the next year and really prepare for the next 5 to 10 years. Uh This will be a health care crisis uh and also in the mental health space, making sure that we're creating opportunities for counselor. So uh you know, we're gonna be talking to health and human services and we're gonna be talking across cabinet through education as well to see how we, how we create better pathways for nursing, mental health counselors and and like here in the federal government and finally, Mr Secretary as we Mark Labour Day weekend, what is the biden administration predicting this fall in weekend? And what is the job outlook for the upcoming seasons? Well, I think, I think, you know, if you look at, if you look at the last three months, the average job gain is 750,000. You know, today's number obviously is not not what was projected, but neither was last month, last month was was under projected, but certainly President Biden's plan is to continue to move forward uh, steady and continue to see good growth in our economy. The economy is strong in America. We need to continue to add to that strength. Uh, and and and the biden administration quite honestly, President biden and myself, we just want to make sure that as we go into Labor Day understand that America strong. Uh, the president has a plan to build back better. Uh, the president has a plan to win the future, which means that wants to get more manufacturing going on. He wants us to make sure that that we continue to be the world leader when it comes to opportunities for people to to be able to get jobs and whether it's a tech world or the manufacturing world or what have you, uh, he wants to continue to move forward. And I just personally want to just wish everyone uh in new Hampshire a very and everyone watching a very happy Labor Day. I want to do a special thank you to the essential worker, The first responder, the nurses, the doctors in the hospital staff. These folks for the last 19 months have been working uh, in some case around the clock, making sure that we're safe. We're healthy. We stay alive and also keep us Fed. Uh, so if you see a first responders or see a hospital worker or essential worker, make sure you just say thank you to them because they're, they're, they're uh, you know, downtown. everything they can to make sure that we continue to move forward. On that note, Mr. Secretary have a nice holiday weekend and thank you very much for your time. We appreciate it. Thank you Happy Labor Day you as well.

Labor Secretary Marty Walsh opens up about his sobriety as the nation faces addiction crisis

Updated: 1:25 PM EDT Oct 3, 2021

Marty Walsh chose to go to an alcohol detox program in 1995. But even after committing to it, he was questioning his decision."I didn't want to go to detox. ... When I got there, I thought to myself: 'What am I doing here?' " the secretary of labor said in an interview with CNN during National Recovery Month, which has taken on an extra level of significance as COVID-19 fuels concerns over a rise in addiction in America.The interview comes as the Biden administration looks toward tackling addiction issues throughout the U.S., which seem to have hit a boiling point amid the coronavirus pandemic. Preliminary numbers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention record more than 93,000 U.S. overdose deaths last year, and alcohol consumption among American adults seems to have increased. Walsh entered the program in 1995, years before he landed in the political world. He said his relationship with alcohol at the time felt like a "love affair," such was the power of the addiction. But "the fun started to go away and then blackouts started to happen.""Then problems happen," Walsh said.During the pandemic, there's been more stress spurred by job insecurity, job risks, illness and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of loved ones. There's been less capacity at addiction treatment facilities. And most prevalent, Walsh argued, is that people have felt more isolated.The spread of the coronavirus "hasn't challenged my sobriety, but I think the pandemic has forced a lot of people to kind of get away from the traditional Alcoholics Anonymous and get away from the traditional supports they have out there," Walsh said. "And even I got away from meetings. I was on Zoom, but I got away from meetings."Overdose deaths are at a record high. And American adults' alcohol consumption appears to have increased during the pandemic, with nearly 1 in 4 adults reporting drinking more to cope with their stress in one American Psychological Association poll."You feel it," Walsh added. "I didn't want to drink over it. But you just feel it inside of you -- it's like you're edgy or you might not be feeling yourself. You're not dealing with situations and troubles that happen that are out there."Ultimately, Walsh said, he largely decided to commit to the program more than 20 years ago to address how his relationship with alcohol was impacting his mental health."I felt like I was just sad, depressed ... maybe not clinically defined depressed, but I was depressed and I had this pit in my stomach," Walsh said. "And I wanted to get rid of that. I haven't had that pit in my stomach in over 20 years." Breaking the stigmaWalsh's recovery has become a central part of his political identity.Two years after going to detox, he became a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. While in the statehouse, he said, he decided to speak out about his recovery after hearing his mentor Kevin Fitzgerald, a former Massachusetts state lawmaker, speak openly about his own recovery.Video above: Here are some warning signs of alcoholismWhen Walsh ascended the rungs of politics and became mayor of Boston, he remained outspoken about his recovery journey, notably opening his 2016 speech at the Democratic National Convention by saying, "My name is Marty Walsh and I'm an alcoholic.""I think it's important to kind of break that stigma and let people know that it's OK to admit that you're powerless over alcohol, that you're powerless over drugs and you can get help," Walsh said.While Walsh served as Boston's mayor, the city launched a number of initiatives aimed at helping individuals facing addiction, including the Office of Recovery Services. Boston also started a 24-hour recovery hotline and mandated that every public safety vehicle in the city be equipped with naloxone -- a drug that can bring some people back from opioid overdoses.Since becoming labor secretary, Walsh says he's had conversations with different federal agencies about recovery-related programs modeled after his work as mayor.He also underscored the importance of having the enforcement of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 under the Labor Department's jurisdiction. Under the Biden administration, the federal government has shown renewed interest in enforcing the law, which requires that insurance coverage for mental health disorders, including treatment for substance use disorders, be no more restrictive than coverage for medical benefits."Obviously President Biden is focused on this as well. I've had some good conversations with President Biden about recovery and the need for more programming," Walsh added.But he cautioned that "we can have all the programs in the world but if people aren't willing to go into them, that's a problem.""When somebody needs a bed, we need to have a bed for anyone who wants one," Walsh said.Pandemic creates an addiction nightmareThe conditions spurred by the pandemic have seemingly created a perfect storm for addiction and relapse, having led to isolation, stress and labor shortages among some sectors of the economy.The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy said in its year-one policy priorities that while there are some protections for individuals with histories of substance use disorder under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, "employers are often reluctant to hire a person with a history of substance use disorder," arguing that the federal government should find ways to "remove barriers to employment and create employment programs for people in recovery from addiction."Asked about the role the federal government plays in reducing hiring stigma, Walsh said, "I think the federal government can tell the story about recovery and about giving people second chances and maybe a third chance.""You're talking to the labor secretary of the United States of America, who is a recovering alcoholic. Somebody gave me a second chance," he added.If you or someone you know needs help tackling a drug or alcohol addiction, call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration hotline at 1-800-662-4357.

Marty Walsh chose to go to an alcohol detox program in 1995. But even after committing to it, he was questioning his decision.

"I didn't want to go to detox. ... When I got there, I thought to myself: 'What am I doing here?' " the secretary of labor said in an interview with CNN during National Recovery Month, which has taken on an extra level of significance as COVID-19 fuels concerns over a rise in addiction in America.

The interview comes as the Biden administration looks toward tackling addiction issues throughout the U.S., which seem to have hit a boiling point amid the coronavirus pandemic. Preliminary numbers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention record more than 93,000 U.S. overdose deaths last year, and alcohol consumption among American adults seems to have increased.

Walsh entered the program in 1995, years before he landed in the political world. He said his relationship with alcohol at the time felt like a "love affair," such was the power of the addiction. But "the fun started to go away and then blackouts started to happen."

"Then problems happen," Walsh said.

During the pandemic, there's been more stress spurred by job insecurity, job risks, illness and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of loved ones. There's been less capacity at addiction treatment facilities. And most prevalent, Walsh argued, is that people have felt more isolated.

The spread of the coronavirus "hasn't challenged my sobriety, but I think the pandemic has forced a lot of people to kind of get away from the traditional Alcoholics Anonymous and get away from the traditional supports they have out there," Walsh said. "And even I got away from meetings. I was on Zoom, but I got away from meetings."

Overdose deaths are at a record high. And American adults' alcohol consumption appears to have increased during the pandemic, with nearly 1 in 4 adults reporting drinking more to cope with their stress in one American Psychological Association poll.

"You feel it," Walsh added. "I didn't want to drink over it. But you just feel it inside of you -- it's like you're edgy or you might not be feeling yourself. You're not dealing with situations and troubles that happen that are out there."

Ultimately, Walsh said, he largely decided to commit to the program more than 20 years ago to address how his relationship with alcohol was impacting his mental health.

"I felt like I was just sad, depressed ... maybe not clinically defined depressed, but I was depressed and I had this pit in my stomach," Walsh said. "And I wanted to get rid of that. I haven't had that pit in my stomach in over 20 years."

Breaking the stigma

Walsh's recovery has become a central part of his political identity.

Two years after going to detox, he became a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. While in the statehouse, he said, he decided to speak out about his recovery after hearing his mentor Kevin Fitzgerald, a former Massachusetts state lawmaker, speak openly about his own recovery.

Video above: Here are some warning signs of alcoholism

When Walsh ascended the rungs of politics and became mayor of Boston, he remained outspoken about his recovery journey, notably opening his 2016 speech at the Democratic National Convention by saying, "My name is Marty Walsh and I'm an alcoholic."

"I think it's important to kind of break that stigma and let people know that it's OK to admit that you're powerless over alcohol, that you're powerless over drugs and you can get help," Walsh said.

While Walsh served as Boston's mayor, the city launched a number of initiatives aimed at helping individuals facing addiction, including the Office of Recovery Services. Boston also started a 24-hour recovery hotline and mandated that every public safety vehicle in the city be equipped with naloxone -- a drug that can bring some people back from opioid overdoses.

Since becoming labor secretary, Walsh says he's had conversations with different federal agencies about recovery-related programs modeled after his work as mayor.

He also underscored the importance of having the enforcement of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 under the Labor Department's jurisdiction. Under the Biden administration, the federal government has shown renewed interest in enforcing the law, which requires that insurance coverage for mental health disorders, including treatment for substance use disorders, be no more restrictive than coverage for medical benefits.

"Obviously President Biden is focused on this as well. I've had some good conversations with President Biden about recovery and the need for more programming," Walsh added.

But he cautioned that "we can have all the programs in the world but if people aren't willing to go into them, that's a problem."

"When somebody needs a bed, we need to have a bed for anyone who wants one," Walsh said.

Pandemic creates an addiction nightmare

The conditions spurred by the pandemic have seemingly created a perfect storm for addiction and relapse, having led to isolation, stress and labor shortages among some sectors of the economy.

The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy said in its year-one policy priorities that while there are some protections for individuals with histories of substance use disorder under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, "employers are often reluctant to hire a person with a history of substance use disorder," arguing that the federal government should find ways to "remove barriers to employment and create employment programs for people in recovery from addiction."

Asked about the role the federal government plays in reducing hiring stigma, Walsh said, "I think the federal government can tell the story about recovery and about giving people second chances and maybe a third chance."

"You're talking to the labor secretary of the United States of America, who is a recovering alcoholic. Somebody gave me a second chance," he added.

If you or someone you know needs help tackling a drug or alcohol addiction, call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration hotline at 1-800-662-4357.