What is Gray Area Drinking? Spotting the Signs and How to Stop

You may have heard of the term “gray area drinking.” Does it trigger that pesky voice in your head whispering, “Am I drinking too much?”

Put simply, gray area drinking is any drinking that falls between social drinking and alcohol use disorder. It’s not quite one or the other, hence the name.

According to the Washington Post, alcohol consumption surged during the pandemic, with alcohol-related deaths rising in every state. Now, more Americans than ever are starting to rethink their relationship with booze.

What does gray area drinking look like? Well, there are a few different signs that you might be a gray area drinker. For one, you might find that you’re starting to drink more often than you used to. Maybe you are drinking a larger quantity of alcohol when you drink as well.  

In this article, I’ll cover what is gray area drinking, how to tell if you are a gray area drinker, the problem with gray area drinking, and the key to stopping.* 

*Disclaimer – I am not a healthcare professional. I am writing this based on my experience as a former gray area drinker. If you think you have a serious alcohol addiction, please seek proper medical help.

The Gray Area of Drinking is a Real Place 

If you suspect your alcohol consumption is too high but don’t think your drinking behaviors would characterize you as an alcoholic, you’re not alone. With alcohol use, our society generally only recognizes “alcoholics” and “normal drinkers.” But in fact, it’s not so black and white, and there is a whole spectrum of alcohol use from bingers to daily drinkers.  

The term “gray area drinking” was popularized by Jolene Park, who shared her experience of problematic drinking in her TED Talk, which you can catch below.

She describes gray area drinking as the kind of drinking where you’re not a typical alcoholic, but you drink to manage anxiety and then regret how much and how often you drink.

As it turns out, gray area drinking is fairly common.

According to a 2014 CDC survey, nearly one-third of American adults are heavy drinkers, and only 10% of them have alcohol use disorder or AUD.

“This study shows that, contrary to popular opinion, most people who drink too much are not alcohol dependent or alcoholics.”

Dr. Robert Brewer, Alcohol Program Lead at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

What this implies, then, is that more people are gray area drinkers than they know.

The survey defined excessive drinking as any of these four drinking patterns:

• Binge drinking: Men who have more than five drinks per occasion or women who have more than four 
• Heavy drinking: Men who have more than 15 drinks per week or women who have more than eight 
• Drinking under age
• Drinking while pregnant

I don’t know about you, but I’m certainly guilty of the first three, and I would say most of the people I used to drink with are, too. 

And remember, the standard serving, for example, for a glass of wine is just five fluid ounces, while most people pour more than that in restaurants and at home.

So, most people undercount the actual servings of alcohol they consume, which means they’re drinking more than they realize. 

The Slippery Path to Alcohol Dependence

The thing that is problematic about the number of people who are in the gray area of drinking is that they’re at risk for developing alcohol dependence, which is a chronic medical condition that typically includes a current or past history of excessive drinking, an intense craving for alcohol, continued use despite repeated problems associated with it, and an inability to moderate.

You don’t have to be on the extreme end of substance abuse to have a problem or for it to be negatively impacting your life. You don’t have to hit rock bottom to question your relationship with it or give it up altogether. 

According to the co-author of Almost Alcoholic, Joseph Nowinski, PhD, 

“There are many people in the almost alcoholic zone who are having alcohol-related problems with their health, their relationships and social lives, and even their work, but who don’t connect the dots between these problems and their drinking… These people dismiss the possibility of being an alcoholic—and they truly don’t qualify under current definitions—but may need to take a step back to look at how drinking is affecting their lives.”

What Are the Subtle Signs of Gray Area Drinking?

Here are some signs or symptoms of “gray area” drinking:

• You drink a higher quantity, sooner in the day, and more days per week than when you started drinking
• Part of you feels like you drink normally while the other part thinks you might not
• You have a hard time moderating, often consuming more than you had planned
• You start to Google how much drinking is “normal” or “healthy”
• You look to your peer group, family, and colleagues, comparing your drinking habits with theirs
• You drink on occasion to the point of blacking out alone or in social settings
• You can stop drinking at times and find it easy to stop for months, days, weeks, or years, but then you find yourself going back to your previous levels of drinking
• The people around you don’t think you have a problem
• You don’t remember the last time you were able to wake up feeling well-rested
• You drink to deal with your emotions or decompress from a long day
• You drink to push through a hangover
• You would turn down going to a social event that doesn’t involve alcohol
• You drink before going out or after you come home from a night out drinking
• You feel stuck and want more out of life, and alcohol helps you repress that longing

Can Anyone Become a Gray Area Drinker?

Yes, absolutely. Anyone can become a gray area drinker.

Anyone can fall into the trap because alcohol is an addictive substance. Period. 

Take cigarettes; we don’t view someone as weak for getting addicted to them because they’re known to be addictive. The same should apply to booze.

To uncover why this is true, it’s essential to understand three things:

• The alcohol use spectrum (why drinking is not black and white)
• The impact of drinking on your neurochemistry
• The impact of media and drinking culture

The Alcohol Use Spectrum

In his book, Drinking Sucks, author, Chris Scott, explains how the alcohol use spectrum is loosely divided into four phases, any of which you could spend years or an entire life.

Let’s look at the phases a little closer:

The Experimental Phase

This is when alcohol is brand new to you. You’ve only used it a few times. You don’t love the taste and must mix it with something else to get it down. You’ve only drunk with other people.

You’re using alcohol to:

• Act rebellious
• Fit in
• To grow up faster

The Honeymoon Phase

You’ve grown accustomed to being a drinker and drinking occasionally or regularly, yet you do not experience any horrible impacts from your drinking, besides the occasional hangover. You’re able to moderate drinking, and you perceive yourself to be enjoying it. Sure, you overdo it here and there, but for the most part, you don’t.

In this phase, you normally drink:

• To socialize at parties
• To meet new people
• For fun/to get energized

The Gray Area Drinking Phase

If your drinking progresses to this phase, alcohol is a massive part of your life, and drinking is starting to reveal its downsides. It is noticeably impacting your physical and mental health at this stage.

You’re drinking more than ever, enjoying it less, and are beginning to grow unhappy with alcohol’s presence in your life.

You might be developing severe hangovers, and you experience more anxiety than you used to (whether or not you are aware of the fact that alcohol is what feeds it).

You drink:

• Every weekend and multiple weeknights or seldomly, but you binge when you do
• After a long work day to wind down or after the kids are put to bed
• To nurse a hangover
• To help you complete stressful or boring tasks
• To deal with complex emotions and unpleasant events
• To manage insomnia and anxiety

Severe Alcohol Use Disorder

For those who find themselves at this end of the spectrum, their drinking is characterized by addiction. The drinker has become entirely dependent, and the impact is wreaking major havoc on their life. They hide just how severe their levels of alcohol intake have become.

Someone with alcohol use disorder drinks to:

• Cope with depression
• Complete daily tasks
• Prevent withdrawal symptoms
• Get out of bed in the morning

Now that we’ve covered the alcohol use spectrum and the different phases, it’s essential to understand how you can progress from one phase to the other and why some people never get addicted.

Alcohol Changes Your Neurochemistry

We all know that if you spend more time engaging with something addictive, you will likely develop an addiction. But no one starts drinking to get addicted!

You think, “That won’t happen to me,” or “I would never let it get that far.” And that could stay true, or—because you’re playing with fire—developing a relationship with alcohol will end badly for you.

William Porter, in his book, Alcohol Explained, shares that most “experimental” and “honeymoon” phase drinkers who experience a hangover can’t imagine touching the stuff while dealing with its nasty, next-day effects (which is the result of your body withdrawing from alcohol). The very thought of drinking a beer or taking a shot revolts them.

The problem is that, he continues, once you’ve entered the gray area phase or have full-blown alcohol use disorder, it’s because you either consciously or unconsciously know that you can cruise past a hangover simply by getting buzzed or drunk again.

And, once this knowledge sets in, you can never not know it. Your brain will always want you to turn to alcohol to deal with the unpleasant feelings of the previous drinks wearing off. He warns this is when you really need to watch out because a vicious cycle develops. 

This is why alcohol is a catch-22: It becomes necessary to fix problems caused by alcohol, with alcohol. Over time, your brain rewires its pathways to crave it more and more.

Alcohol is a Socially Accepted and Heavily Promoted Drug

Due to the impact of alcohol on your brain and its neural pathways, it’s not your fault if you can’t “Just have one or two!” Even though it’s in the alcohol industry’s best interest to make it seem like it’s your fault. 

They’ll make you and everyone around you believe that you are the problem, not the proven, toxic substance you are imbibing. People will defend alcohol, despite all we know about how ruinous it is for our health and society.  

Big alcohol championed the phrase, “Drink responsibly.” And when you think about it, it’s a complete oxymoron. 

Have you ever heard that being said about any other addictive substance? 

It’s like if big tobacco were to say, “Yes, it’s safe to smoke cigarettes, but be responsible. Don’t smoke a whole pack in one day, you lunatic!”

However, we know that cigarettes are designed, with nicotine, to get you to smoke up to a pack a day, if not more. While we don’t perceive it that way, the same is true of alcohol. The idea is to get the drinker to drink more and more, never less.

By pretending to promote “responsible drinking,” big alcohol has found a way to appear like it wants to do something about the negative impacts that its products have on our society, just like how the big oil companies drummed up its “reduce your carbon footprint” campaign.

It’s not the companies who profit from the pollution of our bodies and our planet who are at fault. It’s our fault for not being responsible enough with their product (so they want us to think).

We’re the greedy ones for relying on fossil fuels to meet our basic needs, like getting around and heating our houses. It’s our fault when we develop an addiction to this addictive substance in a society entrenched by pro-drinking messages.

By gaslighting drinkers and telling them they’re irresponsible for getting addicted to an addictive substance that is promoted everywhere we look, they are effectively shut down from questioning it.

If you’re still unconvinced, let’s look at another addictive substance: cocaine.

Did you know that people who use alcohol and cocaine get addicted almost at the same rate? 

In his 2014 book, Clean, author David Sheff, shares that 40% of people who consume alcohol abuse it while 15% become addicted, and 45% of those who use cocaine abuse it, and the same number, 15%, get addicted.

People don’t say (at least in public), “Come on, just do one or two lines with me! It’s my birthday – don’t be boring!” Because we know that cocaine is addictive.

While we have a clear understanding that cocaine is toxic and addictive, we treat alcohol, which is no less addictive, differently. Cocaine use is largely stigmatized, mainly because it’s illegal, while legal alcohol is glamorized and normalized. Yet alcohol causes more deaths per year than cocaine and all other drugs combined.

I know this will come off as a dreadful cliché, but in our society, alcohol is the only drug you have to justify not taking.

Risks of Gray Area Drinking

The risks associated with gray area drinking are similar to those associated with alcoholism; liver damage, high blood pressure, depression, and anxiety are all potential side effects if left unchecked. 

Additionally, excessive consumption can lead to impaired judgment, which increases the risk of dangerous situations such as driving under the influence or engaging in risky sexual behaviors without protection against STDs/STIs. 

The biggest risk of all? Not reaching your full potential because you give your best hours of the week (nights and weekends) over to the sauce…

The Most Dangerous Aspect of Gray Area Drinking

The number one problem with gray area drinking is that it isn’t enough to ruin your life. But, it’s silently, slowly dulling your spirit, keeping you in a state of cognitive dissonance where you’re internally conflicted about your drinking.

It eats away at your vitality, but so slowly that you don’t even notice.

Gray area drinkers find themselves in what the Radical Confidence author, Lisa Bilyeu, calls, the “purgatory of the mundane” or that place where you’ve settled because life is just good enough and you feel comfortable.

I know that when I was in my gray area drinking days, I wasn’t losing my job or anything, but I sure lost my “mojo!” My baseline mood during the day was lower than it used to be. Everyday things that used to make me feel good lost their effect.

When a good song came on, I didn’t sing spontaneously in the car like I used to. My spark was missing.

Moreover, I constantly dealt with low energy and digestion problems, contributing to my lower mood and cloudy outlook. Not to mention being hungover one or two days per week.

Bilyeu insists that that is a more insidious place to be than when you’ve hit rock bottom because you aren’t compelled to break out of it. So, years can pass by when you’re living in this purgatory, or for drinkers, the “gray area” of drinking. 

Fortunately, if you’re reading articles like this, you’re probably waking up! 

Breaking Out of the Purgatory That is Gray Area Drinking

The idea of quitting alcohol might be a terrifying one—I get it. Because you don’t know what it’s like to form a lifestyle without it. You probably have zero references for happy ex-drinkers. 

But, is escaping purgatory something to fear?

Of course not! 

The thing to know about living alcohol-free is that you can choose whether your experience is heaven or hell.

As with everything in life, your mindset is the lens through which you see the world. Choose the lens that is best for you!

When you make it your heaven, it’s because you stop alcohol from being what gets in between you and the best YOU that you can be. 

You can raise your vibration (instead of lowering it with booze, a chemical depressant) and ascend to your highest self. In this place, you achieve a state where you naturally feel good, all the time, not only when you’re two beers deep. You’re present and able to connect with people truly.

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When you go to alcohol-free “heaven,” you show up fully for yourself, your family, your friends, and the people you work with. You can more easily tap into your “inner knowing,” as the Intoxicating Lies author Meg Geiswite claims is one of the best parts of being sober.

Another benefit? You go from living in cognitive dissonance about your drinking to cognitive resonance.

“Living in cognitive resonance over dissonance is when you live with integrity, meaning you align every thought, every deed, and every word. Then you get a sense of balance and calm. This is the antidote to the spiritual turmoil that is cognitive dissonance.”

Ruby Warrington, Author of Sober Curious

When you align yourself in this way, you can manifest what you want!

Last but not least, you gain back all of the time and energy that alcohol had stolen from you. You discover what is more worthy of your finite time. You’re not white-knuckling it, and you don’t have FOMO, simply because you’ve made no room for alcohol. You’re too busy living your highest truth.

Sound too idealistic? It’s not.

Think about it….

Is your highest self routinely hungover? Hasn’t had a real, quality night’s sleep in years? Hasn’t found the time to discover your true passion because you get distracted when wine-o’clock rolls around?

I refuse to believe that my highest self messes with alcohol—even sometimes. It’s just not that beneficial. It creates a buzz that we have to keep drinking to chase, and then, the more we drink, the worse it makes us feel later.

Which brings us to moderation…

Can a Gray Area Drinker Moderate Their Drinking?

In her book, Quit Like a Woman, Holly Whitaker explains that we all have different degrees of ability to control alcohol depending on our:

• Genetic makeup
• Coping mechanisms
• Trauma
• The age at which we start drinking
• Upbringing
• Environment
• Level of anxiety
• Degree of depression
• Peer groups

She acknowledges that not everyone who drinks has a problem, but everyone who drinks still exerts control over it. 

Anyone who can’t imagine going a week, a month, or a life without alcohol—a poisonous depressant—is already hooked on it to some degree and has to exert control over it.

If you have tried to control your drinking through moderation and found yourself struggling, that’s okay because, for a lot of people who have gotten far enough along the alcohol use spectrum, moderation becomes impossible. 

The reason is that, as I mentioned, if you drink alcohol enough times, your brain becomes increasingly accustomed to it and is trained to save up dopamine to release it when you have your next drink. Once these new neural pathways solidify, you will become more and more dependent on alcohol to release dopamine and to take away the unease and anxiety that your last drink created. 

“Early-stage drinkers can only maintain their intake at low levels because they don’t consciously notice the small amount of anxiety that they experience after their one or two drinks, and/or it would never dawn on them to take another drink to get rid of it.”

William Porter, Author of Alcohol Explained

What this means is that, the only way to have 100% control over and eliminate the negative impacts of drinking is to eliminate it.

This can be a bitter pill if you are still keen on drinking. I’ve been there!

But, according to William Porter, there are two reasons why someone who was once a heavy drinker cannot return to “normal” or early-stage drinking – and in my experience, they ring true:

• When you learn that alcohol withdrawal can be relieved by another drink, you can never unknow that. The wearing off on one drink becomes the trigger for the next.
• To control alcohol, you must stop seeing it as something enjoyable or else you will have to white-knuckle it forever. By not wanting it at all, it has zero power over you. However, the reason why people want to moderate is because they still DO think it’s enjoyable. And if it IS enjoyable, why would you want just one?

What About Mindfulness-Based Apps for Reducing Drinking?

Despite what we’ve just unpacked about moderation, some apps on the market claim to help people reduce their drinking through mindfulness.

The apps purport to train you to drink less by using mindfulness, journaling, and hypnosis. 

When I was in the gray area of drinking, I felt these apps were too good to be true. I decided just to quit. But how?

I read Alcohol Explained 1 and Alcohol Explained 2 by William Porter and took the Total Alcohol Recovery 2.0 course by Chris Scott. These three things, along with several other quit-lit books, helped me to quit once and for all!

I will tell you though, after I had happily stopped drinking, I got curious about this solution to gray area drinking.

So, I read Drink Less in 7 Days by Georgia Foster, a book that outlines a methodology similar to mindful drinking apps. While I found her methods promising and perhaps effective, now that I had experienced over 365 days of being alcohol-free, I still had zero interest in going back to moderating, even if I could manage it.

Why?

I don’t want to hypnotize myself every time I drink so that I can pour some ethanol down my throat, which will kill my gut microbiome, impair my thinking, and increase my anxiety, even in small amounts!

In my experience, it’s 100% easier to decide to cut it out and never have to think, debate, or spend any energy to control my drinking ever again. This is true freedom! 

Once I liberated myself from my relationship with alcohol, I started to reevaluate everything!

Slowly, I’ve been saying no to more things I don’t like and yes to more things that I do, living in accordance with who I really am. I am returning to the hobbies and the authentic aspects of me that I had tucked away when I was conforming to alcohol culture and trying to fit in in high school and college, and it’s fantastic!

That said, if you want a way off the gray area drinking hamster wheel, one of the most fundamental things you must do is change your beliefs about alcohol so you stop desiring it and then crowd out alcohol from your daily life.

The Key to Stopping Drinking: Don’t Cut it Out, Crowd it Out

Okay, so let’s say you’ve successfully reframed alcohol in your mind and you’re happily past Day 1 of no booze.

Here are some ways to keep yourself happier as you let the lingering alcohol cravings and old neural pathways shrink…

Explore New Hobbies and Interests That Bring You Joy and Fulfillment

Finding joy without alcohol can be as simple as exploring new interests and hobbies. Whether it’s painting, hiking, windsurfing, paddle tennis (and no, I don’t mean pickle ball – check it out), volunteering, or learning a new language, there are endless opportunities to find something that brings you happiness.

By taking on a new hobby, you can immerse yourself in new communities and social groups where your connection is forged over a shared interest rather than drinking. 

It’s important to remember that these activities don’t have to cost money or take up a lot of time – even small things like reading a book or going for a walk can bring great satisfaction.

Set Goals for Personal Growth and Developmental Challenges

Setting goals is an excellent way to stay motivated and focused on your journey toward living alcohol-free. These goals could include taking yoga classes once per week, joining a running club, or starting a side hustle.

Whatever it may be, setting achievable goals will help keep you on track with your progress while providing structure and purpose in life without alcohol.

Where gray area drinking can often lead to vicious cycles, when you work on personal growth, you can create virtuous cycles, where one good habit leads to a whole host of better habits. The more virtuous cycles under your belt, the less tempted you will be to go back to drinking.

Another thing you can do is try to complete a challenge – any challenge (okay, not “Edward 40 hands”)!

The 75-Hard Challenge Will Kick Your Butt and Kickstart Sobriety

When I was still trying to give up drinking, I decided to commit to the 75-hard challenge. The challenge consists of doing 5 things every single day for 75 days:

• Drink a gallon of water
• Read 10 pages of a non-fiction book
• Work out for 45 minutes twice a day, at least once outdoors, with a minimum of two hours between workouts
• Take a progress picture every day
• Follow any diet of your choosing with no cheat days, and of course, no alcohol

The old me would read those five things and said, “That’s excessive. Who needs to do that?! What are you trying to prove?”

But, the new me wanted to prove that I could do something hard. Every hard thing we prove to ourselves that we can do lends us to do even more challenging things. Only by doing hard things can we get better.

Time for another cliché: Great things never come from comfort zones.

While I didn’t finish the whole challenge (I went 43 days), it still transformed me for the better and made me realize I could feel better in my mind and body than ever.

I was getting so much dopamine from waking up early, going on nature walks, and treating my body like the temple that it is. The challenge kept me so busy that there was no time for drinking alcohol – or spending money! It was a fabulous 43 days.

Explore Non-Alcoholic Drinks and Cocktails

Many delicious non-alcoholic drinks can be enjoyed in place of alcoholic beverages that are just as enjoyable. These include sparkling water with fresh fruit, tea, coffee, smoothies, juices, milkshakes and more. If you’re looking for something a bit more special or festive, there are always mocktails.

You can even find a new wave of non-alcoholic drinks in stores or online that contain nootropics and adaptogenic ingredients like ashwagandha, which give you a relaxed feel and slight buzz, such as Kin Euphorics and De Soi.

For more ideas, check out the Ultimate Guide to Alcohol Alternatives!

Try New Social Activities That Don’t Involve Alcohol

When it comes to socializing without alcohol, many fun activities don’t involve drinking at all. Going ice skating or bowling are options or attending concerts and plays. Other ideas include taking a class, playing board games, hosting movie nights at home complete with popcorn and snacks – even just getting together for dinner can be an enjoyable way to spend time together without having to rely on alcohol as part of the experience.

It’s important to remember that you always have the right to say no when offered an alcoholic beverage. The best thing you can do is practice saying “no thank you” politely but firmly so that your decision isn’t up for debate.

You could also suggest alternative activities such as going out salsa dancing instead of hitting up a bar or inviting friends over for dinner; this way, everyone still gets to enjoy each other’s company without feeling pressured into drinking alcohol if they don’t want to.

Finding alternatives to alcoholic beverages is a great way to stay healthy and happy while enjoying social activities. With strategies for stress management and self-care, you can create a lifestyle that encourages physical and mental well-being.

Develop Strategies for Stress Management and Self-Care

Okay, so now that you have some activities to crowd out alcohol, it’s important to also do acts of self-care when you would normally have a drink instead.

Practice Mindfulness and Meditation Techniques

Mindfulness is a great way to reduce stress and improve overall well-being. It involves focusing on the present moment without judgment or attachment.

This can be done through meditation, which can help clear your mind of any negative thoughts or worries that may be causing you stress. Additionally, it can help increase levels of self-awareness and focus on what’s important in life.

Here are some ways you can incorporate mindfulness:

• Think of three things you are grateful for every day
• Meditate for ten minutes per day (Youtube is chock-full of free, 10-minute guided meditations)
• Establish a mantra to center yourself – repeat a mantra such as “positivity in, negativity out” repeatedly in your head while breathing through your nose. This can then become an anchor to trigger calmness. This also helps with impulse control when you get a craving to drink. 

Exercise Regularly and Eat Healthily

Exercise is an excellent way to manage stress levels as it releases endorphins that make us feel happier and more relaxed. 

Make sure to get plenty of exercise daily, but also mind what you eat! You must focus on your nutrition when on the road to recovery from gray area drinking. That’s because, as Ben Angel, the “accidental biohacker,” says, “A change in attitude will only hold for as long as your biochemistry supports it.” Thanks to our biochemistry, what we eat drastically affects how we feel from moment to moment.

90% of people with alcohol use disorder suffer from hypoglycemia, which involves low blood sugar and mood swings, making it that much harder to abstain. You can stabilize your blood sugar levels by cutting out processed food and eating protein and healthy fats every four hours.

Find Your Tribe

Having supportive relationships with friends or family members who understand your struggles can be incredibly beneficial when coping with stressful situations. Talking about how we feel not only helps us process our emotions, but allows us to gain insight from others who have experienced similar issues in their own lives, providing comfort in knowing that we are not alone in this journey towards better mental health.

You can join Smart Recovery groups or find online communities like the Alcohol Explained Facebook group.

Journal

Another critical way to process your emotions and thoughts as you go through stopping drinking is journaling. It helps to reduce stress because you can mentally de-clutter. Once you get thoughts out of your head, you make space for more important things!

By taking the time to develop stress management and self-care strategies, we can create a lifestyle that is both enjoyable and alcohol-free.

Try this journaling exercise to reframe your beliefs around drinking.

The Bottom Line

Gray area drinking is dangerous because it can quickly lead to addiction and other health problems, but most of all, it can leave us living a sub-par life without us even knowing.

If you think your drinking has become a problem, don’t hesitate to ask for help from medical professionals or a private counselor or therapist. Getting help early on can make all the difference in preventing a full-blown addiction. And if you’re simply in the gray area, I hope you don’t settle!

It’s a really awesome thing to say, “Hey, I’m sober curious,” or to decide that gray-area drinking just won’t cut it for you. The most important thing is that you’re honest with yourself and make the best decision for your sobriety and mental health.