This points to a larger trend within the music industry – though the community has grown more open in the past few years with regard to talking about issues like mental health, people are still not willing to admit that substance abuse can often augment mental health issues. Everyone talks the talk but it seems like there’s very little follow-through; people will retweet an article about ‘how things need to change,’ and then go out and give their friend a hard time for not drinking. “The reality is that prolonged excessive substance abuse can make you really ill, both in a physical and mental state,” says Aurora Mitchell, a London DJ and music journalist.

“Sesh culture can often encourage or make people feel pressured to stay up and take drugs all day and while some people can handle it perfectly fine, it can become a debilitating habit for others. At one point a couple of years ago, I couldn't go to a club without having a panic attack, and being around people who were excessively taking substances made me feel even less safe and on edge. While sober clubbing can be really enjoyable, sometimes it just makes me more hyper aware of people who aren't sober,” she says. Again, while the stigma may not be overt, the structural tension goes deeper than any one night out. So how do we actively create a more sustainable, accepting environment for people who are sober or just want to take a night off from substances?

A source working at a record label, who wished to remain anonymous, remarked on how these environments are created from the top down, and perhaps can be solved that way too: “People in positions of power at labels, management companies, etc. need to be aware of the influence they have on company culture as a whole, and work to avoid coercing coworkers, consciously or not, into unhealthy use of substances. But we also have an individual responsibility to our friends and coworkers to flag toxic behavior and actively discuss how we in the music industry approach substances, since right now it seems like a taboo subject.”