dancing with the inhibitions unmedicated
AAs and NAs—mostly new and young—get heartbreakingly dolled up and dance stiffly and tremble with sober sexual anxiety
Context
The cost of sobriety shown at the dance: young recovering addicts dolled up and trembling at a Davis Square Sober Club, socializing "with all your self-conscious inhibitions unmedicated and screaming in your head." The everyday terror of being a person without the Substance — the excruciating smiles the measure of what the drug used to smooth over.