white-knuckling
n.— «In London, she was, in drug parlance, “white-knuckling”: clinging to sobriety without changing her life. » —“When the party’s over” by Janice Turner Times (London, United Kingdom) July 7, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Have you ever googled your own name and found someone else who goes by the very same moniker? There’s a word for that: googleganger. Plus, the language of hobbyists and enthusiasts: If you’re a beekeeper, perhaps you call yourself a...
She sells seashells by the seashore. Who is the she in this tongue twister? Some claim it’s the young Mary Anning, who went on to become a famous 19th-century British paleontologist. Dubious perhaps, but the story of her rise from seaside...