Conscious Unbottling

Send us Fan Mail Two bottles of wine a night doesn’t start as a plan. It starts as relief. I’m talking about the moment social drinking quietly becomes at-home drinking, then nightly drinking, and the awful loop that follows: you drink because you don’t feel good, then you don’t feel good because you’re drinking. If you’ve ever looked at your life and thought, “This isn’t me”, you’ll feel seen her...

Send us Fan Mail Missing alcohol after you quit can feel scary, like it means you’re sliding backwards. We don’t buy that story. We talk about what’s really happening when the thought pops up years into sobriety: your brain is remembering a feeling, a season, a song, a summer night, and alcohol just happens to be tangled up in the memory. That’s nostalgia, not failure, and it’s far more common in...

Send us Fan Mail At some point, “wine time” stops being a treat and starts being the moment our kids lose us. We can be the mum who shows up to school events, keeps everyone fed, and holds the family together, while also disappearing emotionally every night behind a glass. That contradiction is painful to admit, especially when we love our children more than anything, yet it’s also where real chan...

Send us Fan Mail Shame can make a single night of drinking feel like a verdict on your character. If you have ever woken up after wine or a big night and thought, “What is wrong with me?”, we want to slow that moment right down and look at what is actually happening under the surface. Because shame is not the same as guilt, and it is often the hidden force that keeps the drink regret promise loop...

Send us Fan Mail You can be in a toxic relationship and still struggle to “prove” it, even to yourself. We’re talking about the kind that doesn’t always look dramatic on the outside, but slowly makes you smaller on the inside: covert narcissism, subtle manipulation, and the quiet loss of self trust that can happen over months or years. We unpack how low self esteem and old relationship patterns ca...

Send us Fan Mail Rejection can feel brutal, but the most painful part is often what we make it mean about us. If “no” instantly translates to “I’m not enough”, it can shape everything: the way we text, the way we speak up, the way we pick partners, and the way we silence our needs to avoid conflict. We sit with that fear honestly and name the pattern many of us know too well: searching outside our...

Send us Fan Mail You can be awake, talking, texting, even cooking dinner, and still lose the entire night. That is what blackout drinking can do, and it is as frightening as it sounds. I’m Meg, and I’m speaking plainly about binge drinking and blackouts because they were my normal for decades, starting from my very first drink at 18. I break down the difference between binge drinking (drinking a l...

Send us Fan Mail Alcohol is everywhere, so it can feel like you’re the weird one if you don’t want a drink and that’s exactly the trap. We’re told alcohol is “normal” for birthdays, weddings, girls’ nights, stress, sadness, and even just getting through the week, yet we rarely talk honestly about what it’s doing to our bodies, our mental health, and our relationships. I’m Meg, and I’m sharing the...

Send us Fan Mail You don’t need a DUI, a breakup, or a health crisis to question your drinking. I’m Meg, and I’m sharing the top 10 things I’ve learned since quitting alcohol, because the biggest shift for me wasn’t “fixing a problem” it was choosing a better life before things got worse. If you’ve ever wondered whether you’re “bad enough” to stop, this conversation is for you. I talk honestly abo...

Send us Fan Mail That thought you barely dare to say out loud, “Is this as good as it gets?”, can creep in even when life looks fine on paper. I’m Meg, and I’m sharing the real story behind that question: the years of doing everything for everyone else, the creeping sense I’d lost touch with myself, and the role alcohol played in helping me tolerate a life I wasn’t truly connected to. I talk about...

Send us Fan Mail You can look “fine” and still be struggling with alcohol. If you’ve ever held it together on the outside while quietly worrying about sleep, anxiety, confidence, or how often you’re thinking about that next drink, I’m speaking straight to you. I’m Meg, and I’m opening this podcast with a topic that keeps people stuck for years: the stigma around the word “alcoholic”. I share why I...

Send us Fan Mail Alcohol can feel like the only way to switch your brain off, ease social anxiety, or get through another hard day, until you realise it’s also been keeping you disconnected from yourself. I’m Meg, a trauma-informed alcohol recovery coach, and I’m kicking off Conscious Unbottling by sharing the real story behind the mic: years of hiding anxiety, using alcohol to cope, and the quiet...

Join us for Meg's interview for the Sober Summit with Maggie Klaassen's.  Why can some people take or leave alcohol while others feel trapped in a drinking cycle?  At 17, a panic attack in front of her class sparked years of social anxiety. At 18, alcohol felt like magic—it stopped the shaking and gave her confidence. Weekend drinks slowly turned into nightly home drinking, eventually re...

Meg takes a look back at her relationship with alcohol,  where she discovered a profound paradox that changed everything. She was terrified of losing precious moments—yet was drinking them away. Meg's whole life revolved around preserving memories. She treasured photographs, constantly reminisced about childhood homes, and felt deep aches when thinking about the past. But as her drinking wors...

I never imagined that so many special memories in my life would be a blur. The harsh reality of alcohol-induced blackouts left a mark on what should have been some of the clearest and happiest days of my life. Tune in as I, Meg, unravel the harrowing connection between these blackouts and anxiety, and the role they've played in my own journey. It's a stark look at the silent battle many...

Ever wondered why the notion of being a "normal drinker" weighs heavily on so many of us? Join me, Meg, as I share my personal journey through the maze of societal expectations and personal realisations around alcohol consumption. From questioning my own drinking habits to the pivotal moment of embracing a sober lifestyle, this episode unpacks the unrealistic aspirations many harbour abo...

Have you ever wondered what lies beneath the surface of your habits, driving them to become part of your daily life? Join me, Meg, as I unravel the complexities of my alcohol dependency, fueled by deep-seated feelings of unworthiness and anxiety. It's a candid reflection on how social drinking transformed into a solitary escape, rooted in childhood experiences that painted the world as an uns...