Sober Powered: The Neuroscience of Being Sober

Gill talks about Sober Power, how you earn it, and what it can do for you. She describes how it took her 5 years of worrying about her drinking to finally quit and embrace a sober life. In this episode you'll learn about Gill's two previous experiments with sobriety, and why this time is different. You will see how her mindset changed from the first time she attempted a sober week to now. If you a...

Gill discuss withdrawal. She explains the physical and psychological symptoms you can expect when you quit drinking, and why some people develop delirium tremens, which is a dangerous form of withdrawal. You'll learn about the medical detox experience and post-acute withdrawal syndrome, or PAWS. Gill also describes her withdrawal experience when she first quit. If you are concerned about withdrawa...

Gill discusses shame. She explains how it keeps us stuck in a drink, hate yourself, drink loop and how it makes us more vulnerable for relapse. She discusses several studies on shame in relation to alcohol abuse. You'll learn more about why it is so hard for people to quit drinking for real and why shame makes us more vulnerable to becoming problem drinkers. Gill will explain some tips she has for...

Gill discusses how we metabolize alcohol and how it causes damage to the body. She explains the enzymes and organs involved, how alcohol contributes to cancer and organ damage, and how it interferes with fat loss. You will learn what happens to alcohol after we take that first sip and the damage it causes on it's way to being eliminated. This episode is not meant to be a scare tactic to make you q...

Gill discusses sugar addiction and why sober people want to eat all the sugar. She explains several studies done in rats, mice and humans that illustrate how sugar is addictive in the same way drugs and alcohol are. In fact, mice actually prefer sugar to cocaine when given access to both! You will learn how our brain communicates via dopamine to reinforce and reward behavior, and what happens to t...

Gill discusses sleep cycles, how alcohol affects our quality and quantity of sleep, and why we have drinking dreams. She explains how alcohol suppresses REM sleep, and what that means for us when we get sober.  Resources I offer: Community & Meetings: Living a Sober Powered Life https://www.soberpowered.com/membership Sober Group Coaching https://www.soberpowered.com/sober-coaching Anger Managemen...

Gill discusses the areas in the brain that light up when we crave alcohol. She talks about how we condition our brains to want alcohol, and how this shows up as intense cravings when we try to quit. She explains three scientific studies that show how the brain is affected by cravings, how intense cravings put us at risk for relapse, and the improvements seen with treatment and sobriety. Gill ends...

Welcome to the first episode of the Sober Powered Podcast! Gill discusses why she began this project and why you don't need to hit society's version of rock bottom to quit drinking. Like many, Gill lived in denial about her drinking, telling herself she's not that bad because she doesn't fit the general idea of what an alcoholic looks like. She explains how her anxiety was a major contributor to e...