Sober Powered: The Neuroscience of Being Sober

In this shorty I'm discussing the question "why aren't you drinking?". I'll share my advice for how to answer this question and how not to answer it. Resources I offer: Community & Meetings: Living a Sober Powered Life https://www.soberpowered.com/membership Dry January Group Coaching Program https://www.soberpowered.com/dry-january-coaching (Coming Soon) Anger Management Program https://www.sober...

It's easy to fall into the trap that your drinking will get better over time. That you're just going through a phase or you're just leaning on alcohol, and if only things in your life would improve, then you wouldn't have to drink so much. That's what I thought too. In this episode, I'm explaining the progression from when I was sober curious to when I developed a full out problem, why your drinki...

It's the holiday season and that means parties and happy hours! In this episode I'm sharing what my first sober holiday party was like and my tips for you if you're nervous about attending parties and getting through them sober Resources I offer: Community & Meetings: Living a Sober Powered Life https://www.soberpowered.com/membership The Sober Mindset Course https://www.soberpowered.com/the-sober...

The holiday season is tough when you don't drink. Alcohol is everywhere and it's socially acceptable to drink as much as you want during this time of year. In this episode I was joined by some of my friends Casey Davidson from the Hello Someday Podcast, Paul Churchill from Recovery Elevator, and Veronica Valli from Soberful to discuss their holidays back when they were drinking, what their first s...

There are a lot of reasons motivation fades, but there may be some things that you are doing that are impacting your motivation to get out of the cycle. Plus, it's the nature of alcohol to trick us into thinking it’ll be different this time and convince us that life would be full of deprivation and sadness without it. If you’re struggling to get out of the cycle, then in this episode I’m explainin...

I’m celebrating 4 years of sobriety, and one of the main questions that inspired me to do all this research on addiction was why me? I wanted to understand why this happened to me and not other people. In this episode I’m explaining 7 reasons why I think I developed a problem with alcohol. What to listen to next: E21: 1 year sober E73: 2 years sober E124: 3 years sober Resources I offer: Communit...

It’s normal to be sad that you can’t drink, feel like you’re missing out, or to start romanticizing alcohol. It’s okay to miss it, but that doesn’t mean you have to drink. In this episode I explain how we get stuck on this ideal version of our drinking that isn’t actually real, why we easily excuse the negatives from our drinking and always think it’s going to be different, and how you can work on...

One of the most common complaints I see from newly sober people is that they are exhausted, and the fatigue after quitting drinking can last for a long time. In this episode I’ll share why you are tired in early sobriety, and 5 strategies to boost your energy levels. What to listen to next: E157: brain fog and fatigue E112: drinking more coffee? Here's why E122: how exercise can support your recov...

Routine is important because we are sensitive to stress and triggers. I feel like, no matter how much sober time you have, we are more sensitive than people who never struggled with addiction. I recently had my routine disrupted a few times and it really impacted me. In this episode I explain why routines are so important for us, what they’re doing in the brain, my routine, and some components of...

I’ve been getting this question a lot recently. People reach out to me who have drank and then they want to know if they have to reset their days. This is a really tough thing to address, and I don’t like to you what to do, but I’d like to offer some perspective in this episode. In this episode I’ll discuss what the day count represents, if you should reset your days or keep your streak going, wha...

If you’re struggling to get past the first week or maybe this is your first attempt at quitting, then in this episode I’m explaining my experience with my first week and what I recommend for your mindset towards not drinking, what to do with your time, and how to prevent cravings as much as possible. Resources I offer: Community & Meetings: Living a Sober Powered Life https://www.soberpowered.com/...

Getting started in sobriety is hard. Is the fun over forever? Do you have to label yourself now? Are people going to judge you? How will you fill up your time? In this special episode I am joined by Amanda White from the Recovered-ish Podcast, Casey Davidson from the Hello Someday Podcast, and Suzanne Warye from the Sober Mom Life Podcast where we discuss our experience with taking breaks or doing...

Our brains get used to big dopamine bursts from alcohol and this makes natural rewards like walking, nice weather, or spending time with friends or loved ones not have as much of an impact. When you get sober and you can’t get that dopamine boost from alcohol anymore, life can feel flat, boring, and like why bother. In this episode I’m going to explain why we feel a lack of pleasure, or anhedonia,...

Acid reflux, chronic inflammation, and depression are all ways that alcohol can negatively impact our gut health. Most people aren’t aware while they’re drinking that their frequent heartburn could be from all the alcohol they’re consuming. The gut connects to the brain through the vagus nerve, and in this episode you’ll learn not only how alcohol worsens your gut health and causes inflammation, b...

Socializing, dating, and spending time with family are all things that we worry about when we quit drinking. We worry about connecting with other people, that we’ll always be missing out, and that we will never have fun ever again. If you’re worried that drinking is the only way to connect with people, then in this episode I’m answering 3 questions I’ve received about drinking and meeting people....

Anxiety is something I get asked about all the time and it’s a major reason people have trouble quitting drinking. Their anxiety is too bad in the beginning and they can’t cope, so they drink again and continue the cycle. In this episode I will explain why alcohol causes or worsens anxiety, what to expect when you quit drinking, and some details about post-acute withdrawal syndrome or PAWS and how...

Cravings are a major challenge and in this special episode Angela Pugh, host of the Addiction Unlimited Podcast, and I teamed up to discuss cravings for alcohol. Angela and I have had very different experiences with cravings, so it was interesting for me to learn more about her perspective. In this episode we cover what our cravings were like, what helped us get through cravings without drinking,...

I was eating way too much sugar, so in a desperate attempt to break the loop I decided to quit sugar for 30 days. In this episode you’ll learn why I did the challenge, what the struggles were, what benefits I saw, what it was like eating sugar again, and what my plan is moving forward. I will also explain why we crave sugar in sobriety, the negative health consequences of eating too much sugar, an...

I see a lot of people take a break, drink again, and beat themselves up for being a loser. Breaks are really important for collecting data on your drinking. We need proof that it’s never going to be different and we need the experiences to fully understand what alcohol is doing to us. In this episode I’m going to walk you through the 2 different breaks I took from drinking, how they helped me get...

I desperately wanted to learn how to become a take it or leave it drinker. I thought if I took a 90 day break, then I’d reset my tolerance and break the bad habit and I’d finally be able to drink like everyone else. I believed I’d be able to achieve this since my drinking wasn’t that bad and I didn’t have any major consequences like a DUI or losing my job. You have to have big consequences to need...

Cognitive health is the ability to think clearly, learn new things, and remember information, events, and what you’ve learned in the past. As problem drinkers, we aren’t that great at thinking things through, but it’s not because we’re losers, it’s because alcohol damages the brain and messes with our cognitive health. In episode 159 I talked about what you can expect physically when you stop drin...

When I quit drinking I thought I could quit and just move on with my life, but then all of these big emotions rushed in and it was shocking. I didn’t consider myself a person who drank to cope. I thought I was drinking to have fun and socialize, so it didn’t make sense that I had all of these big emotions. This is very common though and even if you didn’t consciously use it as a coping mechanism,...

You may look at people in the sober community and think that we have a lot of sober time and that may feel unattainable or too far off. In this special collab episode, you will hear from Eric Zimmer with 16 years of sobriety, Laura Cathcart Robbins with 15 years of sobriety, Paul Churchill with 10 years of sobriety, and me with 3.5 years of sobriety. In this episode we discuss our first months of...

Good news: there are a lot of physical benefits that happen in the first month of quitting drinking. This can be very motivating to continue on with the journey. In this episode you’ll learn how alcohol negatively impacts the body and what to expect when you quit drinking. Towards the end I will also discuss things that take longer than a month to improve and things that may get worse before they...

Dry July is here and if you’re working on quitting drinking, then this episode is all about how to get started. You’ll learn what to expect in the beginning like sugar cravings and urges to drink. You’ll learn about things you can do to set yourself up for success this month and what to do if you don’t like sobriety or are feeling hopeless about the thought of never drinking again. What to listen...