The Alcohol Myth Podcast

Send us Fan Mail Is there an addictive personality? What the science says, and why it matters. If you have ever asked what is wrong with you that you cannot leave it alone, the honest answer is probably nothing. The story most of us absorbed says there are normal drinkers and there are broken ones, and the difference is written into you somewhere. It traces largely to the AA Big Book and its frami...

Send us Fan Mail Two practical tactics to drink less, and how to use both before dinner tonight. Most advice about drinking less arrives as a system. Steps, stages, a whole identity to take on. The size of it is the problem, because none of it can start at 4:55 this afternoon, which is when you actually need something. Here is the first of two things that can. Ellen Biggs calls it a capital-D deci...

Send us Fan Mail Why people hide their drinking from a partner, and what happens when they stop. There is a version of you your partner knows, and a version that stays up after they go to bed. The distance between the two is not a character flaw. It is one of the most ordinary features of drinking more than you meant to, and the secret costs more to keep than the drinking does. The concealment usu...

Send us Fan Mail Freedom to drink versus freedom from wanting it, and why only one changes your week. The part of you that stalls at the idea of drinking less is rarely arguing about health. It is defending something that feels like a right. You want the option to stay open, and being told it is closing lands as a restriction rather than a relief. Hold that up to the light and the arithmetic rever...

Send us Fan Mail Is it harder to quit drinking or keep drinking? The honest math on both columns. You have already priced out what quitting would cost you. The Friday nights, the explanations, the evenings with nothing in your hand. What nobody prices is the other column: the arithmetic running all day, the planning, the recovery hours, the low-grade "less than good" you stopped calling...

Send us Fan Mail Do you have a drinking problem if nobody else is getting hurt? Why that test gives a wrong answer. There is a test you run on your own drinking, and it has nothing to do with how much you drink. It goes: is anyone else getting hurt? Nobody is complaining, the job is fine, you have never endangered anyone. Test passed. Jonathan Ball and Ellen Biggs take that test apart, because it...

Send us Fan Mail Why 30 days off alcohol proves you can stop and tells you almost nothing else. Thirty days off proves you can stop. It says nothing about why you started again on the thirty-first, and that second question is the one that decides how your next year goes. If you have finished a Dry January and felt mostly relief that it was over, you already know the difference. Jonathan Ball and E...

Send us Fan Mail What happens to your relationships when you stop drinking, and why the fear is usually wrong. If you have put off changing your drinking because of what it might do to the people around you, that fear is doing more work than it has earned. The worry is rarely the drink itself. It is that saying no to the glass will land as saying no to the relationship, the tradition, the memory y...

Send us Fan Mail Why do I drink? The honest answer usually sits a few layers under the one you'd give. You already have a reason for drinking, and it probably sounds reasonable. It takes the edge off. It makes you easier in a room. Those answers are true enough to say out loud and thin enough that they never lead anywhere, which is how you can hold one for years and still drink more than you...

Send us Fan Mail How to celebrate a birthday without alcohol, and what actually counts as a treat instead Ellen turned 55 last week. It was her third alcohol-free birthday. She and Jonathan Ball spend this episode taking apart one of the stickiest beliefs in drinking culture: that alcohol is a treat, and that a celebration needs it to count. Ellen walks through all three years. The first one she w...

Send us Fan Mail What if the fear of missing out is not really about missing out at all? In this episode of The Alcohol Myth Podcast, Jonathan Ball and Ellen Beggs explore the myth that if you stop drinking, you will always feel like you are missing out. FOMO can feel so convincing when you are changing your relationship with alcohol. Weddings, vacations, date nights, parties, dancing, celebration...

Send us Fan Mail Do you need your partner to stop drinking in order for you to be successful in your own alcohol-free journey? In this episode of The Alcohol Myth Podcast, Coach Jonathan Ball and Ellen Biggs unpack the fear that changing your relationship with alcohol will change, threaten, or disconnect you from your partner. For many people, drinking is woven into date nights, celebrations, vaca...

Send us Fan Mail What if the fear of missing out is not really about missing out at all? In this episode of The Alcohol Myth Podcast, Jonathan Ball and Ellen Beggs explore the myth that if you stop drinking, you will always feel like you are missing out. FOMO can feel so convincing when you are changing your relationship with alcohol. Weddings, vacations, date nights, parties, dancing, celebration...

Send us Fan Mail Day drinking can look fun, classy, relaxing, and spontaneous from the outside. Bottomless mimosas. Holiday weekends. Brunch with friends. Golf outings. Pool parties. Vacation drinks on a sunny patio. It can feel like the perfect way to make a day feel special. But what happens after? In this episode of The Alcohol Myth Podcast, Jonathan Ball and Ellen Beggs unpack the myth of day...

Send us Fan Mail Staring down your first sober wedding, birthday, holiday, or night out and thinking, “There’s no way I can do this without alcohol”? In this episode of The Alcohol Myth Podcast, coaches Jonathan Ball and Ellen Biggs break down “Freaking First Times” (FFTs): the first time you do something alcohol free that has always been paired with drinking. We talk about why these moments feel...

Send us Fan Mail Do you reach for a drink to avoid discomfort? In this episode of The Alcohol Myth Podcast, coaches Jonathan Ball and Ellen Biggs unpack a sneaky belief: “Alcohol helps me handle discomfort.” We talk about why that feels true in the moment, how alcohol creates its own discomfort loop (the 5 PM itch, the anxiety before the first sip, the hangover shame), and what changes when you st...

Send us Fan Mail What happens after you stop drinking… and suddenly have all this empty space in your life? In this episode of the Alcohol Myth Podcast, coaches Jonathan and Ellen explore one of the most overlooked parts of changing your relationship with alcohol: figuring out what comes next. They introduce the powerful idea of “seeds and switches”: Switches help you get through difficult moments...

Send us Fan Mail When an alcohol craving hits, it can feel like your brain is screaming, “I need a drink.” But what if that craving is not really a command? What if it is discomfort in the body, a nervous system response, or an old autopilot pattern asking for relief? In this episode of The Alcohol Myth Podcast, coaches Jonathan and Ellen unpack why alcohol so often becomes the go-to “switch” for...

Send us Fan Mail Does alcohol really help us open up, or does it quietly build a wall between us and the connection we’re looking for? In this episode of The Alcohol Myth Podcast, we unpack one of alcohol’s most convincing stories: the belief that we need a drink to be vulnerable, have deep conversations, and feel close to other people. Ellen and Jonathan talk about heartfelt wine-fueled conversat...

Send us Fan Mail If you’ve been using alcohol to cope… you’re not broken. You’re human. In this episode of The Alcohol Myth Podcast, coaches Jonathan Ball and Ellen Biggs talk about alcohol as a coping strategy: why it feels like a multi-purpose tool for stress, boredom, anxiety, celebration, and hard emotions, and why it eventually starts to create the very problems it promised to solve. We unpac...

Send us Fan Mail Ever notice how alcohol can make even the most beautiful place feel weirdly… the same? In this episode of The Alcohol Myth Podcast, coaches Jonathan Ball and Ellen Biggs talk about alcohol and travel, and the big lie most of us believed: that drinking makes trips more fun, more romantic, and more special. In reality, alcohol has a superpower, it turns your vacation into the same l...

Send us Fan Mail Have you ever thought of alcohol as your “most reliable friend”? In this episode of The Alcohol Myth Podcast, coaches Jonathan Ball and Ellen Biggs unpack a surprisingly common belief: alcohol as the dependable, always-there friend. We talk about why that story feels true, what it is masking underneath (needs, loneliness, celebration, comfort), and how alcohol becomes a predictabl...

Send us Fan Mail What if the hardest part is not quitting alcohol… it’s telling the truth about how much you’re struggling? In this episode of The Alcohol Myth Podcast, Jonathan interviews co-host Ellen Biggs and she shares her full story: the “good girl” beginnings, the slow escalation, the secret rules and hiding, the loneliness of feeling like the only one, and the moment she finally found a pa...

Send us Fan Mail Worried that summer will not feel “right” without an icy cold drink? In this episode of The Alcohol Myth Podcast, coaches Jonathan Ball and Ellen Biggs tackle one of the biggest seasonal fear stories: “My perfect summer won’t be perfect if I don’t drink.” From grilling and lake days to golf, weddings, vacations, and patio happy hours, we break down why it feels so daunting, and ho...

Send us Fan Mail How many times did you think, “This isn’t great for me”… and then decide it was “not a big deal”? In this episode of The Alcohol Myth Podcast, Ellen interviews Jonathan to unpack his full story: the early moments where alcohol became tied to belonging and vulnerability, the decade of warning signs and near misses, the exhausting “alcohol math,” and what finally helped him change w...