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Millions of people wake up with another hangover and Google, "how do I know if I'm an alcoholic?". We get stuck on the label and the stigma, when instead we should be asking ourselves, "is alcohol making me miserable?" and "would I be happier if I quit drinking?" In the Sober Powered Podcast, Gill, a former biochemist turned anger management and sober coach, walks you through the latest research on alcohol addiction using her own sober story as a case study along the way. The science of how ...
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Did you know that literally EVERY DAY is a holiday? I don’t know about you, but we love having a reason to celebrate everyday. In this new podcast from Talkocast Studios, the lovely Nicole presents listeners with the history and quirkyness of each daily holiday. Whether it’s your favorite food’s day or something else totally random, happy holiday to you!
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This podcast is related to health, beauty & fitness tips...which improve your lifestyle..and you are a creator of your own body. So, when you eat healthy, you stay healthy...
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Multiple quit attempts are common when you are trying to get sober, but how many tries does it take before it finally sticks? In this episode I’ll cover the statistics on relapse rates and share all the data I’ve found on the number of quit attempts it takes to stay sober for good. You’ll learn about what makes sobriety more challenging, and what y…
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The intensity of our emotions determines how we deal with them. If the intensity gets too much and we become overwhelmed, we can use avoidance coping mechanisms, like drinking, but avoiding emotions just increases their intensity. In this episode, I’ll explain why some of us have more intense emotions than others, what the window of tolerance is an…
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When I was struggling to quit drinking people would constantly tell me that I wasn’t “ready” yet. I felt ready. I was suffering and wanted it to end. What more did I need to be ready? In this episode you’ll learn about the stages of change, what each one might look like with our drinking, and how to move into the next stage if you are stuck in one.…
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Stress is a main reason many of us drink and it’s a big trigger for relapse after getting sober. In this episode you’ll learn all about cortisol- how it’s released, how chronic stress and heavy drinking disrupt our stress response, and when your stress response system may recover in sobriety. I’ll explain what happens with cortisol in withdrawal, i…
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Getting sober is tough. We have to figure out how to live again and finally learn some coping skills and tools. It’s uncomfortable. In this episode, I’ll talk about stepping outside of our comfort zone to stay sober and how to recognize and take advantage of growth opportunities that show up during the journey. I’m going to share some uncomfortable…
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You’ve heard people say it, sober sleep is the best sleep, but when are you going to get some of this great sleep yourself? In this episode, I explain why we think alcohol helps with sleep, how alcohol affects sleep, and what to expect with your sleep when you quit drinking. You’ll learn more about insomnia in the first month, why we have drinking …
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Many of us worry that we’ve done permanent damage to our brains with our heavy drinking or that it’s been too long to make a change. In this episode you’ll learn more about dementia, how heavy drinking damages the brain and increases the risk of developing dementia, and what you can do to reduce your risk of dementia, besides quitting drinking of c…
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Is being sober truly a priority or would it be a nice to have? If you want to make progress in getting sober, staying sober, and doing “the work”, then you need to be consistent. In this episode, I’ll discuss why consistency is important to the brain, 3 things that make us more likely to follow through with our commitments, and how you can start pr…
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It’s very normal to feel bored when you quit drinking. We get used to constant excitement, dopamine and chaos while we’re drinking, so it can be difficult to adjust. Plus, many of us give up our hobbies that don’t involve alcohol, so when we get sober we don’t know what to do with all of our free time. In this episode I’m going to discuss why some …
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Emotional eating is a very frustrating thing to deal with, and it’s not uncommon to eat extra or have sugar cravings when you get sober. In this episode I’ll explain why we emotionally eat, the factors that contribute to emotional eating the most, and how this relates to your sobriety. You’ll learn about a lot of different studies on emotional eati…
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Many of us eventually realize that we have unhealthy habits like eating a bunch of junk at night, drinking way too much caffeine, not exercising, and more. We want to change these, but changing habits is tough. We can easily get into the same cycle we did with our drinking where we say we’re going to do it and then we do nothing, or we get inspired…
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Understanding why you crave alcohol can be a powerful tool in your sober journey, helping you reduce the frequency and intensity of these cravings. There are many theories about why alcohol cravings occur, and in this episode, I’ll explore the six most scientifically supported reasons. By gaining insight into the different factors that contribute t…
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You may have heard of Post-Acute Withdrawal Syndrome (PAWS), a condition that can develop after you’ve quit drinking and includes lingering symptoms like mood swings, anxiety, brain fog, and fatigue. In this episode I will explain what PAWS is, why it develops, what factors influence the severity of PAWS, what you can expect, and I’ll give you 8 ti…
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This episode is a deep dive into how alcohol affects the body, timestamps are below. This isn’t an episode meant to scare you, just to inform you about all the things you may be experiencing. Often we don’t know that alcohol is the cause. In the second half of the episode I’ll shift gears to the scary side of how alcohol impacts the body, specifica…
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In this episode you’ll learn about what the brain is like in the first couple of weeks of sobriety, how the brain’s of people who relapse are different from those who stay sober, how healing progresses up to 7 years of sobriety, and some common roadblocks. This episode is part of a 9 episode series for Dry July 2024. Make sure to follow my podcast …
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Moderation is impossible. If you can’t moderate, then you’ll never be able to. Some people can moderate with rules and intense focus, but that’s not real moderation. In this episode I’ll explain why we can never be cured, what’s going on in the brain, and hopefully help you accept that you drink the way you drink and that’s it. What to listen to ne…
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Have you ever felt totally convinced that it was going to be different this time, only to drink and find out it’s still not any different? We can repeat this cycle too many times to count, and maintain the belief that we’ll be able to moderate our drinking someday if only we keep trying. In this episode you’ll learn why you repeat this process even…
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At the end of our drinking, we continue to drink even though it’s not enjoyable and causes a lot of suffering. As addiction progresses it goes from liking alcohol to wanting or needing alcohol. In this episode I’ll explain why alcohol feels pleasurable and enjoyable for us, and how eventually we get a payback and start feeling miserable. You’ll lea…
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Everyone loves dopamine right now. We know it’s involved in addiction and pleasure, and that it gets depleted when we drink. In this episode, I’m going to explain dopamine’s role in motivation, cravings, and building associations with our drinking. One of the earliest signs of addiction is loss of control, so how dopamine contributes to us being un…
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Cancer and cirrhosis. The 2 scary parts of drinking. This is going to be a brutally honest episode about the scary side of how alcohol affects the body. I purposefully split this off from the previous episode in case you don’t want to hear it. In this episode you’ll learn how the body processes alcohol, why women typically have more health related …
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There’s so much to say about how alcohol affects the body I could go on for hours, and none of it is good stuff. I’ll explain why alcohol makes you sweaty and red, how it affects sleep, how it impacts the heart and blood pressure, how alcohol impacts skin and aging, how it causes leg cramps, how it initially energizes us before making us horribly e…
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Not remembering how we went to bed becomes a normal experience, but it is not normal. We get drunk, eventually end up in bed, only to jolt awake around 3am. After the panic passes, we realize we’ve done it again. We got way too drunk and can’t remember the end of the night. This realization is followed by shame and anxiety, which likely continues i…
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Withdrawal is pretty obvious, the symptoms that we experience when we quit drinking. There is a lot more to it though. In this episode you’ll learn about why we have withdrawal symptoms and how alcohol impacts the central nervous system. Then I will focus on kindling and how withdrawal can become worse the more cycles we go through, and how returni…
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Getting started is the hardest part. What are you supposed to do with your time? How do you get through the first week? In this episode I’ll cover 11 tips to help you succeed in Dry July. E190: NA Drinks: the pros and cons Quit drinking course for Dry July on Sober Powered Skills Sober Support: Community & Meetings: Living a Sober Powered Life http…
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Our thoughts create our reality. For most of my life I thought that I had bad luck and bad things kept happening to me, but in sobriety I realized I had very toxic thinking. When something happens to us, we assign meaning to it and that meaning can create issues. It’s important to learn how to adjust your perspective. In this episode I will cover 5…
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If you’ve stopped drinking, have you noticed that when you walk into a room your eyes immediately go to where the alcohol is? Or how you keep track of how quickly everyone is drinking and what drink they’re on without any effort? Or how you never realized how much people in TV shows and movies drink until now? This is because alcohol can capture an…
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Let's talk about goal setting and building self-confidence. You've probably heard me mention off and on that I've had this goal to deadlift 200 lbs. I just achieved it. If you can stay put for a short story about my deadlift, then I promise I have a point. I want to get into goal setting, how to determine what your goal should even be, and what thi…
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Many of us use alcohol to turn off our brain, escape our problems, or check out, but escapism is actually associated with more intense drinking and lower life satisfaction. In this episode you’ll learn about the different theories behind escapism, why we’re doing this, and how it makes our problems worse. I hope that this episode can help you make …
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What causes a relapse? How can we recognize it and make changes before we actually relapse? In this episode I’ll discuss the path to relapse and what is going on. Whether you relapsed or want to be vigilant in case you relapse or get weird thoughts, then you’ll learn about denial, low insight, not being ready to quit, and 5 strategies to deal with …
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Your brain has to be connected well to be able to work. We beat ourselves up because we know we shouldn’t drink, but then we do, or because we keep convincing ourselves it’ll be different this time, even though it’s never different. It’s easy to think this is because you’re a weak-willed loser with no self-control, but it’s just not true. In this e…
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There are triggers to drink everywhere, but I’ve seen 6 common ones that mess up people’s attempts to get sober. In this episode I’ll explain what these are and how you can start dealing with them. I’m going to start our discussion with a personal lesson I learned about giving up when things get hard. We also need to learn how to push through disco…
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Glutamate, GABA, Dopamine, Norepinephrine, Serotonin, and the whole HPA axis (stress response). These are some of the important systems in your brain that get messed up when you blast your brain with alcohol all the time. Then when we quit drinking, these get even more messed up. In this episode you’ll learn what these 6 do, how alcohol messes them…
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Alcohol is marketed as a key to relaxation and fun. Ads and movies show us that alcohol is essential for social bonding and carefree moments, signaling us that a drink in hand is your ticket to fun and connection. Then when we start to notice our drinking is problematic and think about how we may have to get sober, one of the first things we panic …
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The hippocampus is an important part of the brain, which is unfortunately very vulnerable to alcohol. It is most well-known for its role in blackouts, but damage to the hippocampus from our drinking can cause problems with everyday memory too, like telling someone the same story over and over again. The hippocampus has a lesser known, but very impo…
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Our lifestyle can make our sobriety easier or harder. When we quit drinking, things have to change. We can’t keep coming home to the same old routine but just not drink. In this episode I’ll explain 7 lifestyle changes that you can make overtime to support your sobriety and why these changes are helpful. What to listen to next: E188: wellness over …
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There are 2 types of alcohol cravings that you may experience as you quit drinking: sudden, in the moment cravings or constant all day cravings. In this episode, you’ll learn about both types and 3 reasons we crave alcohol. I’ve experienced both types of cravings so I will share my experience and help you understand why you keep craving alcohol and…
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The weather is getting warmer and we start thinking about how everyone’s going to be on the porch or at restaurants drinking, how nice that looks, and how left out we feel for not participating. It’s normal to see other people drinking and wish you could do it too. In this episode we’ll talk about 3 reasons why we think alcohol is required when the…
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We don’t drink because we’re losers with no self-control. A lot of times we drink because we can’t handle emotions, we get the F its, and we keep convincing ourselves it will be different this time. These are all different types of impulsivity. In this episode, you’ll learn 4 different impulsive traits and how these influence our drinking. I’ll exp…
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Do we “get” to be sober or do we have to be sober? What if you don’t want to glamorize sobriety or think about alcohol as a class one carcinogen? Do you have to call yourself an alcoholic to quit drinking for good? In this episode I’m explaining how we think we are different from everyone else and 5 different ways I’ve seen the sober community talk…
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We drink to cope because it seems to help us manage anxiety, depression, trauma, stress, etc., but self-medicating with alcohol only makes your problems worse. Drinking to cope increases our risk of developing a problem and in this episode I’ll explain why. You’ll learn how much more likely coping drinkers are to develop a problem, how this makes i…
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We think that turning off our brain with alcohol at the end of the day is “me time” and it’s the only way to get a break. This isn’t self-care, it’s called being depleted and trying to survive a life that drains you. Poor self-care is one of the most reliable predictors of relapse in people trying to get sober. It’s important and in this episode I’…
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It’s frustrating if you keep trying to stop drinking, but aren’t succeeding. We’ve discussed the brain changes that make it more difficult in a few recent episodes, but there are other factors as well. In this episode we’ll discuss the difference in how people handle the same life circumstances and stressors, and what determines whether you will be…
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Anticipation of the reward from alcohol is one of the main reasons we stay stuck in the back and forth cycle. We believe alcohol will help us relax, unwind, deal with negative emotions, have fun, or connect with others. This is what causes cravings for alcohol. In this episode I’ll explain how we learn to associate certain things with drinking, how…
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Significant brain healing can happen within the first few months of being sober. Finally some good news for us, right? In this episode you’ll learn more about how alcohol damages the brain to make it harder to stay sober and how the brains of people who are able to stay sober differ from those who go on to relapse. It’s not just deciding that you’r…
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Behavioral addictions are stigmatized because they feel like more of a choice because there’s no substance changing your brain. However, process addictions or behavioral addictions like porn do actually change the brain in similar ways. In this episode I’ll explain why porn is so addicting, brain changes from porn, and how porn influences us to obj…
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We do the same thing with our diet that we do with our drinking- our eating habits aren’t great, but they’re not bad either so it feels manageable. Our food quality impacts our mental health and stress levels though. I’ve been struggling with fatigue and depression, so it got me interested in the link. In this episode I’m explaining the importance …
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There are lots of great things that happen when you quit drinking, but we can get distracted by wanting everything to be easy and perfect. In this episode I’m sharing 15 things you can look forward to from day 2 to years of sobriety. Wherever you’re at in your journey, this episode will remind you of some of the best things about being sober. What …
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You’ve probably heard of the acronym HALT, hungry, angry, lonely, tired. These are all triggers for relapse because they influence our ability to think things through and wait. These feelings make us impulsive, overwhelmed, and more likely to go for an instant gratification choice like drinking, even when we know we want to stay sober. In this epis…
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For some of us, each time we go through withdrawal, the next withdrawal is worse. This is called kindling and in this episode I’m explaining what kindling is and how it happens. You’ll learn why we get withdrawal symptoms when we quit drinking, what delirium tremens is, and how kindling makes it harder to get sober. I’ll also discuss what counts as…
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On March 31st, National Crayon Day celebrates the joy of coloring and the endless creative possibilities that these colorful wax sticks have brought to children and adults alike for over a century. Subscribe here and on you favorite podcasting apps: https://jonny.hopp.to/celebrate由Talkocast
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