You don't need a rock bottom to quit drinking. No DUI. No lost job. No moment where everything blows up. For Paula, life looked great from the outside, a beautiful home in South Florida, two kids, a marriage built in the alcohol industry, and a career soaked in alcohol. Nothing was falling apart on the outside or so she thought. She made every soccer practice. She was the homeroom mom. But the hangovers were getting worse, the blackouts had started, and her kids were beginning to see two different versions of her.

In this episode of the Sober Motivation Podcast, Paula shares what she calls the "miserable middle" of drinking. The place so many high-functioning drinkers get stuck. Nothing is bad enough to quit, but nothing feels right either. She talks about growing up with a normal relationship to alcohol, building her entire career around it, falling into the mommy wine culture trap, and how managing her drinking became more exhausting than the drinking itself.

After 30 years of drinking and four years of being sober curious, it was her teenage daughter's words that finally broke through: "I can't take these two different people." That was Paula's day one. November 2, 2022.

We cover:

• Quitting drinking without a rock bottom
• High-functioning alcoholism and the gray area drinker
• Mommy wine culture and how it sneaks up on you
• Why managing your drinking is exhausting
• Anxiety, hangxiety, and the cortisol crash
• How alcohol affects your kids even when you think they don't notice
• The "miserable middle" between drinking and sobriety
• What the first year of sobriety actually looks like

If you've been sober curious, gray area drinking, questioning your relationship with alcohol, or wondering if your drinking is "bad enough" to quit — this episode is for you. You are not alone, and you don't have to wait for things to fall apart to choose something better.

Sober Motivation Community: https://sobermotivation.mn.co/

Sober Motivation Website: https://www.sobermotivation.com

Support the Podcast: https://buymeacoffee.com/sobermotivation

Contact me anytime: brad@sobermotivation.com

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From the outside everything looked perfect. Behind the scenes alcohol addiction was taking over and one night it nearly ended everything.

In this episode Lauren shares her sobriety story from having her first drink at just 10 years old to years of hiding alcohol addiction behind a life that looked put together.

Her drinking escalates over time leading to serious consequences and a life changing moment that forces everything into the open.

After quitting drinking and starting her recovery journey things begin to improve. But a legal substance called kratom unexpectedly pulls her back into addiction and nearly costs her everything in just a few months.

This episode is an honest look at alcohol addiction relapse and the risks of substances that many people assume are safe.

Sober Motivation Community: https://sobermotivation.mn.co/

Sober Motivation Website: https://www.sobermotivation.com

Support the Podcast: https://buymeacoffee.com/sobermotivation

Contact me anytime: brad@sobermotivation.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bri is almost one year sober. For the year before that she tried to quit drinking over and over, racking up day ones nobody knew about. Two months sober, then a slip. Two months again, another slip. From the outside she was the picture perfect mom. Accountant, wife, two little boys, a pool in the backyard. Behind closed doors it was shots from the freezer on Christmas, weekend blackouts at her own pool parties, and crying in the shower when everyone went home. Then on Easter she pulled her one year old son aside and told him he'd never see her drunk or hungover again. She hasn't had a drink since.

In this episode Bri shares what gray area drinking looks like for a working mom; why her two month sobriety cycles kept breaking; the blackouts she hid from everyone; her first sober tax season; and what one year sober actually feels like. If you keep restarting, this one is for you.

Bri's Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@briinsobriety

Bri on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brimarshallll/

Sober Motivation Community: https://sobermotivation.mn.co/

Sober Motivation Website: https://www.sobermotivation.com

Support the Podcast: https://buymeacoffee.com/sobermotivation

Contact me anytime: brad@sobermotivation.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.