We need to talk about how recovery became an industry — and what gets lost when healing turns into a business model.

In this episode, we dig into the Recovery Industrial Complex — the network of treatment centers, rehab programs, celebrity sobriety brands, and billion-dollar “sober curious” marketing machines that sell the illusion of transformation while often keeping people disempowered.

I’ll unpack how capitalism, patriarchy, and privatized healthcare systems shape what “getting better” is supposed to look like — and who gets access to it. We’ll look at why recovery culture often mimics the same control and hierarchy as addiction itself, and how to reclaim your own authority in the process.

This one’s not about rejecting help — it’s about seeing the system for what it is, so you can choose what actually serves your healing, not what sells it.

✨ Explore More:

• Download the free guide: 3 Radical Mind Shifts for the Sober Curious

• Join the waitlist for the next Wayward Sober Collective

• Learn more about Sarah’s 1:1 work at Wayward Sober

📘 Free Guide: ⁠3 Radical Mind Shifts for the Sober Curious⁠

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• 👥 Join the ⁠Wayward Sober Collective⁠ — a 6-week group for those questioning their relationship with alcohol

• 📖 Read: ⁠Canada’s Guidance on Alcohol and Health (CCSA)⁠

• 📣 Find your MP to advocate for alcohol health warning labels: ⁠House of Commons Directory⁠

It’s legal, everywhere, and even sold by the government — so alcohol can’t really be that dangerous… right?

In this episode, Sarah breaks down the illusion of safety that props up alcohol culture — and how “regulated” doesn’t always mean “safe.” From cancer risks and mental health spirals to secondhand harms like gender-based violence, suicide, child neglect, and impaired driving, the numbers tell a story the industry doesn’t want us to see.

We’ll talk about:

• Why alcohol is officially classified as a Group 1 carcinogen (alongside tobacco and asbestos)

• How it’s connected to depression, anxiety, and suicide

• What “secondhand harms” really mean — from violence to neglect

• The billions in costs Canada carries while the industry protects profit

• Why refusing warning labels on bottles isn’t an accident — it’s a strategy

And we’ll close with some tangible tools to help you translate awareness into action. Because understanding the risk isn’t about guilt — it’s about agency. Once you see the truth clearly, you can decide what’s worth it for you.

We’ve all seen the “mommy juice” memes, the mugs that say “this might be wine,” and the jokes about hiding in the pantry with a glass just to survive. On the surface, it looks like humor and solidarity. But underneath, Wine Mom culture is a trap — one that targets women at their most vulnerable.

In this episode of Wayward Sober, Sarah shares her own story: drinking heavily, quitting cold turkey after a positive pregnancy test, and then facing postpartum exhaustion, body changes, loneliness, and guilt — all while a culture told her that wine was the answer.

We’ll talk about:

• How Wine Mom culture normalizes alcohol as coping and bonding in motherhood

• The double standard between “quirky” drinking and “problem” drinking for moms

• The ways postpartum depression, body dystopia, and sleep deprivation make women easy targets for alcohol marketing

• Why memes and jokes hide the reality of post-party depression and guilt

• Two practical tools (IFS + CBT based) you can use when cravings or overwhelm hit

This conversation is centered on women, but men need to listen too. Partners, fathers, and friends need to understand this hidden struggle — because behind the jokes, so many women are silently fighting to survive.

• 📘 Free Guide: 3 Radical Mind Shifts for the Sober Curious → Grab It Here!

• 👥 Join the Wayward Sober Collective (6-week group program) → waywardsober.com

• Canada’s Guidance on Alcohol & Health (CCSA): https://www.ccsa.ca/en/guidance-tools-resources/substance-use-and-addiction/alcohol/canadas-guidance-alcohol-and-health

• Statistics: About 23% of new mothers in Canada experience postpartum depression or anxiety (Statistics Canada, 2019)