What does it take to finally walk away from drinking when you love the party, love your people, and have never once thought of yourself as someone with a problem? Brooke was a high-functioning extrovert running a business and raising a family when a quiet voice in her head kept telling her something was off. Once she found The Path and started doing the real work, she discovered how alcohol-free living improved her anxiety in ways she never anticipated, and two and a half years later she has not looked back once.
Brooke discusses:
The brain scan that first linked her alcohol use to her health and sparked a decade-long journey toward change
Taking 10 months alcohol-free, returning to drinking after a family trip, and why she never judged herself for it
How COVID neighborhood happy hours quietly accelerated her relationship with alcohol
Joining The Path in August 2023 and the hungover weekend trip that became her last
Discovering she was an extrovert living with social anxiety and how that reframed everything she thought she knew about her drinking
How alcohol-free living improved her anxiety by removing the daily double whammy of hangxiety and giving her space to actually feel and respond
The shift from "I can't have it" to "I don't want it" and what real alcohol freedom looks and feels like
Morning Pages, journaling, therapy, books, and other low-barrier tools that helped her most in the early days
Why self-awareness and willingness are the two things that make every other tool actually work
And more on identity, belonging, and building a life that feels the same on the inside as it looks on the outside...
Episode links: nakedmindpath.com
Related Episodes:
What is the correlation between alcohol and anxiety? - Reader Question - EP 480 - https://thisnakedmind.com/ep-480-reader-question-what-is-the-correlation-between-alcohol-and-anxiety/
Anxiety, Overwhelm, and Alcohol: Tools to Find Calm and Confidence - Alcohol Freedom Coaching - EP 877- https://thisnakedmind.com/daily-practices-to-stay-alcohol-free-afc-e877/
Have I done permanent damage to my brain? - Reader Question - EP 350 - https://thisnakedmind.com/ep-350-reader-question-have-i-done-permanent-damage-to-my-brain/
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