• 27 minutes 28 seconds
    High Dopamine, Low Effort Behaviors and Making Sobriety Feel Less Hard (Replay)

    Your brain is wired for quick hits of dopamine, or high-reward, low-effort habits that feel good in the moment but sabotage your long-term goals. Over time, this conditions your brain to expect rewards without effort, making real change feel harder than it actually is. In this episode, I’ll explain how these patterns destroy motivation, fuel inconsistent effort, and keep you stuck in the cycle of short bursts of change followed by slinking back to your old ways. You’ll learn how high dopamine, low effort behaviors impact the brain, how this makes us resistant to putting in effort, and 3 ways you may be making being sober feel more difficult for yourself than it needs to be- and how to shift that.


    What to listen to next:

    E265: Rewiring Your Reward System After Getting Sober

    E263: Sugar Cravings After Quitting Drinking

    E145: ADHD and Alcohol


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    Sources are posted on my website

    Disclaimer: all of the information described in this podcast is my interpretation of the research combined with my opinion. This is not medical advice.



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    4 September 2026, 7:00 am
  • 12 minutes 3 seconds
    E332: “Am I Bad Enough?”

    When you're thinking about your relationship with alcohol you may stay stuck in, "am I bad enough?" for years before taking the next step. This episode is a way to think about the question and the ambivalence of wanting to quit but also secretly hoping you can drink without the consequences someday.

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    Sources are posted on my website

    Disclaimer: all of the information described in this podcast is my interpretation of the research combined with my opinion. This is not medical advice. 


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    28 August 2026, 7:00 am
  • 18 minutes 23 seconds
    E331: Wanting to Quit Isn’t the Same as Being Willing to Quit

    There’s a difference between wanting the pain to stop and being willing to change the pattern, between wanting the benefits of sobriety and being willing to accept what sobriety requires, between saying, “I want to quit,” and actually becoming someone who protects that decision after the urgency fades. Wanting alone will keep you in the same loop if part of you still hopes that alcohol will stay available as an option.

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    Sources are posted on my website

    Disclaimer: all of the information described in this podcast is my interpretation of the research combined with my opinion. This is not medical advice. 



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    21 August 2026, 7:00 am
  • 16 minutes 58 seconds
    E330: How to Stop Dabbling and Start Doing the Work

    This is where I think people misunderstand what “doing the work” actually means. Doing the work is not just listening to sobriety content, understanding the science, or listening to people do the work in meetings. That information matters, but information alone isn’t going to change the pattern. You may have noticed how this podcast has evolved over the years. Each episode used to be a deep dive into the science, and then I’ve talked about it less and less. I learned that understanding what’s going on helps a lot, but it’s really the beginning of the story, not the end. 

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    Disclaimer: all of the information described in this podcast is my interpretation of the research combined with my opinion. This is not medical advice. 


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    14 August 2026, 7:00 am
  • 29 minutes 39 seconds
    How Many Attempts Does it Take to Quit Drinking for Good (Replay)

    I'm working hard on the last part of the dabbling series, but it's delayed by 1 week because I've been sick. Please enjoy this popular replay about how many times it takes to quit drinking for good.

    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 you can do to make this quit attempt your final try.

    What to listen to next:

    E249: Alcohol and Cortisol: Extra Stress and Extra Cravings

    E248: You Can’t Be Comfortable AND Stay Sober

    E238: Why Moderation Doesn’t Work

    E197: Making the DECISION to Quit Drinking


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    If you enjoyed this episode please consider buying me a coffee to support my work⁠⁠ https://www.buymeacoffee.com/soberpowered⁠⁠

    Sources are posted on my website

    Disclaimer: all of the information described in this podcast is my interpretation of the research combined with my opinion. This is not medical advice. 


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    7 August 2026, 7:00 am
  • 12 minutes 37 seconds
    E329: What Dabbling Looked Like For Me

    Story time. In the last episode, I talked about the difference between dabbling in sobriety and actually committing to it. In the next episode, I’m going to talk more about what it looks like to stop dabbling and start doing the work. But before we get there, I want to tell you a story from when I was sober curious, because this is one of the clearest examples I have of thinking I was committed when I was actually dabbling so you can have an example of what I’m talking about in this dabbling series.


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    Sources are posted on my website

    Disclaimer: all of the information described in this podcast is my interpretation of the research combined with my opinion. This is not medical advice. 


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    31 July 2026, 7:00 am
  • 17 minutes 31 seconds
    E328: Why Dabbling Keeps You Stuck in the Drinking Cycle

    Dabbling is when you stay close enough to sobriety to feel like you’re doing something, but not close enough for sobriety to actually change you. You listen to podcasts, follow sober accounts, make a Day 1 post. Maybe you go to a meeting. You lurk. You think about quitting. You say, “I know what I need to do.” You collect information, gather advice, and understand the problem intellectually. Then you disappear, or you get a little time and pull back, and you wait until things get bad again before you re-engage.

    We all go through a dabbling stage. Sometimes listening, reading, and observing are the first steps. But at some point, dabbling becomes a way to get the emotional relief of feeling like you’re working on the problem, without requiring the behavioral change that would actually move you forward.


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    Disclaimer: all of the information described in this podcast is my interpretation of the research combined with my opinion. This is not medical advice. 




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    24 July 2026, 7:00 am
  • 12 minutes 5 seconds
    Self-Care is NOT Temporarily Turning Off Your Brain (Replay)

    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’m explaining what self-care is and 5 simple ways you can begin to prioritize self-care in your life.


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    Sources are posted on my website

    Disclaimer: all of the information described in this podcast is my interpretation of the research combined with my opinion. This is not medical advice. 


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    17 July 2026, 7:00 am
  • 10 minutes 53 seconds
    E327: The “Maybe It’ll Be Different This Time” Fantasy

    One of the sneakiest thoughts in sobriety is, “Maybe I could drink differently now.” This fantasy so convincing because it uses your progress as evidence. It says, “You’re not the same person anymore. You have more tools now. You wouldn’t let it get that bad again. You could probably have one drink on vacation, or at a wedding, or on a special occasion, and be fine.”

    However, you became more stable because alcohol was removed and you started building your life without it.  Your emotional capacity improved because you stopped using alcohol to avoid every uncomfortable feeling.

    So yes, you may be different now. But you are different because sobriety is working, not because you've magically become cured from taking some time off.

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    Disclaimer: all of the information described in this podcast is my interpretation of the research combined with my opinion. This is not medical advice. 


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    10 July 2026, 7:00 am
  • 19 minutes 20 seconds
    E326: Why Alcohol Looks Better in Your Memory Than It Was In Reality

    Romanticizing alcohol can be one of the most confusing parts of sobriety because logically, you know what alcohol did to you, but your brain still makes it sound appealing. When that happens, your brain usually isn’t remembering the full drinking experience — it’s remembering the relief, the state change, and the moment before the consequences showed up. That doesn’t mean you secretly want to ruin your life or that you don’t know better; it means your brain is retrieving an edited version of the story. When stress, boredom, loneliness, resentment, overwhelm, social pressure, or exhaustion show up, your brain may pull up alcohol as an old solution until you build more reliable ways to respond to those feelings.

    This episode is about why we romanticize drinking and how to prepare yourself for these thoughts so they don't trick you back into the cycle.

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    Sources are posted on my website

    Disclaimer: all of the information described in this podcast is my interpretation of the research combined with my opinion. This is not medical advice. 


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    3 July 2026, 7:00 am
  • 16 minutes 58 seconds
    E325: When the courage to quit shows up, don’t assume it will still be there tomorrow

    A lot of people treat quitting drinking like it’s something they can start whenever they want. They think, “I’ll quit after this trip.” “I’ll quit after the summer.” “I’ll quit after my birthday.” “I’ll quit when work calms down.” “I’ll quit after the holidays.” “I’ll quit when I feel more ready.” or “I’ll try again tomorrow”

    On the surface, that sounds reasonable. It sounds like you’re making a plan. It sounds like you’re choosing a better time. It sounds like you’re saying, “Yes, I know this needs to change, but I’m going to wait until I can really focus on it.”

    But the problem is that readiness is not always available. Sometimes you get a rare moment where everything lines up in a way that lets you finally see the truth. Maybe you wake up with anxiety that feels different this time. Maybe you’re exhausted from disappointing yourself. Maybe you’re tired of making rules and breaking them. Maybe you’re tired of waking up and trying to piece together what happened. Maybe you’re tired of pretending it isn’t as bad as it feels. Maybe you have one of those moments where the denial drops just long enough for you to think, “I can’t keep doing this. Something has to change.”

    The mistake people make is assuming that moment will still be there tomorrow.


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    Sources are posted on my website

    Disclaimer: all of the information described in this podcast is my interpretation of the research combined with my opinion. This is not medical advice. 


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    26 June 2026, 7:00 am
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