Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] Speaker A: Welcome to the Alcohol Tipping Point podcast. I'm your host, Deb Maisner. I'm a registered nurse, health coach, and alcohol free badass. I have found that there's more than one way to address drinking. If you've ever asked yourself if drinking is taking more than it's giving, or if you've found that you're drinking more than usual, you may have reached your own alcohol tipping point. The alcohol tipping point is a podcast for you to find tips, tools, and thoughts to change your drinking. Whether you're ready to quit forever or a week, this is the place for you. You are not stuck, and you can change. Let's get started.
[00:00:45] Speaker B: Welcome back to the podcast, all the way from Ireland. Today is a special guest. Her name is Olivia Farrelly. She is a former gray area drinker who has been alcohol free since 2008. Congratulations. Or not.
[00:01:01] Speaker C: 2000.
[00:01:01] Speaker B: 820 18.
[00:01:03] Speaker C: No, Deb, I was drinking in 2008.
[00:01:07] Speaker B: Yeah, I do. I know. Like, that. Ten years probably makes pretty big difference. Olivia holds a master's in health psychology and a diploma in alcohol studies, and she is the host of the no More Booze podcast. Olivia credits removing alcohol as the single most transformational change she has ever made. Since giving up alcohol, Olivia has experienced more joy, energy, vitality, clarity, self compassion, and motivation than ever before. So thank you for coming on the show, Olivia.
[00:01:42] Speaker C: Oh, I'm so happy to be here. I adore talking, first of all, and I adore talking about alcohol and how giving it up has completely transformed my life. So thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.
[00:01:57] Speaker B: Yes, I would love to hear your story. You're in Ireland. You're in Dublin now, just like what drinking was like for you, what your own tipping point was, how you unwound the habit to get to where you're at now.
[00:02:14] Speaker C: Yeah. So I'm a very typical story because anybody I talk to of the same age as me, I'm 43. So I came of age in the 1990s where there was a very specific alcohol centric culture in Ireland. We would have all started experimenting around 1415. I wasn't any different. We experimented with, like, alcohol pops. So, like, heavily colored, heavily sugared alcohol drinks, so aluminous colors, like neons and bright blues. So I suppose that's what I first started drinking. And then there was definitely a culture of naggings of vodka, right? So it was like quarter bottles of vodka. So you'd buy a nagging of vodka for fiverr and go drink it with your friends. But it was very, very typical. So did that for a couple of years, I suppose. You know, I was shy. Like most people, I was quite introverted and extroverted at the same time. But alcohol, when I drank it, it felt like something came alive within me. So all of the inhibitions went, all of the kind of feelings of less than the awkwardness, that social anxiety, all that kind of stuff. And I felt at home with booze. I have to admit that it felt good for a very long time. It was. I suppose there was the occasional bad hangover. There was the occasional horrendous thing that I did, you know, but all in all, the. I suppose the juice was worth the squeeze. So the benefits far outweighed the costs. So it was, I did it successfully. Well, semi successfully, but it gave a lot at the very beginning and into my twenties, of course, there was incidences where it didn't and, you know, stuff happened. But, like, isn't that what kind of goes hand in hand with drinking and drank heavily in university the first time I was there, all my friends were big drinkers. We had great fun. My twenties, I went traveling a lot. So again, the backpack culture, lots of booze in on different continents. Yeah, I suppose when I came back to Ireland, then I did a master's over in the UK and came back to Ireland in my late twenties, kind of mid to late twenties. I suppose I would have had a little bit of depression. Looking back on it now, you know, 2020 vision is so clear. And when I look back on it now, I wasn't happy.
And I suppose I used alcohol to cope and I was using alcohol at that stage to go out and kind of meet somebody, you know, I suppose a romantic partner, a life partner, a soulmate, which I found when I was 28. His name is Gary and I suppose if we. He's an incredibly. I don't want to say the word stoic, but he's a really grounded person. And I suppose he really regulated me. His calmness regulated me. So when I met him, I kind of really calmed down. I suppose there was no need for me to go out socializing as much as I did. And we were really happy. And my. He's not a big drinker. He still drinks, but very, very moderately, I suppose. But I, again, our life kind of just calmed down a lot and then we got married and we had two kids and I suppose so my drinking water, like, there was definitely bites of very heavy drinking in my twenties, definitely. So kind of four or five nights a week. And that would have wound down when I met Gary to maybe four times a month and then by the time we had kids, it was like four times every four months. So maybe once a month. But I suppose, again, if we flip it on its head, when I was drinking, then it was far. So the costs were just outrageous in terms of. For me, you know, internally, like, personally, psychologically, what alcohol was doing to me, it was making me really outrageously anxious. So I could have anxiety for four, five, six days. If I set an intention or if I set a goal, it would make me. That goal is gone. As soon as I would have a bit of alcohol, my. You know, my hangovers were absolutely horrendous. Like, they were biblical. The shame, the regret, all these kinds of things. It just wasn't working in my life at all. And it probably. By the time I gave up, I was 37 when I gave up. If I look back and be very honest, you know, it worked for a while, and then it just stopped working. But if I look back now, did it stunt my development as a human? Absolutely. Did it stagnate me? Yes. Did it hold me back? Absolutely. But, you know, I read a lot of deeply spiritual books, and one of my favorite ones is the power of now by Eckhart Tolle. And like he says, everything happens the way it's supposed to happen. So I can't undo any of those things that have been done, but I can just accept the past and move on from it. And, you know, I. When I gave up, so I did. In 2017, I did a 30 day challenge, right? So I gave up for the whole month of December and actually found it quite easy. And then thought I had fixed myself, that I was grand, that I wouldn't drink in the patterns that I would drink in and the way I described myself when I had one, I could. I could never stop. My body never told me when enough was enough. In all, I drank for 23 years. And in those 23 years, my body never said, olivia, this is your last drink. You can never have. Have enough. I have friends whose bodies told them. They would say, oh, I'm feeling too full, or I'm. That's not good for me, and I'm done. Now, my body never once. And all those thousands of times that I went out and I drank alcohol, it never told me once when enough is enough. But anyway, that when I gave up for those 30 days, I thought I was fixed. And I thought, now my body will tell me when enough is enough. But as we know, if you're an all or nothing drinker or a gray area drinker, what happens is you can never just have one, and I could never just have one. And. Yeah, so I stopped and started for about seven months after that, and then there came a time where I just went absolutely mad at a wedding in Spain and drank far too much hangover. And the effects of it were so horrendous that I. It was the last. It literally was the last. I couldn't do it anymore. And that's what happened. I just said it out loud, and I was like, I cannot do that anymore. And that was the last time I drank. So it's coming up. It's nearly six years and, like, three months now at this stage, but I have another. No, I know for sure I will never have another drink again. Jeff.
[00:09:07] Speaker B: Well, that's awesome. Thank you for sharing your experience.
I think it was interesting you were talking about, like, the alcohol centric culture for teens in the nineties, which I thought was, you know, I definitely grew up much the same way, drinking in my teens in college and whatnot. But we didn't have as much marketing. Like, it sounds like you did. Like those alco pops, you said.
[00:09:35] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:09:36] Speaker B: Those shiny, beautiful drinks that would you say, like, things were getting specifically marketed towards teens or.
[00:09:45] Speaker C: Without a doubt, yeah. So they were, like, so sweetly flavored. You could get strawberry flavored, pineapple flavored. Like, we used to say that. Oh, they're not even a drink. They're a mixer for, like, your spirit mixer for vodka. Yeah. So it was definitely, when you look at it now, who else would drink?
Teenagers, or. I suppose it's how you train people in to start drinking. But, yeah, they were very, very. It's. There was the brands. There was, like, Woody's and Hooch and Cardi Breezer and all those kind of ones. But they were definitely targeted towards early drinkers, let's say.
[00:10:25] Speaker B: Yeah, that's super interesting. And then as you were talking and sharing your story, just about, like, you got to the point where you maybe weren't drinking daily, but when you did drink, it was over drinking. It was binge drinking.
[00:10:40] Speaker C: Yeah, right.
[00:10:40] Speaker B: You didn't have that offset switch.
[00:10:42] Speaker C: Never. Never. Absolutely never. And I nearly went up a gear, and I always found after the third drink, that's when it really kind of escalated. That's when I would. I loved the feeling of the third drink, but I could never stop at the third drink, no matter how hard I tried. It was just. It was physiological. It felt, you know, there was something outside of, I suppose, my conscious control that, you know, that there was a physiological need for more drink. That's the way I kind of have looked back at it now, but, you know, I definitely romanticized alcohol, and I suppose our culture here in Ireland is that it does no harm. And, you know, I suppose that was the narrative for a long time that, oh, sure, it's part of who we are. It's part of our culture. We drink heavily and. But I thought it was sophisticated and definitely, I suppose, moved on to, like, fancy things like wine. And we definitely have a lot of. If you drink wine, you're sophisticated. If you drink, you know, cider in a park, you're not. But that's just perceptions, isn't it? It's all the same as it goes down. But, yeah, I romanticized it in the way that it was, you know, part of my personality. It helped me access parts of my personality. And I suppose now, on the flip side of it, and loads of people say this, and it's been my experience, so alcohol free gives me everything that alcohol promised. So, like, in doing the work, so we allow alcohol to.
We rely on it to give us confidence or make us more socially acclimatized to a situation. And, you know, when we remove it, then we, as a human, have to become all of those things. So we have to become brave and courageous and step into uncomfortable places and step into our power and our potential as well. And I've uncovered a lot of potential, latent potential that I didn't know I had and that, I suppose, was veiled by alcohol. And having removed it, the clarity and, you know, the energy and the vitality and the productivity that I've unearthed has allowed me to kind of step into places that I would never step into ordinarily. And that it's not just my experience. Like, I could tell you a hundred people who I know or whose stories I've listened to or spoke about that they experience the exact same thing. And that's the thing, you know, it's not just me or you. This happens to everybody. Everybody advantages. And it's just about holding tight until you start experiencing those yourself.
[00:13:29] Speaker B: Yeah, holding tight. Well, what I loved and I think is important about your story and sharing about how you weren't a daily drinker, but you still romanticized about it, thought about it. When you did drink, you overdrink.
It can look so different on everybody. And I think we compare ourselves to other people a lot and compare ourselves to the person drinking in the park or the person who drinks every day. Think, like, oh, well, I don't drink every day. I must be okay. Or even if I am drinking, maybe I'm only having two or three glasses a night, and that's not a lot compared to all these other people around me. And it's just so personal. It's like, what? What does it look like for you? Is it a problem for you instead of focusing on what's going around in the soup around you?
[00:14:26] Speaker C: Absolutely. And that's what I always say about myself. Like, I don't look like a problematic drinker, right. And a lot of my friends would have. People around me would have said, you're a grand, would you stop? But I have the opinion that if alcohol is causing problems for you, then it's a problem. And it caused problems for me internally. And, you know, having been offered for over six years now, I can look back and I exactly where the problems were, because I've had so much freedom and clarity and joy and passion and all those things since not having a drink that I know that alcohol caused all of those problems. Like, I've now, I haven't got into a sticky situation. I haven't said anything I didn't mean, I haven't done anything I regret. I haven't blacked it, and I haven't done that since I haven't had a drink. So the drink caused all those and not me. And I think that's a really important point as well. Like, in the culture that we live in, you know, we blame the drinker and not the drink. Right? So, like, I haven't done anything to cause me shame or regret in six years. I did loads of shit that caused me shame or regret in the years that preceded that. So the only difference is that I drank alcohol then and I don't now. So I'm fully in control of who I am now. And I don't do things that cause upset to me or cause upset to other people now. So it wasn't ever me. It was just the way in which I drank. So it was the drink, you know, I suppose all this clarity and joy. And for me, anyway, the clarity was the thing that made it extra nice. So, you know, waking up on a Sunday morning after a wedding on a Saturday, and having no regrets, remembering how I got to bed, having taken my makeup off or not waking up in the dress that I wore the night before, just becoming more intentional with my life, that's been the biggest catalyst, I suppose, that clarity that you can do absolutely anything. And it definitely felt like freedom for the first couple of years as well, that I was free from, I suppose, the prison that was of my own creation. And now it genuinely keeps getting better every year, and I still, there's still so much joy. I was out on Friday night and even, like, I had a fabulous time. And I even suppose now after six years, I'm still discovering things that I like to do more and more and more and just becoming a better version of myself, more confident, more regularly. That's another added bonus, even way down the line, you know? So prior to those kind of initial months of it being great, but it's still great. Six and a bit years down the line, too.
[00:17:21] Speaker B: Yeah. So how did you, how did you quit then? How did you unravel this habit?
[00:17:27] Speaker C: Yeah, so I suppose I definitely. Hmm.
It felt like a real spiritual experience for me. So I feel that it was maybe aided by something bigger than myself. So I had an incredible determination and probably a determination like I'd never had before, but so I know now that when we take alcohol out, we have to push other things in. So, looking back, I got really into exercise, so I was doing a lot of HIIT exercise, and that definitely got me out of my body. I read an awful lot, I listened to a lot of podcasts. I did a lot of kind of mindfulness work. So I did a lot of meditation, did a lot of journaling. I'm the self help queen, so I would have self helped myself to rid myself of a lot of behaviors, and so I definitely would have reached for the book. So I was doing a lot of the work, you know, noticing patterns in myself. So there was a lot of that kind of self awareness stuff going on, a lot of journaling, a lot of questioning. Therapy as well was really good. I did a lot of Reiki healing for me, anyway. Lots of stuff came up around shame and shame for things that I had done and ways in which I had behaved as well. So I definitely thought that Reiki was a really, really positive tool for me to get rid of a lot of that shame. And, like, I'm still, I do the work all the time now. And a practice, I suppose, that I'm focusing on for myself at the minute is this area of, like, radical self acceptance, you know, so to really, truly accept me, my flaws, my imperfections, and I suppose to reflect a bit of love back to myself. And, you know, that's, I'm very early into that, that process, but that's going to be something I'm going to be working on now for the next couple of months, personally and with the help of a therapist. But, yeah, no, I find books and audiobooks and podcasts. They were absolutely invaluable. And it's the vulnerabilities of other people. When other people share and share their darkest times, you know, then we feel so seen that if somebody experiences the same as we do, then inherently we might not be as bad as is our worst, worst imaginings of ourselves, you know? So, yeah, I. It took. It took a while, but I suppose I would imagine looking back now, I'd say after about three years, I knew I was done for good, you know? Yes. My life was so incredibly enriched by not drinking that I knew for sure that I would never drink again.
[00:20:15] Speaker B: And you just went a more of your own making. Like, you didn't do a program, you didn't join a group, you didn't go to AA, you didn't, you know, which I think is great. I think more and more people are doing putting together what works for them and what they need. Some people need the connection and they need other people. Like, you got a lot out of that. Just bye. Reading stories and podcasts, listening to the podcasts and working on yourself at the same time. You had a therapist also, so you weren't completely alone.
Do you remember some of the books or podcasts that stood out to you?
[00:20:58] Speaker C: Yeah, so the books. The books. The first book I read was the unexpected joy of being sober.
Yeah. So that was a phenomenal one for me. And then I love drink by Anne Daisy Johnson. That really opened my eyes. And that's a phenomenal book as well. I love drink by Doctor David, Professor David Nutt. That was a real. Oh, what else? Kick the drink easily was one that I did. I think that's Jason Vale. And there was another lady, an australian lady. I read her book early on. It was called the Social Rebellion. Maz Compton was her name. So they were the kind of early stuff that I had read and podcasts, just different people, I suppose, on podcast. Andy Ramage was his. Whenever he appeared in a podcast, I would tune into that kind of thing. But it was a very different landscape back in 2017 to 18. There wasn't this whole kind of sober curiosity going around the place. I suppose that has definitely sped up in the last couple of years. Bush definitely. I think it was a bit of a barren, barren ground back then. There wasn't many people talking about it compared to what there is now, you know. But, yeah, I felt that I do a lot of the work by Doctor Nicola Pere, so I would still do a lot of her. I read a lot of her work, and she's an incredible workbook as well that I do a lot of work with as well. So, yeah, it's been a journey, for sure.
[00:22:26] Speaker B: Yeah, let's talk about that. So when you gave it up, like, what was the reaction around people around you?
[00:22:34] Speaker C: That I was melodramatic. Yeah. Oh, yeah, right. They were like, your grand, you're fine. But it was internally, like, I suppose I would have looked fine, let's say, on a night out. It was a very social thing. So myself and Gary at home here would have never been massive home drinkers. So, you know, maybe the odd bottle of wine every second weekend or every third weekend, but there wasn't, I suppose, a culture of the two of us doing, you know, drinking every Friday and Saturday night either. So it was easy not to drink at home. And we had young kids, so we were rarely going out. So I suppose alcohol would have kind of petered out as well. And what was your question there? Sorry, my.
[00:23:16] Speaker B: Well, just like, when you gave it up back, like, what the reaction was around you.
[00:23:22] Speaker C: Sorry.
[00:23:22] Speaker B: And then kind of moving into, like. I mean, now it's. It's becoming more and more acceptable to be sober, curious to take breaks and whatnot. Yeah. Just kind of sharing about the evolution.
[00:23:35] Speaker C: Yeah, sorry, my perimenopause brain took over there. Like, I'm in the middle of perimenopause, and the brain fog is unbelievable. It's funny because I'm 43 now and I gave up at 37, and I was having such a gorgeous run of things, and now I've hit this kind of brain fog wall and I'm like, oh, I can't even talk.
[00:23:55] Speaker B: Barely there with you.
[00:23:58] Speaker C: Yeah, but, yeah. So what happened then? So I think personally, what I think is the pandemic created an avalanche of at home drinkers, problematic drinkers, people who began to rely too heavily on the wine at home, and then as nearly an offshot for that, people increasing their alcohol consumption over then and then realizing it's a. An absolute waste of time, that then this. That's my own opinion. That's my own musings on it, that that's what gave birth to this sober, curious movement as well. Plus, people are more health conscious, and there's more studies coming out about the health harms associated with alcohol. So, you know, I suppose we're of an age where we were heavily marketed to and our entire generation and the people I see around me would have drank an awful lot. And then they're at an age now in their kind of forties going. Now I'm choosing something different. I want something different. And you know, a lot of my friends are alcohol free at the minute, and so it's definitely a thing. And there was a report published a couple of weeks ago here in Ireland by the Drinks Industry Group of Ireland, and they reported that alcohol consumption has decreased by 31% since 19.
[00:25:22] Speaker B: Oh, you cut out for a second. Since what?
[00:25:24] Speaker C: It's decreased 31% since 1987. So our alcohol consumption in Ireland has been decreasing a huge amount. And now that we have this kind of sober, curious movement here, so people are just, you know, they're done. They know that they have better things to be doing, that there's more clarity, productivity, better moods, and I suppose there's a lot more availability of zero, zero drinks and non alcoholic drinks, and people are just choosing that instead. So it's great to see, because when you go out, you have a lot of friends.
I live outside in the suburbs of Dublin, and we had a party at all. Our neighbors had to kind of party there during the summer, and only a couple of weeks ago, and I'd say 70% of people were drinking zero, zero at it.
[00:26:23] Speaker B: Wow, that's amazing. What a wonderful shift. I think that is a good point. Like, the pendulum really swung one way and that point about the pandemic, like, there were more and more people drinking at home alone, more and more, quote unquote normal drinkers that were like, whoa, something's happening here. Like, I'm developing a problem or reliance on alcohol. I need to shift the other way now. And so it took an increase in gray area drinkers, let's just say, to really shift it away to this awareness of drinking and this curiosity and this willingness to change. And then also.
[00:27:15] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:27:16] Speaker B: All the health reports, all the new data, and just recognizing, like, how much we had been marketed to.
[00:27:24] Speaker C: Yeah. And how do it.
[00:27:27] Speaker B: Right. And then you're kind of mad. You're like, that's enough, that's enough.
[00:27:31] Speaker C: Yeah. And I definitely got angry at one stage, and it was Dyson Johnson's book that I was reading, and I was like, what? Oh, my God. I was raging. Because when I grew up, I felt like I didn't have a choice to drink.
There was no choice there. It wasn't. It was like everybody was drinking, so there was no choice, you know? And I suppose there was an idea that people who didn't drink were boring and nobody wanted to be around them, and so you kind of had to drink to be good fun, whereas now it's totally different. I see loads of young people and they chew. They definitely don't drink in the same passions that we do. And I think social media has a definite effect on that in that back in the day, we would have uploaded 87 pictures to Facebook of drinking Jaeger bombs and thinking we were great, looking like hell. But now it's just nasty. You would never do that, you know, and if they don't like, young people don't like to look out of control. Whereas we loved it.
Do you?
[00:28:41] Speaker B: It did. Has Ireland come out with new drinking guidelines, like Canada? Because I heard that Ireland was actually on the list of countries to change their drinking guidelines.
[00:28:53] Speaker C: Not their guidelines, not to my knowledge now, but what they are implementing is warning labels on alcohol products. So that's coming out in 2026. So. Yeah, but I'm. I must look that up. But I haven't heard of something like that.
[00:29:12] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. Just curious. I want to shout out to another. You were talking about books, and one of my favorite books is by an irish author, Kate Gunn. Have you read her? The accidental so barista? Yes.
[00:29:28] Speaker C: I had Kate on my podcast.
[00:29:30] Speaker B: Me too. I was like, I'm sure she knows Kate. What a wonderful book. This book kind of reminds me of Claire Pooley's the Sober Diaries. But I just appreciate seeing the cultural changes across the world, really. But how wonderful to see it in Ireland.
[00:29:53] Speaker C: Absolutely. And in Ireland, where we are internationally renowned as being very bingey and big drinkers and all the rest. So having. I suppose that shift in culture is phenomenal, you know, and it's people access and potential as well, and up leveling and becoming better versions of themselves. And as well as I do, when you give up alcohol, it is the greatest journey of self discovery. You become a. You're the most incredible version of yourself, you know? And I have become the most incredible version in comparison to who I was maybe ten years ago. It's just incrementally, I get better and better every day, every month, every year that passes. And for me, one of my. One of the things that is really important to me is that I grow and evolve, and nothing has accelerated my growth and evolution like giving up alcohol has.
Yeah. It's just amazing.
[00:30:55] Speaker B: Amen. Amen.
So how did you decide? Because you're still working. You said you work your day job in education.
[00:31:04] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:31:05] Speaker B: And then you started this podcast, and so where are you at with helping other people? What does that look like?
[00:31:13] Speaker C: So I decided, I think it was two years ago to return to university, so I went and back and completed a diploma in alcohol studies. Adored us, did really well, decided to help people. So I have designed and delivered interventions for the past 18 years. So that was a skill of mine. So I decided intervention based on all of the things that had helped me. So I deliver them to people. So I do a group mentoring program once per month. So it's a month long program for people who want to remove alcohol. So it's an online program. And, yeah, so I've been delivering that for about a year and a half. And then last year I, you know yourself, like, podcast, it was a pipe dream for a while, and then I put it on the vision board and then I met somebody and she was like, oh, my God, you're so good to do the podcast, and I'm going to be your first guest. So that was any O'Neil and I started a podcast nine months ago and, yeah, have churned out an episode almost every week since and it's been doing really well. So, yeah, that's, I suppose in Ireland, there wasn't a lot of irish voices talking about alcohol and talking about, I suppose not rock bottom drinking, so, you know, the kind of inversive commons, normal drinking or drinking that looked like everybody else's. So started the podcast and have got loads of guests and it's from all over the world, but a lot of the voices and a lot of the stories are from irish people. And, yeah, it's doing great and delighted to be helping people when I'm sure, like yourself, I get messages every single day from people saying, you know, I've given up alcohol and I love hearing your stories and all your guests give me hope that all the great things are on my way. And, you know, so it's been definitely. It's been a journey of lots of different things and learning something new every single day. And that's what I enjoy, and it's been really beneficial.
[00:33:30] Speaker B: That's wonderful. Now, when you use the word intervention, I feel like that means something else to us, so. Cause you said you've been designing interventions, and I think of intervention as, you know, going in and, like, you have a problem, we need to get you off to rehab. But what do you mean by interventions?
[00:33:48] Speaker C: Oh, like. Sorry. So, like, I suppose a skills based program. So an intervention will be. Yeah, it's not like we're not pulling and dragging people out of homes. No, it's programmed to, I suppose, to upscale or a skill development program. Yeah, it's not like, it's not. We're not removed from people bringing them.
[00:34:09] Speaker B: Well, that's what I figured when you were talking. I was like, I'm just going to clarify.
[00:34:14] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. No, I suppose it's just, it's a pattern interrupter. It's, you know, I suppose a specifically designed program to target a specific behavior that people want to change.
[00:34:30] Speaker B: And so you've worked in a lot of different areas where you help people change.
What do you think is what makes someone successful when they're making a change? I mean, this is obviously about drinking, but it could be applied to any behavioral change. Right. What are some of the things that could make someone more successful?
[00:34:52] Speaker C: Yeah, I suppose a readiness to change would be a clear indicator if people are ready to put certain things into practice. So a great way for people to change would be if they can listen to podcasts, read, educate themselves, to gather knowledge, to empower themselves, you know, I suppose in a supportive environment that the people around them support them.
A willingness to change as well. A great indicator, too, is if you developed a practice of self awareness so you're able to identify certain patterns in your life you want to change. You want to examine the role that alcohol has in your life. You're looking to kind of untangle, and I suppose the romanticizing piece as well, that you can kind of see through that, that you're kind of ready for something different and you're ready to invite in change.
[00:35:54] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think that the romanticizing can go the other way. Instead of romanticizing drinking, romanticize your alcohol free life, which you so wonderfully shared in so many different ways and words about just how much better you are without it.
[00:36:17] Speaker C: Absolutely. And, you know, and it's not just me. Every single person who's given up drink will tell you the exact same thing, that your life, I suppose your life satisfaction increases considerably because you're more clear and you're more consistent. And that consistency piece as well is really, really important as well. And I suppose a willingness to do the work, then people talk about the work, like, what is the work? But, you know, to explore different avenues, things like emotional regulation. And I know that was massive for me, looking at how I responded or reacted to certain situations and developing a lot of skills then to become.
[00:37:02] Speaker B: Calmer.
[00:37:03] Speaker C: Less reactive, more in tune with myself, more in tune with my intuition and that I'm able to access, you know, my higher self and to become the best version of me. So it is definitely in terms of, like, personal growth and personal development, it has been just incredible.
[00:37:24] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, what would you say to someone who was listening and they feel stuck or they're struggling or they're just not, they're just kind of waiting to start. They're almost there. What would you say?
[00:37:39] Speaker C: Almost there. Like, you know, be compassionate with yourself as well, and take it slow, like it doesn't happen overnight. It didn't for me. I kind of fell off the wagon a few times, and when you fall off the wagon, we see it as failure, you know, but it's not failure. It's giving us feedback. We're learning something every single time that we, in averted comments, fail. But, like, when we fail, we learn so much more than when we succeed. You know, I definitely think there's a lot more learning and failure than there is in success. But to definitely take your time with it, to be compassionate to yourself and keep getting back up on that wagon, learn as much as you can.
Try and, you know, get a bit of support wherever you can access that. We all have. We have a wealth of knowledge in our fingertips every day, like, in terms of our phones, when we can use those as sources of education specifically. There's a lot of apps as well out there that are really, really helpful. And I think, as well, just being really truthful with yourself, I felt like I did a lot of journaling at the beginning and, you know, just google a journaling prompt to help you and get all those feelings out on a piece of paper and really look at your, I suppose, your attitude and your belief and your habits and see where that they have brought you. And then untangling from, I suppose, the conditioning as well that we all grew up in, that alcohol is a need. We need to have it. We need to have it to celebrate, you know. Yeah. It's definitely a process of untangling from this culture that we've all found ourselves in.
[00:39:22] Speaker B: Yeah. Thank you for sharing that and leading with the self compassion and slowness. And take your time. It does take a while to untangle. It took a, you know, it's taken decades to get to where you're at, and it's going to take some time to untangle it. And being kind to yourself in the process is so, so important.
[00:39:43] Speaker C: Well, thank you.
[00:39:44] Speaker B: Thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing your story and doing what you're doing. How can people find you?
[00:39:53] Speaker C: Yeah. So you can find me on Instagram, I'm aeriadrinker, or I have a website, it's www dot greyareadrinker, dot ie.
[00:40:03] Speaker B: And then you have your podcast.
[00:40:05] Speaker C: I'm sorry, I haven't podcast.
It's gone. No more booze.
You can find me where.
No more views. Yeah, sorry, I forget about these things. Yeah. So no more booze is a podcast and you find us wherever podcasts. You listen to your podcast. So, you know, apple or Spotify or wherever.
[00:40:25] Speaker B: Awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you so much. It was great to meet you and I look forward to connecting more and coming on your show and all that we can do to help people recognize like, this is a joyful, juicy, alcohol free life and it is worth it. And you are so worth it.
[00:40:46] Speaker C: Like, it's so worth it. And I say this with a lot of enthusiasm. Giving up alcohol is the greatest thing that I have ever done.
[00:40:57] Speaker B: Same, same.
Thank you.
[00:41:01] Speaker A: Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Alcohol Tipping Point podcast. Please share and review the show so you can help other people too. I want you to know I'm always here for you, so please reach out and talk to me on Instagram at alcoholtippingpoint and check out my website, alcoholtippingpoint.com for free resources and help. No matter where you are on your drinking journey, I want to encourage you to just keep practicing. Keep going. I promise you are not alone and you are worth it. Every day you practice not drinking is a day you can learn from. I hope you can use these tips we talked about for the rest of your week, and until then, talk to you next time.
