Dr. Sarah Wakeman
speaker
484 appearances
2 recordings
2 series
first heard Jan 2025
last heard May 2025
Dr. Sarah Wakeman’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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So often the journey to recovery is the circuitous journey of a thousand small steps. It's very rarely that dramatic leap we see on TV. And so to not give up hope and to know that those small moments of kindness and support actually are progress and are part of the person's journey to ultimately getting well. If you're the one that really just wants to cut back,
So if you're listening and you want to cut back on alcohol use, I think first figure out your why.
Yeah, I think understanding first how alcohol fits in your life. And so people can do this at home by just keeping a drinking diary. So even just jotting down on your phone or in a notebook when you want to have a drink, sort of what activities you associate with drinking, what, you know, when you do have a drink, how many drinks you have over what time periods.
It's sort of like keeping a food journal where it actually just makes you more mindful. Like, oh, I'm like triggered to want to snack on this thing because I'm feeling really upset about this fight I just had. You can identify that with alcohol, too. Like you mentioned this earlier, I'm really stressed out at the end of the day. And so I come home and want to reach for a glass of wine.
Understanding sort of how alcohol fits in your life is an important first step. And then figuring out what are the goals you're working on right now. And that could change over time.
But again, if your goal is something related to fitness or wellness or health, you may find after learning more about alcohol and the role it plays in your life that actually you want to change how much you're drinking. And so then you have your why. My why is I'm training for a marathon and I found that when I drink, I have a hard time waking up and going for my long runs.
And so I'm only going to drink on this day and I'm going to keep it to this amount. So it's very specific and that's important for behavior change. If you make this broad sort of general goal of I'm never going to drink again because alcohol is bad, you're probably not going to do it because that's hard and it doesn't really relate to you as a human.
So as much as you can make it specific, measurable, time bound. So it's like the next three weeks, I'm going to try this and then I'm going to reassess. That makes it much easier to actually make change and stick to it over time.
Exactly. And there's lots of tips out there, but you want to make it as easy as possible for yourself. So if your goal is to cut back on drinking, you don't want to have a week where you're packed with going out to happy hour with people. You want to really set yourself up for success. So organize your social activities around non-drinking activities.
Come up with a plan if you're going to be in a situation where you would normally drink, that you're going to have a glass of club soda in your hand the minute you walk in the door. You're going to have a friend who knows that you're working on this who's going to be your partner.
Setting those intentions and those ideas and tools and tricks ahead of time will make it way easier for you to ultimately reach that goal of cutting back.
Great question. I think first letting people know about your intentions. So sharing what your goal is, is really important because people can't support you if they don't know. And if you've always drank a certain way with your partner or friends and all of a sudden you're not, they're not going to be like, what's going on?
Whereas if you say to them, hey, guys, I know you love me and support Eat Me. I want to share with you that my new goal is to not drink more than one drink a day or only drink on Friday and no more than two drinks or not drink at all. And this is my why. I'm doing this because I'm worried about myself or I'm doing this because it feels counterproductive to my health.
And I really want your support. And this is how you can support me. So then you're really framing it as they get to be a partner with you. You're not criticizing their drinking because often people feel then like, oh, I'm a little self-conscious. This person's going to be judging me or they think I'm bad. You're just asking for their help.
And so maybe that looks like instead of meeting for drinks, you meet to go to yoga class or you meet to go for a run or you let the person know why you're going to be ordering a soda water instead of a drink. And so you can be really concrete both for yourself and what those tools look like, but also for the people in your life to signal to them how they can help support you.
And sometimes people can't do that. And that happens whenever we make any big change. People may have experienced that if they decided to have a weight loss journey or change their life in some way, that there are people that really fit in our lives for a certain point that can't journey with you through that transformation. And that's sad.
But if you find that despite those conversations, someone is actually destructive to the change that you want to make and not supportive, then that may be a broader question about sort of the role of that relationship in your life.
Yeah, I think I'd like to just talk for a moment about alcohol use disorder. I think we've been covering sort of the health harms of alcohol use, either at a low risk level or moderate level or high level. For anyone who is struggling with alcohol use disorder is worried they may be struggling with alcohol use disorder. Treatment works. You will get well.
Finding sort of a trusted health care provider that you can partner with is a part of that journey. But to really have hope, this is not a hopeless condition. It will not be with you forever. You will be in a place where you're free from this.
And there are treatments that are out there and just getting those much like you would for depression or diabetes or high blood pressure is the most important thing. And this is not an issue of shame or willpower or being bad. And I hope that people will feel like they can come in and get the help that they need.
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