When Drinking Less Feels Hard: Alcohol Keeps Me Going
episode
Alcohol Minimalist: Mindful Drinking & Behavior Change
28 min
1 speaker
8 chapters
transcribed 1 month ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome to the Alcohol Minimalist Podcast. I'm your host, Molly Watts. If you want to change your drinking habits and create a peaceful relationship with alcohol, you're in the right place. This podcast explores the strategies I use to overcome a lifetime of family alcohol abuse, more than 30 years of anxiety and worry about my own drinking, and what felt like an unbreakable daily drinking habit. Becoming an alcohol minimalist means removing excess alcohol from your life, so it doesn't remove you from life. It means being able to take alcohol or leave it without feeling deprived. It means to live peacefully, being able to enjoy a glass of wine without feeling guilty and without needing to finish the bottle.
With science on our side, we'll shatter your past patterns and eliminate your excuses. Changing your relationship with alcohol is possible. I'm here to help you do it. Let's start now. Well, hello and welcome or welcome back to the Alcohol Minimalist Podcast. With me, your host, Molly Watts, coming to you from eh, it's a little bit of a cloudy-ish Is that a word? I'm going with it. Cloudy-ish Oregon today. It's been cloudy. It's been a little bit breaks of sun. Definitely rain got dumped on on Saturday. Big, big and thunder, actually. So we're in that kind of intermittent rain, sun, rain, sun that it does here in the late spring, early summer around Oregon. On to the fourth of July, which can be a Crapshoot, for lack of a better word, here in Oregon.
Sometimes really nice, sometimes not so nice at all. We'll see what this week holds for us. Today on the podcast, we are wrapping up the series when drinking less feels hard. And before we get there, I do want to remind you that I am doing a Mostly Dry July program starting on Wednesday, July 1st. It's called Mostly Dry July the Daily. And this I brought back from January.
What is the “Alcohol Keeps Me Going” core belief and why does it feel sneaky?
It's a 31-day look into what it looks like to be an alcohol minimalist. I do a private daily podcast, I do daily videos, I do group coaching calls, group weekly emails, kind of a recap of things and It's just a really great program. People love it. And I love spending time with people, especially people who maybe don't know what uh coaching looks like. And so this is a great opportunity to kind of learn what that is. Super affordable. You can check it out over at www.mollywants dot com slash mostly dry July. Mostly dry July. It's mostly dry. You do not have to be Completely alcohol free for 31 days. The goal is to prioritize alcohol-free days, and we talk about that along the way. Progress over perfection, right?
And so I would love to have you join me. Go check it out. All right, on to this week's show. Like I said, this whole series, the When Drinking Less Feels Hard, started because I asked questions in the Alcohol Minimalist Facebook group about what real life challenges come up for people as they are trying to drink less. And we I used all the input that I got and am now looking at those real life challenges through the lens of alcohol core beliefs. And over the last few weeks, we've talked about alcohol helps me relieve stress. And the difference between a short-term state change and real relief. We've talked about alcohol makes things more fun and alcohol creates connection, especially in those social situations where alcohol feels like part of the experience.
And last week we talked about alcohol is my reward and what happens when alcohol becomes the treat. Or the prize. for getting through the day, getting through the week, the responsibility, or anything that you have to expend effort on. Today we're going to look at the final alcohol core belief in this series, and that is alcohol keeps me going. And this one can be a little sneakier than the others. Most people can recognize the thought alcohol helps me helps me relax. They actually probably recognize I deserve a drink. But alcohol keeps me going often shows up as boredom, as restlessness. As wanting one more, not wanting the night to end, or feeling like alcohol is the thing you look forward to when everything else feels routine.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:02–2:13
2
What is the “Alcohol Keeps Me Going” core belief and why does it feel sneaky?
2:13–5:41
3
How does boredom, restlessness, and the “one more” mindset fuel this belief?
5:41–10:18
4
Why does alcohol make an ordinary evening feel more purposeful or interesting?
10:18–14:20
5
How do dopamine, prediction, and familiar cues create urges to keep drinking?
14:20–18:22
6
What’s the difference between a promise and a concrete plan for stopping?
18:22–21:22
7
How can you build a “stopping ritual” to replace the alcohol‑driven loop?
21:22–24:52
8
What practical steps (See‑Soothe‑Separate‑Shift) help you pause and choose what you really need?
24:52–28:54
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Alcohol Minimalist: Mindful Drinking & Behavior Change
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Think Thursday: Why Endings Matter More Than We Realize
Your Evening Brain: Work With It - Not Against It