Sober Powered: The Neuroscience of Being Sober

E149: How Alcohol Affects the Nervous System

28 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Alcohol can cause your nervous system to become dysregulated, which puts you in a state of constant stress. Then we feel compelled to drink to cope wi...

E148: 5 Skills That Keep Me Sober

21 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When I was drinking I was very dramatic and immature. I was a toxic person who blamed everyone else for my problems. One of the hardest realizations i...

[Bonus] If You Numb the Bad, Then You Numb the Good Too

18 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We spend a lot of time avoiding our emotions to try to reduce the amount of pain and discomfort we feel, but you can’t numb the bad without numbing ...

E147: Staying Sober Through Intense Emotional Pain

14 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Have you ever gone through something so hard that you didn’t know how you were going to make it out the other side? Often, we use alcohol to numb th...

E146: Is Alcohol Addiction a Disease?

07 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

People tell me all the time, “I just can’t accept that I have a disease”. We hear that addiction is a disease of the brain, but not everyone wan...

E145: ADHD and Alcohol Use Disorder: Understanding the Link

31 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

There are a lot of people in the sober community getting adult ADHD diagnoses, so what’s going on here? There is a strong link between struggling wi...

E144: Why We Self-Sabotage with Alcohol

24 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Self-sabotage is a common experience for many people who struggle with alcohol. Despite our best efforts to quit drinking, we find ourselves continuin...

E143: How to Stay Accountable in Your Sobriety

17 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

I was recently talking to someone and they mentioned all the opportunities there are in my life for relapse- for example, the podcasting conferences I...

E142: The Pressure of Needing to Hold it All Together with Laura Cathcart Robbins

10 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Hiding your addiction is a full time job. It requires a lot of mental energy to keep up appearances and seem like nothing is wrong. Laura Cathcart Rob...

E141: It’s Not Your Fault, But it is Your Responsibility with Laura McKowen

03 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

You can’t shame yourself sober, and you can’t punish yourself into change, but similarly, we need to recognize our patterns and be willing to tell...

E140: When You Quit Drinking But Don’t Feel Better with Dr. Brooke Scheller, DCN, CNS

24 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It’s very triggering if you’ve stopped drinking, but aren’t feeling better. You may observe others on their pink clouds and think you’re the o...

E139: 5 Reasons Why You Can’t Stay Sober

17 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

If you’re going back and forth between drinking and not drinking, then you are not alone. It’s a journey from the time someone considers not drink...

E138: 5 Ways Problem Drinkers Think Differently

10 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

One of the most empowering things I’ve learned in my research is that not everyone experiences alcohol in the same way. When I got sober, I started ...

E136: Why We Think We're Weak-Willed Losers

27 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

So many people have reached out to me online and said “I wish I had your level of self-control” or “I wish I was disciplined like you are”. It...

E135: Lack of Consequences with Casey Davidson

20 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It's hard to quit drinking when you feel like your drinking isn't that bad and you haven't had any consequences from it. We justify so many things and...

E134: Coping with Boredom in Sobriety

13 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

I recently surveyed my audience to create a free eBook and one of the questions was what’s your biggest struggle in sobriety. I was shocked to see t...

E133: 4 Podcasters Share the Journey from Questioning Our Drinking to Quitting Drinking for Good

06 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this special episode I’m joined by Eric Zimmer from The One You Feed Podcast, Dave Wilson aka Sober Dave from One for the Road Podcast, and Casey...

E132: How to Quit Drinking and Get Past the First Week

30 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

I’ve stopped drinking 3 times, and each time I thought I could just stop and that was that. I thought stopping was the hard part and that drinking w...

E130: Transfer Addiction: Swapping 1 Problem for Another

16 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What can you replace alcohol with when you stop drinking? Many of us search for an alternative, and in this episode I’m going to discuss common tran...

E129: Why it’s Critical to Work on Your Perspective

09 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Perspective can help you maintain your calm and not let other people have control over the way you feel. For people in recovery, being able to stay ca...

E128: Why Cravings are So Powerful

02 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Cravings make it hard to stay sober. You may feel frustrated that you have so many cravings and be wishing you just had more self-control. In this epi...

E127: Why You Obsess About Your Drinking

25 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

One of the main characteristics of someone who struggles with alcohol is the obsession. We think about our drinking all the time. We do mental gymnast...

E126: Sober Nutrition: Extreme Hunger and Cravings

18 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Have you been wondering how you should be eating to aid your recovery? Or why you have so many sugar cravings? In this episode we’ll talk about how ...

E125: Why You Can’t Stop Drinking Once You Start

11 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Why can’t I stop drinking once I start? Have you ever wondered this or beat yourself for not having enough self-control? There’s a pathway in the ...

E124: How Long Does it Take to Fully Recover? (3 Years Sober)

04 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

I celebrate 3 years of sobriety on November 9th and each year I record an episode about the past year of sobriety and how it went. What stood out to m...

E123: Recognizing You Need to Quit Drinking with Dr. Matt Glowiak, PhD, LCPC, CAADC, NCC

28 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Can’t imagine your life without alcohol? Are you unsure if you truly have a problem and need to quit drinking? Maybe you look around and think, “e...

E122: How Exercise Can Help Your Recovery

21 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Want an easy way to deal with cravings and negative emotions? Want to build back some of the brain volume you may have lost from drinking 1,000 drinks...

E121: What if it Never Gets “Bad Enough” to Quit for Good with Eric Zimmer

14 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Many of us will go back and forth between drinking and not drinking for years, and what holds us back is this idea that our drinking isn’t “that b...

E120: How Does Chronic Stress Affect the Brain?

07 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Everyone knows chronic stress is bad, but did you know that chronic stress can actually change your brain? And just like everything else we talk about...

E119: Why We Can’t Cope With Anything

30 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Some people just can’t cope. It’s not because they’re weak-willed losers, but it can definitely make us feel like that is the reason. I had a st...

E118: Your Guide to Sober Sex With Dr. Nazanin Moali

23 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Sober sex can be very intimidating, especially if you believe alcohol helps you feel more confident, comfortable, and in the mood for sex. I’m joine...

E117: Why Sobriety Eventually Just Clicks

16 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When someone quits drinking for good they usually say something like, “it just feels different this time”. That’s how I felt too this time aroun...

E116: Drinking Envy and Wishing You Could Be “Normal”

09 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Have you ever wished you could just be “normal”? I used to think that all the time and sometimes I still do. Feeling envious of people who can hav...

E115: Why You Aren’t Ready to Quit Drinking and How to Get Ready

02 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

If you’ve been in sober Facebook groups then you have probably seen some comments saying “you’re just not ready yet” or maybe they’ve even b...

E114: Why We Believe Alcohol Helps and How to Break These Beliefs

26 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When you think about quitting drinking you might feel sad and anxious at the thought of never drinking again. How is it even possible to have a good l...

E113: Introducing Sober Powered Media

19 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

I told you recently about how I quit my full time job to work for myself, but I didn’t tell you what I was doing. In this episode I want to fill you...

E112: Drinking More Coffee in Sobriety? Here’s Why

12 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Have you noticed that you’re drinking more coffee in sobriety? Recent surveys from the National Coffee Association have found that 70% of Americans ...

E111: Drinking Alone Drastically Increases Your Risk of Getting Addicted

05 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Drinking alone let's us drink the way we really want to, but it greatly increases your risk of developing alcohol use disorder. In this episode, Gill ...

E110: 5 Reasons People Relapse and What To Do About It

29 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Relapse can seem to come out of nowhere and just get you. Many people say they have no idea why they drank, they just did. This is really dangerous be...

E109: New Study: People Under 40 Shouldn’t Drink Alcohol

22 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A study published this week in The Lancet found that people under 40 shouldn’t drink alcohol at all. This was a big study that looked at a lot of da...

E108: Alcohol and Dynorphin

15 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We drink expecting all of these good things to keep coming our way, but there’s a limit to the amount of alcohol that causes pleasure and good feeli...

E107: 10 Things No One Tells You About Quitting Drinking

08 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Most of us have no idea what to expect when we stop drinking because usually when we quit we are so ashamed we just try to get through the beginning. ...

E106: Why You Feel Overwhelmed (The Amygdala Hijack)

01 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Gill discusses overwhelm. Getting overwhelmed is one reason we turn to alcohol. Maybe you drank after some sober time and then afterwards you don’t ...

E105: Do We Just Need More Willpower?

24 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Gill discusses willpower. A lot of us believe that we just need more willpower and then we’ll be able to stay sober, and maybe you’ve even shamed ...

E104: Why Alcohol Doesn’t Help You Cope with Dr. Ashish Bhatt, MD, MRO

17 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Gill welcomes Dr. Bhatt, MD, MRO to the podcast. We think that alcohol helps us cope with our problems, but in reality, alcohol prevents us from learn...

E103: Why We Use Alcohol to Enhance Our Experiences

10 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Gill discusses why we use alcohol to enhance our experiences. One of the main reasons people use alcohol is for enhancement. With the nice weather arr...

E102: Alcohol and Your Dysregulated Nervous System With Beth Bowen, LMSW

03 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Gill welcomes Beth Bowen, LMSW to the show. This episode is your guide to understanding why we use alcohol to attempt to regulate our nervous system a...

E101: Does Alcohol Really Unlock Creativity?

27 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Gill discusses creativity and alcohol. Creativity is a balance between our logical side and our spontaneous side. Humanity’s ability to be creative ...

E100: Dr. Lembke Returns to Discuss Radical Honesty and Self-Awareness

20 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Gill welcomes Dr. Anna Lembke back to the podcast. You may remember Dr. Lembke from episode 76, which was one of the most popular episodes of all time...

E99: Why We Can Never Drink Again (Neuroplasticity and Permanent Changes)

13 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Gill discusses neuroplasticity. There’s an invisible line that we all cross, which marks the transition from social drinking into problematic drinki...

E98: Emotion Intensity and How to Start Self-Regulating

06 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Gill discusses emotion intensity. Just like we all don’t experience alcohol the same, meaning some people will be more sensitive to the effects of p...

E97: Why We Keep Believing it’ll be Different this Time

29 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Gill discusses our ability to learn and adapt from our experiences. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecti...

E96: Does Craving Sugar Increase Your Risk of Relapse?

22 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Gill discusses sugar cravings. It’s very common to go from having no interest in desserts or sweets at all to all of a sudden be craving them all th...

E95: Surprise, Moderate Drinking Isn’t Good for Your Heart (New Study)

15 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Gill discusses a new genetic study on moderate drinking and heart health. We have believed for so long that moderate drinkers are healthier than non d...

E94: Drinking to Cope or Numb Out Doesn't Help, Here's How to Really Cope

08 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Gill discusses avoidance behavior and how your tolerance for unexpected stress impacts your quality of life. She explains some interesting studies abo...

E93: Alcohol-Related Deaths Increased By 25% in 2020

01 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Gill discusses a new study that found that alcohol-related deaths had increased by 25% in 2020. She explains the findings, how much alcohol-related de...

E92: Why Don’t We Realize Our Drinking is a Problem?

25 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Gill discusses 5 reasons we don’t realize our drinking is a problem. You’ll learn how prevalent lack of awareness is in problem drinkers, and what...

E91: Do You Want to be Sober or Do You Want to Drink Without the Consequences?

18 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Gill discusses losing the motivation to stay sober. Sometimes, we’ll say we don’t want to drink anymore, but what we really mean is we want to dri...

E90: New Study Finds Just One Drink Shrinks Your Brain, or Does it?

11 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

 Gill discusses the new study that was published a few days ago about how even just one drink a day can shrink your brain. She explains what this stu...

E89: How Dopamine Strengthens Our Cravings and Weakens Our Willpower

04 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Gill discusses cravings and how dopamine influences our level of self-control. Cravings to drink can show up when you least expect them and they can b...

E88: Sibling Studies: Why One Develops a Problem and the Other Doesn't

25 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Gill discusses brain networks that make us more vulnerable to developing an addiction. Childhood trauma, family history of addiction, and growing up w...

E87: Why Shame Increases Loss of Control Over Alcohol and How to Manage Shame

18 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Gill discusses shame. We talked about shame way back in episode 7 and learned that there is a clear link between experiencing shame and relapsing. In ...

E86: Why Helping Others Helps You Stay Sober

11 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Gill discusses how helping others helps us. You’ll learn about some studies on helping others, what a helper’s high is, and what oxytocin is. She ...

E85: Biased Alcohol Studies vs Reality

04 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Recently, wine spectator shared an article on Instagram about how moderate, daily wine drinking helped you not get covid. Most people see that post an...

E84: Does Alcohol Really Taste Good and Feel Pleasurable?

28 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Gill discusses if alcohol actually tastes good and feels good for us. You’ll learn about why we perceive alcohol as pleasurable, a bit about taste g...

E83: What to Expect Emotionally in the First 90 Days

21 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Gill discusses heightened emotions in the first 90 days of sobriety, but really this can apply to whatever stage you’re at. Big emotions and mood sw...

E82: So You Quit Drinking, Now is When the Work Starts with Amanda E. White, LPC

14 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Gill welcomes Amanda E. White to the podcast. Amanda is a licensed therapist and the author of the book “Not Drinking Tonight: A Guide to Creating A...

E81: Why We Drink: Social Drinkers vs Problem Drinkers

07 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

 Gill discusses why we drink. Our motivation for drinking matters and a recent study found that why we drink coincides with the development of alcoho...

E80: Benefits of a Dry Month

31 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Gill discusses Dry January and how a month-long challenge can help you. You’ll learn the physical and mental health benefits of giving up alcohol fo...

E79: Why We Romanticize Alcohol

24 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Gill discusses romanticizing alcohol. You’ll learn why we selectively remember the positive memories of our drinking, why the negative memories fade...

E77: Are Non-Alcoholic Drinks Okay to Drink?

10 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Gill discusses non-alcoholic drinks. Some people love them, and some people think they ruin your sobriety. In this episode she explains why non-alcoho...

E76: Learning the Truth About Your Drinking with Dr. Anna Lembke, Author of Dopamine Nation

03 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Gill welcomes Dr. Anna Lembke to the podcast. Dr. Lembke is a professor of psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine and chief of the Stanf...

E75: How Sleep Improves from Actively Drinking to Long Term Sobriety

26 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Gill discusses how sleep changes from when we’re drinking to long term sobriety. She explains how alcohol impacts sleep, how sleep changes in withdr...

E74: Resilience Impacts How Much You Drink

19 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Gill discusses resilience. Being able to get through hardship without self-destructing is key for maintaining our sobriety. She explains what resilien...

E73: The Obsession May Eventually Even Out (I’m 2 Years Sober)

12 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Gill celebrated 2 years of sobriety on November 9th, 2021. In this episode, she will discuss how sobriety has changed for her from the first to the se...

E72: Trauma Makes it Even More Difficult to Handle Our Emotions

05 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Gill continues our conversation about trauma from last week's episode. She discusses a couple interesting studies about how trauma impacts our ability...

E71: Trauma May Make Drugs and Alcohol Feel More Pleasurable

29 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Gill discusses how trauma increases the risk of developing an addiction. She reviews an interesting study from 2021 that looked at how trauma impacts ...

E70: How the Brain Balances Reward and Consequences

22 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Gill discusses the balance between how we believe alcohol is benefitting us and the consequences it's bringing to our lives. This balance is what help...

E69: Alcohol Shrinks the Brain... But What Does That Mean?

15 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Gill discusses how alcohol shrinks the brain and what that actually means. She explains how alcohol shrinks the brain, how this impacts our cognitive ...

E68: How Heavy Drinking Changes the Way We Make Decisions

08 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Gill discusses decision making. She explains how the damage alcohol abuse causes to the brain relates to damage caused by a type of traumatic brain in...

E67: How Alcohol Impacts Cortisol and Causes Cravings

01 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Gill discusses stress, cortisol and cravings. She explain how our stress response system works, and how alcohol changes this response and our hormones...

E66: What Increases Our Risk of Relapse

24 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Gill discusses what increases our risk of relapsing. She explains how alcohol changes the brain to make it harder to not drink, so we’ll talk about ...

E65: What Happens to the Body When You Binge Drink

17 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Gill discusses what happens when you binge drink. She explains the effects binge drinking has on different parts of the body, and you’ll learn more ...

E64: Anxiety and Alcohol (Part 2)

10 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Gill discusses anxiety and addiction. She explains how the brain keeps itself in balance, how alcohol affects this balance, and how this causes us to ...

E63: Why Alcohol Causes Depression and Suicidal Thoughts

03 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Gill discusses serotonin and dopamine. She explains what serotonin is, how serotonin and dopamine work together, and how they are affected by alcohol....

E62: Dopamine: Everything You Need to Know

27 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Gill discusses dopamine. We know dopamine is associated with addiction, but she explains what dopamine does and how it makes it tougher to quit drinki...

E61: How Alcohol Memories are Triggered in Sobriety

20 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Gill discusses how alcohol memories are triggered in sobriety. She had an unexpected encounter with $28 all you can drink wine recently, and this trig...

E60: How Alcohol Affects Our Cognitive Abilities

13 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Gill discusses cognitive skills, which are skills that the brain uses to understand information, remember it, and apply it. She explains how alcohol ...

E59: What to Expect When You Stop Drinking

06 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Gill discusses what to expect when you stop drinking. She walks you through the physical and mental improvements you can expect from the first few da...

E58: How Does Alcohol Cause Cancer?

30 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Gill discusses cancer. She explains what a carcinogen is, how it causes cancer, and what component of alcohol causes cancer. There’s some misinfor...

E57: How Alcohol Affects Our Looks

23 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Gill discusses how alcohol affects our looks. You’ll learn the impact that alcohol has on our hair, skin and nails, dental health, facial aging, bo...

E56: High Functioning Alcoholics and Denial

16 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Gill discusses high functioning drinkers/alcoholics. She explains the common characteristics of someone who is high functioning, how denial fits into...

E55: How to Power Through When You Want to Give Up

09 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Gill discusses what to do when horrible things happen in your life and all you want to do is give up. She experienced something pretty bad recently, ...

E54: Neuroplasticity and Using Alcohol to Escape or Numb Out

02 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Gill discusses using alcohol to escape. You’ll learn about instant gratification versus actually working for stress relief, tips to deal with stres...

E53: The Top 5 Things I've Learned in 1 Year of Researching Addiction

25 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

It's the 1 year anniversary of the Sober Powered podcast! In this special anniversary episode I'm going over my top 5 things I've learned in the past...

E52: Everything You Need to Know About Cirrhosis and More

18 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Recently, a member of the Sober Powered Facebook group passed away due to complications from cirrhosis. The hope for this episode is that this helps ...

E51: Why We Crave Alcohol and What to do About it

11 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Gill discusses cravings. She explains what cravings are, why we have them, and how our beliefs about alcohol influence our cravings. You’ll learn ...

E50: [Special] Advice From 7 of My Sober Friends

04 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

It's episode 50 of the podcast! This is a special episode featuring some friends from the sober community to tell you about what has had the biggest ...

E49: 5 Consequences of Not Having Boundaries

28 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Gill discusses boundaries. She explains what boundaries are, why some of us have trouble setting them, and 5 consequences of not having boundaries. ...

E48: Is Addiction Genetic or a Learned Behavior?

21 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Gill discusses what increases our risk for developing a problem. You’ll learn if there is a specific gene for alcoholism, how genetics influences y...