Bestselling author Annie Grace invites you to explore the role of alcohol in our lives and culture without rules, pain, or judgement. Ready to make a change? Join The Alcohol Experiment - a FREE 30-day challenge designed to deliver happiness, wellbeing and self-respect. Check out The Alcohol Experim
Alcohol Freedom Coaching | EP 949 Alcohol and emotional regulation. For a long time, they were basically the same thing for Gwen and Cynthia. Gwen can feel sure she doesn’t want to drink, then find herself wavering in a grocery store parking lot when her husband asks if she wants wine. Cynthia has spent decades on a farm she calls Never Done, 26 of them alone, pouring wine from a box because for much of her life, drinking was the only way she knew how to cry. Coaches Cole and Hayley help them start figuring out what alcohol has been doing for them, and what might work instead. Gwen…
Lisa’s Naked Life | EP 948 Trigger Warning: This episode contains references to domestic conflict, impaired driving with a minor in the vehicle, and a cancer diagnosis. Six beers in, Lisa drove her fifteen-year-old son to a friend's house. It wasn't the first time she'd driven after drinking, but something about that night finally scared her. By then, she was drinking about two bottles of wine most nights. Her marriage was falling apart, and she'd been sleeping in the guest room. That night, she admitted to herself that she couldn't keep living this way. She stopped drinking the next day and…
Alcohol Freedom Coaching | EP 947 Trigger Warning: This episode mentions a pregnancy loss and substance abuse. What if it’s not giving up the substance that you fear? Deb and Rosie are both finding success in their breaks from alcohol and THC, respectively. They don’t realize it until Coaches Cole and Hayley ask the right questions, but both women are now facing the fear of change. Are they ready for all the ways life might look different (and maybe even better) now that they are fully living it? Deb discusses: ● The moment Coach Cole names her fear of changing, and she agrees ● What her…
Where Are They Now? | EP 946 "I had to pick one life or the other." That's how Sabrina describes the ultimatum to stop drinking her husband gave her two years ago. Sabrina is back to catch up with Hayley and explore what happens in that time between learning to live alcohol-free and truly living an alcohol-free life. Her key takeaway for other moms? Quitting doesn't clear out the mental space alcohol used to take up all on its own, you have to notice what's still empty and actually fill it, on purpose. Sabrina and Coach Hayley discuss: Why the ultimatum wasn't actually the hardest part, and…
Five o'clock. It's like an internal alarm that goes off for Sandra. The day goes from manageable to get me the heck out of here as soon as the clock flips. For Lucy, it usually hits mid-afternoon: the realization that today won't be Day 1 alcohol-free after all. Drinking to check out is so normal that most people will tell you it isn't a problem at all, but that isn't for anyone else to decide. It's up to Sandra and Lucy to choose what role alcohol will have in their lives. Lucy discusses: The two voices in her head, arguing again Why she thinks she “deserves” a drink every night Her…
5 a.m., and the bottles go out before anyone's awake. A soft clink of glass against the can, quick hands, quicker steps back inside. For years this was Michelle's ritual, drink alone, hide it, wake up and do it again. A DUI didn't stop it. A year and a half without a drink during COVID didn't stop it. One sentence, heard on a commute to work, finally put a stop to her cycle of drinking alone and hiding it. Michelle and Coach Cole discuss: Growing up with a mother whose drinking shaped a lifelong anxiety Michelle didn't understand until years later Why marijuana, not alcohol, came first, and…
Trigger Warning: This episode mentions death by suicide and death from alcohol use. Something is wrong with me. Five words, but they can resonate in your brain over and over again for decades. That's the reality Lisa and Michelle have been living with day in and day out. To the point where drowning that voice out with wine was the only way to find peace. Or so they thought. Coaches Cole and Zoe offer a new perspective and a pathway to healing. Lisa discusses: The list of 15 friends who disappeared from her life, and what she'd decided it meant about her The one letter her father ever wrote…
How do you quit drinking when your job is getting other people to drink? For years, that was Kelly's daily reality. She sampled wine and liquor with retailers all day, then went out drinking with her coworkers once the samples were done, and some nights she couldn't drive home afterward. She kept a tablecloth in the back seat of her car for exactly those nights, climbing back there to sleep it off instead of getting behind the wheel. Quitting drinking while working in alcohol sales meant unlearning her entire job description, and almost ten months later, she no longer needs that tablecloth.…
Trigger warning: This episode mentions disordered eating and self-harm. “You either drink, or you don’t,” Kelly’s husband actually said to her. If only it were that simple, like there’s a switch you can just flick and the desire to drink evaporates. While that might be true for some people, most of us find the path to freedom much harder. Jules knows that, and she knows how hard being honest with the people you love about your drinking can be. When you’re stuck in the loop between blame, shame, and guilt, honesty seems hard to come by. Coaches Zoe and Cole help Kelly and Jules find peace…
Twenty-four hours of food poisoning on an all-inclusive holiday, and Helen's body made a decision before her mind caught up. She'd been drinking that week too, the way she always did with her sister, and somewhere in the middle of being violently sick she found herself pleading with her own stomach: no more, nothing else toxic, please. She got home and never drank again. You don't need an excuse not to drink once your body has already made the case for you, and two years later, she still describes the moment as a decision made in an instant. Helen and Coach Cole discuss: ● Sneaking sips of…
What does it take to stop shaming yourself for drinking again? Sarah and Katie are trying to figure that out. It's easy to say that you need to change through compassion, self-love, and empathy, but putting that into practice is a much different story. Coach Hayley and Coach Cole use their training and their own experiences with drinking again to help Sarah and Katie use curiosity instead of blame and shame. Sarah discusses: Why over 100 days alcohol-free hasn't erased the fear that one bad day could send her back to hair of the dog Trusting the tools she's learned instead of the shame and…
Six years ago, Payal looked in the mirror the morning after a blackout and finally had enough of herself. She's back on Where Are They Now to talk about how to quit drinking as a mom when mommy wine culture makes it feel normal, and what six years actually built: a dad and two sisters who gave up alcohol right along with her, and two boys who have never once seen their mom drunk. Payal and Coach Hayley discuss: Growing up believing a drink was the only way to build real confidence, and what she knows now that she didn't then The four-pack of small wine bottles hidden at the bottom of the…
Learning how to stop feeling left out when you quit drinking starts, for Brenda, with a very specific list: people who can supposedly drink like it's nothing and never seem to pay for it. Kate's experience looks different: a friend in recovery who stopped getting invited to things, and a dinner this weekend she's already rehearsing lines for. Listen as our coaches help Brenda and Kate separate fact from fiction and learn why regular drinkers don’t exist. Brenda discusses: Why "regular drinkers" turned out to be a myth she was ready to test A "party with a price tag," and what that persona…
Trigger Warning: This episode includes mentions of a medical emergency and a homicide. Sunday morning, and Brenda can't get out of bed. Her head is pounding hard enough that she genuinely believes she might die from it, so she turns over and doesn't get up again until one in the afternoon. She'd been retired for years by then, a daily schedule and routine filled with wine instead, and what she labeled relaxing was really drinking out of boredom. A couple of glasses had turned into a full box, then a bottle most nights, one more way to use up hours a twenty-year police career used to take up…
Trigger warning: This episode contains references to disordered eating and the death of a parent following a medical complication. “I'm actually on day twenty-six alcohol-free right now, the first time since I was pregnant with my daughter,” Bethany says. Bev has been counting differently: hers started January 13th, and her husband hasn't missed a single one of his own drinking nights since. Bethany and Bev work with Coaches Hayley and Cole on how to quit drinking when your spouse still drinks. Bethany discusses: • The exact moment four years ago that changed everything, and the nights she…
Annie Grace grew up in a cabin with no running water, no electricity, and a dad who never drank. A decade later, in a corporate job in New York City, she was pouring close to two bottles of wine a night, buying the boxed kind so nobody would notice when one ran out. In this episode, she sits down with Mike Marshall, CEO of the U.S. Alcohol Policy Alliance, on his podcast The Shift, to talk about what the alcohol industry doesn’t want you to know, and why “drink responsibly” was never really about you. Annie and Mike discuss: Annie’s own story, from a childhood with no drinking in the house…
Why can’t I just have one drink? For Pamela, that question comes from her struggle to moderate her drinking, and for Claude, it sits in her fear of never being able to drink again. Same question but from two very different perspectives. Coaches Cole and Hayley work with Pamela and Claude to discover what sits behind these questions and to find out why one drink never stays one drink for most of us. Pamela discusses: Fifty-three easy days, then a Friday night phone call from friends that flipped the switch Why the third night lined up with the anniversary of her ex-husband's death Why she…
Judd never considered that he would quit drinking before turning forty. After all, for twenty-five years he would pick the idea up and put it down as regularly as if it were his morning coffee. But one day he picked up a receipt for a book he'd bought two years earlier yet never read. Suddenly the countdown was on, and he was no longer willing to keep the idea of quitting drinking before forty on the shelf. It was now time to change. Judd and Coach Cole discuss: How buying The Alcohol Experiment in January 2020 and not reading it for months planted the seed that eventually took hold Why…
What does it take to figure out how to stop relying on alcohol for confidence? Amy needed eleven months alcohol-free, followed by more stops and starts than a city bus has, to decide something needed to change. For Dee, it was an entire wedding weekend and the fear of being the only one without a drink in her hand that made her realize alcohol was holding way too much headspace for her. Coaches Zoe and Cole help both women discover the confidence that was already inside them all along. Amy discusses: Going 30 days alcohol-free, then 11 months, then letting red wine back in "on a limited…
Deb's Naked Life | EP 920 If you're thinking about stopping drinking in your 60s but keep telling yourself you're too old, too set in your habits, or too far gone, Deb's story is the one you need to hear. She was a registered nurse who had directed a hospital addiction recovery program and still didn't see herself in it. She was caring for a dying parent, married to a heavy drinker, and drinking three to four glasses of wine every night before a single book changed the entire frame. She became alcohol-free at 62 and hasn't looked back once. Deb and Coach Cole discuss: Growing up alcohol…
⚠️ Trigger warning: This episode contains references to domestic violence and a mental health crisis. Who am I without alcohol? Does that question sound eerily familiar? Steph and Nicole both find themselves grappling with that very idea and wondering what the answer will mean for them. Steph is 55, and alcohol has been by her side and has helped define her for most of her adult life. Nicole looks to alcohol for the answers and to smooth the rough edges, and isn’t sure if she’s capable of being herself with a glass in her hand. Coaches Cole and Hayley help provide guidance and hope in this…
What does building a life you don't want to escape from actually take? Donna joined The Path in March 2021 after a COVID grocery store moment she couldn't unsee and hasn't had a drink since. Now five years in, she's back with Coach Hayley to share what's genuinely changed, what she's still working through, and a question that keeps getting more interesting. Donna and Coach Hayley discuss: That COVID grocery store moment, four wine clubs in a week, and what she calls "the gift COVID gave her" The beta reader who said her memoir should have said more about her drinking, and what she heard two…
⚠️ Trigger warning: This episode contains references to childhood abuse, parental alcoholism, and the death of a parent from alcohol-related illness. Most of us were never taught how to give ourselves grace about drinking, only how to judge ourselves for it. Kelly and Amber are proof that the shame and guilt show up no matter how different the situation looks. For Kelly, it shows up after a weekend of drinking that went further than she planned. For Amber, it shows up the moment someone she's dating asks why she's not drinking, and a much older fear takes over. Kelly discusses: Why her…
Trigger warning: This episode contains references to drunk driving, DWIs, and thoughts of not wanting to live. Zita was in her kitchen in 2017, working up the nerve for a hard conversation with her boyfriend, when the thought arrived: "You know what would make this easier?" She took a shot to self-soothe before the conversation, and it worked so well that her brain filed alcohol away as the answer to hard moments from then on. She's a registered nurse in her mid-30s who felt nothing when she watched other people drink, all the way through nursing school, with no reason to think that thought…
⚠️ Trigger warning: This episode contains references to psychological and emotional abuse in a marriage. The answer to "why I use alcohol to cope" is rarely what you expect. For Will, it’s buried in a need for control he's carried since a chaotic childhood. For Kathleen, it comes from decades of being the one everyone else leans on. Coaches Cole and Zoe help Will and Kathleen take steps towards freeing themselves from that weight. Will discusses: Decades of using alcohol to quiet a busy brain, and what happens after the first beer Why knowing the pattern isn’t enough The childhood fear of…
Trigger warning: This episode contains references to the alcohol-related death of a family member. Is it possible to build something meaningful out of the worst loss of your life? For Kelly, the answer arrived just five months after she got free from alcohol herself. That's when her brother died from the same thing she'd spent years measuring her own drinking against. She built Perfectly Made AF in response, a nonprofit funding alcohol freedom scholarships in his memory and an annual Boulder gala designed to prove an alcohol-free life is anything but boring. Kelly's Naked Life story traces…
Trigger Warning: This episode contains discussion of traumatic brain injury. Are you drinking to escape your life? Catherine was. She called it the escape room. Rachael didn't use those words, but she'd no doubt agree with them. If you're drinking to escape a life that feels like too much, too heavy, and too demanding, you'll want to tune in. Catherine and Rachael work with Coaches Hayley and Zoe to stop seeing alcohol as a way out, and start learning how to stay present even when life feels like too much. Catherine discusses: The "escape room" she built around wine and what happened when…
For 32 years, Travis was a functional drinker who never got a DUI, never missed a day of work, and never fit the picture most people hold when they hear "drinking problem," but spent years hiding beers in the garage, lying to his wife about the count, and woke up after one Christmas morning knowing his kids had been worried Santa wasn't coming. He came to This Naked Mind thinking he might be able to moderate. He joined The Path in November 2023, had one more bad birthday, and threw out the last two bottles of a Wisconsin six-pack the next day. He's at 757 days alcohol-free. Coach Cole Harvey…
Andrew and Adele both know why they need alcohol to socialize — or think they do. For Adele, 64 and living in a New Zealand wine region, it started at 14 in the back of a school bus and never really stopped being about fitting in. For Andrew, who is navigating a late-life ADHD diagnosis and the possible end of his marriage, the answer turned out to go a lot deeper than the social stuff. Andrew discusses: His late-life ADHD diagnosis and why emotional dysregulation makes the pull toward alcohol so much harder to catch. Realizing he has never felt safe — and how his body already knew that…
In Summer of Love, Kerri Maher writes about wine country glamour, shame that runs across generations, and the woman at the center who can't quite say out loud what she knows about herself. She lived that from the inside before she could write it clearly. She read Annie Grace's This Naked Mind in its earliest self-published form in 2016, stopped drinking for 15 months, then convinced herself the problem had been unhappiness and let it back in, and spent four more years in the push and pull: a sticky note on the fridge that kept watching her fail, sneak drinking she couldn't rationalize away,…
About This Naked Mind Podcast
Bestselling author Annie Grace invites you to explore the role of alcohol in our lives and culture without rules, pain, or judgement. Ready to make a change? Join The Alcohol Experiment - a FREE 30-day challenge designed to deliver happiness, wellbeing and self-respect. Check out The Alcohol Experim
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