Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast It's Not About the Alcohol

You've been telling yourself that if you were more disciplined, then you wouldn't drink as much as you do. But the problem isn't that you need more control. It's that giving yourself permission to relax means that you're wasting time or falling behind. Which is why you need alcohol. This episode explains why expanding your capacity for peace and joy is what actually reduces alcohol cravings, and gives you one small goal to help you get started. 

What you'll learn:

• Why GLP1 drugs reduce alcohol cravings (and how to get the same effect on your own)

• Why motivating yourself with shame and fear makes cravings worse

• The difference between wanting more from yourself and wanting more for yourself

• What to do when peace and joy aren't available to you (yet)

Not sure why you drink the way you do? Take the quiz to find out which of the four drinker types is running your patterns. [Take the Quiz Now]

Ready to stop figuring this out alone? Schedule a free discovery call with the enrollment team. You'll walk away with a customized action plan, your patterns named, and the specific skills you need to build. [Book Your DC Here]

You set a plan to take a break from drinking and made it a few days. Then you blew it. And now you're trying to figure out why you keep breaking promises to yourself when it comes to alcohol. This episode gives you a step by step strategy (based on curiosity and self-compassion instead of judgment) to help you reduce your drinking. 

What you'll learn:

• Why taking a break from drinking isn't about proving you can go without it

• The five questions to ask after a setback (instead of "what's wrong with me")

• Why the same glass of wine is self-care one night and self-sabotage the next

• How to follow your intuition instead of arbitrary rules you're going to break anyway

Want to know if this approach can actually work for you? Book a free discovery call with Colleen's enrollment team. It's free, there's no pressure, and you'll leave knowing exactly where you stand. [Book Your Discovery Call Here]

Find out what type of drinker you are. Because before you can change HOW you drink, you have to understand WHY you drink. [Click here to take the free quiz].

You can't fall asleep without a few drinks. Every time you've tried going to bed without it, you end up back on the couch an hour later pouring a glass because your brain wouldn't shut down. This episode explains what's happening in your nervous system and gives you three practices to rebuild your desire (and ability) to go to sleep without alcohol.

What you'll learn:

• Why trying to "not drink" leads to drinking earlier to "knock yourself out" 

• The difference between alcohol-induced sedation and sleep on your emotional well-being

• How to get back to sleep when you wake up at 3 a.m. 

• The importance of letting yourself feel tired

• The best morning and evening practices to reset your circadian rhythm

Wand to know why can't YOU just take it or leave it?

Click here to take the 3-minute quiz to find out which of the four drinker patterns is running your nervous system. You'll get your results plus my new Take It or Leave It Roadmap series that's built for your drinker type delivered to your inbox. 

Find me on:

YouTube: @HangoverWhisperer

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer 

X (Twitter) : @NotAboutTheAlc

In this episode, Colleen pulls back the curtain on a personal "bitch slap from the universe" that arrived in the form of a sudden, unexplained expulsion from a coaching program she once considered family. What could have been a spiral into shame became something else entirely—a masterclass in emotional sovereignty. She walks you through the shock, the grief, and the moment she realized: this wasn't actually about her.

Instead of chasing fairness or demanding explanations, she chose action over rumination, redirecting her energy toward opportunities that actually align with her values. With candor, humor, and zero self-pity, Colleen models what it looks like to process hurt without handing away your power—and to see a painful ending as a door swinging wide to something better.

This is more than a story about rejection; it's a real-time demonstration of the freedom that comes from owning your emotional narrative and refusing to let someone else's decisions define you.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

• Emotional pain often comes from the story you tell yourself, not the event itself.
  
  

• Shock and shame can be processed without spiraling into self-blame.
  
  

• You don't need all the answers to move forward—you just need your next step.
  
  

• When someone shows you who they are, believe them.
  
  

• Choosing not to be bothered is a radical act of self-protection.
  
  

• Redirects—especially the unexpected ones—can open doors to better fits and bigger futures.
  
  

• Freedom comes from realizing you're the only one who can set you free.

If you are ready to get support from a community of women who are co-creating this change with intention and clarity— Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL. 

Do you want help from Colleen with a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question for Colleen's NEW Q& A episodes. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

Find me on:

YouTube: @HangoverWhisperer

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer 

X (Twitter) : @NotAboutTheAlc

Transcript

In this episode, Colleen dismantles one of the most costly habits we carry through life: the obsession with figuring out whose fault it is. She makes a powerful distinction between fault—the cause of a problem—and responsibility—your power to choose how you respond. The moment you stop waiting for someone else to make things right, you stop handing them your power.

With humor, wordplay, and grounded examples, she shows how clinging to blame keeps you stuck, resentful, and drained—while letting go frees you to act from a place of choice, not victimhood. Whether it's waiting on an apology, reimbursement, or just "closure," the real cost is the energy you lose while holding someone else accountable for your own next move.

Colleen invites you to reclaim your response-ability, stop making other people's actions the condition for your own happiness, and give situations "all the attention they deserve—none." Because when you drop the weight of fault, you gain the freedom to create the life you actually want.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

• Fault is about causation; responsibility is about choice.
  
  

• You are always 100% responsible for how you respond—no matter who caused the situation.
  
  

• Waiting for someone to "make it right" keeps you stuck in powerlessness.
  
  

• The idea that someone owes you something is often just a brain block.
  
  

• Letting go of fault reclaims the energy you need for your actual goals.
  
  

• Response-ability means owning your power to act, even when you choose to wait.
  
  

• Not every problem is worth solving—sometimes the best response is no response at all.

If you are ready to get support from a community of women who are co-creating this change with intention and clarity— Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL. 

Do you want help from Colleen with a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question for Colleen's NEW Q& A episodes. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

Find me on:

YouTube: @HangoverWhisperer

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer 

X (Twitter) : @NotAboutTheAlc

Transcript

When my client, Michele, told me she was going to reintroduce alcohol. I'll be honest — I was nervous. Actually, that's bullshit. I felt like a failure. She'd been sober for 10 months. 

I was her sobriety coach. And at that time, I was still operating on the mindset that once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic. Because everybody knows you can't unpickle a cucumber. 

But as we learn in coaching school, the client is the expert on their own lives. Telling people what they should and shouldn't do is condescending, not coaching. So I checked my own fear and anxiety and held space for her.

Michele is the first client I coached with a truly open mind — where there is no "right" way to drink, no moral high ground for whoever has the most sober days, and no starting over after you have a drink. Alcohol is neutral–it's not good or bad or right or wrong. It's not the problem and it's not the solution.

Working with Michele completely changed the way I think about recovery from alcohol use disorder. She is my patient zero, if you will. This experience laid the foundation for the work I do now as a mindful drinking coach.

And she's here today to share her story and talk about what it's really like to learn how to trust yourself again…to heal your relationship with yourself so you don't have to worry about your relationship with alcohol. It's raw. It's honest. It's messy. And for me, it's personal — because this opened my eyes, my mind and my heart to see what's really possible when you stop using the past to predict the future. 

If you are ready to get support from a community of women who are co-creating this change with intention and clarity— Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL. 

Do you want help from Colleen with a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question for Colleen's NEW Q& A episodes. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

Find me on:

YouTube: @HangoverWhisperer

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer 

X (Twitter) : @NotAboutTheAlc

In this episode, Colleen shares a raw, behind-the-scenes moment from her own emotional funk and breaks down exactly how she worked through it—thought by thought, feeling by feeling. From vacation wine to love-bombing exes to that post-holiday productivity pressure, she shows how even seemingly minor emotional clutter can trigger deep, subconscious beliefs that hijack your nervous system.

Instead of bypassing or blaming her mood, Colleen slows down and listens—uncovering the core belief underneath it all: I've done something wrong. What follows is a masterclass in emotional self-leadership. You'll hear how she clears the subconscious "rock in her shoe," replaces it with a more empowering truth, and reclaims her mental space, energy, and creative flow.

This isn't emotional perfectionism. This is radical presence—and it's how you clear the emotional backlog that's actually running your life.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

• Your emotions aren't problems—they're portals into your subconscious beliefs.
  
  

• Trying to fix, perfect, or overachieve your way out of a feeling only buries it deeper.
  
  

• The belief that you've done something wrong is often a default program, not the truth.
  
  

• Emotional "funk" is your body's way of saying, "Hey, it's time to slow down and listen."
  
  

• You can't create, lead, or love from a dysregulated state. Regulate first. Always.
  
  

• True power comes when you're no longer afraid of your own feelings—and instead welcome them as guides.

If you are ready to get support from a community of women who are co-creating this change with intention and clarity— Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL. 

Do you want help from Colleen with a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question for Colleen's NEW Q& A episodes. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

Find me on:

YouTube: @HangoverWhisperer

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer 

X (Twitter) : @NotAboutTheAlc

Transcript

In this episode, Colleen reframes one of the most misunderstood experiences in recovery: anxiety. Far from being just a diagnosis or a quirk of personality, anxiety is presented as a signal—an embodied alert system that points to the quality of your thoughts.

She breaks down the real reason alcohol feels impossible to control: not because you're broken, but because your brain, hijacked by stress, is obsessing over a problem it thinks it must fix. And when that problem is alcohol, you become trapped in a loop of overthinking, guilt, and trying harder—while your body begs for presence, stillness, and care.

She offers a radical shift: your anxiety isn't something to be solved. It's something to listen to. Not with your mind, but with your body. This isn't a mindset hack—it's nervous system healing. And it starts by learning how to stop listening to your brain's recycled stories, and start thinking on purpose.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

• Anxiety is not a thinking problem—it's a body signal about the quality of your thoughts.
  
  

• Overthinking is actually under-feeling. You're not healing; you're spinning.
  
  

• You can't out-think a stress response—your nervous system needs present-moment care, not more promises.
  
  

• Diagnoses can be helpful, but identifying as your anxiety or drinking problem keeps you stuck.
  
  

• Feelings are the physical sensations of your thoughts. If it feels bad, question the thought—not the feeling.

• True power is learning to think on purpose, not just listen to old programming.

If you are ready to get support from a community of women who are co-creating this change with intention and clarity— Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL. 

Do you want help from Colleen with a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question for Colleen's NEW Q& A episodes. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

Find me on:

YouTube: @HangoverWhisperer

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer 

X (Twitter) : @NotAboutTheAlc

Transcript

If you've ever been told you're "too sensitive," this episode is for you..

Today, I'm talking with podcast host Tina Marx to explore the deep connection between being a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) and the tendency to use alcohol to self-soothe. This isn't a conversation about addiction or willpower. It's about how sensitivity without emotional safety often leads high-achieving women to drink in secret—while still keeping everything else together on the outside.

We talk about why HSPs are more susceptible to overwhelm, anxiety, and perfectionism, and how alcohol becomes a temporary escape—not just from stress, but from the full-body experience of feeling too much.

If you've ever said, "I just need to turn my brain off," or "I wish I could stop overreacting," this episode will help you reframe what's really going on—without shame, without labels, and without needing to commit to permanent sobriety.

• What it really means to be an HSP (and how to know if you are one)

• Why emotional suppression often leads to compulsive behaviors

• The difference between coping and healing

• How to reclaim your sensitivity as a superpower instead of a liability 

Listen to Transparent with Tina on YouTube @TinaMarxTv

Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL if you're ready to fully commit to your personal growth and do the work to get emotionally sober. Side effects include an 80 percent reduction in drinking.

Want daily updates from me? TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer Twitter (X): @NotAboutTheAlc and YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@hangoverwhisperer

—Do you want coaching from Colleen on a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

In this episode, Colleen names the real culprit behind so many evening drinking spirals: not lack of willpower, but an overloaded nervous system weighed down by thought patterns we treat as facts. She challenges the idea that we need to "solve" our problems in order to feel better—and instead offers a radical invitation: what if the problems aren't the problem? What if it's our focus that's keeping us stuck?

Through candid stories from her own life, Colleen models what it looks like to let go of the drama we're not meant to carry. From ex-spouses to global politics, she demonstrates the power of conscious disengagement—choosing presence over rumination, joy over justification, clarity over control. This isn't emotional avoidance. It's sovereignty.

When we stop trying to manage what was never ours to fix, we finally free up the energy to create what we actually want.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

• Focusing on what's wrong often keeps you in the same loop—regardless of your intentions.
  
  

• Emotional dysregulation is often driven by what you're thinking about, not what's actually happening.
  
  

• You can't solve stress by overanalyzing it—you have to stop feeding it.
  
  

• Compassion isn't the same as carrying other people's chaos.
  
  

• Most of your anxious thoughts are optional—and so is your suffering.
  
  

• Power isn't control; it's choice. And you always have one.

If you are ready to get support from a community of women who are co-creating this change with intention and clarity— Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL. 

Do you want help from Colleen with a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question for Colleen's NEW Q& A episodes. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

Find me on:

YouTube: @HangoverWhisperer

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer 

X (Twitter) : @NotAboutTheAlc

Transcript

In this episode, Colleen shares a game-changing reframe about why we actually get stuck—even when we have the motivation, the clarity, and the plan. Building on fresh neuroscience from Dr. Kira Babinet, she introduces us to the habenula, a lesser-known part of the brain that slams the brakes on our behavior when failure is perceived—whether it's already happened or we're just afraid it might.

Colleen unpacks how the brain's bias toward failure and loss doesn't just stall action—it can kill our momentum completely. But instead of forcing progress through pressure or willpower, she offers a gentler, radically effective solution: the iterative mindset. One that removes failure from the equation entirely, replacing it with curiosity, experimentation, and self-compassion. No more proving, no more perfection—just real change, one tiny tweak at a time.

This isn't about setting better goals. It's about learning how to stop punishing yourself with the gas pedal when your brain's already hitting the brakes.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

• The habenula is the brain's brake pedal—it activates with perceived failure and kills motivation.
  
  

• Anxiety is often the habenula's voice: a signal, not a flaw.
  
  

• You don't need to "learn from failure"—you can shift into iteration instead.
  
  

• The iterative mindset removes failure altogether: just test, tweak, repeat.
  
  

• Performative SMART goals often create burnout, not progress.
  
  

• Motivation flourishes when self-compassion replaces self-criticism.
  
  

• You don't have to earn momentum—you just have to feel safe enough to move.

If you are ready to get support from a community of women who are co-creating this change with intention and clarity— Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL. 

Do you want help from Colleen with a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question for Colleen's NEW Q& A episodes. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

Find me on:

YouTube: @HangoverWhisperer

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer 

X (Twitter) : @NotAboutTheAlc

Transcript

If you've been trying to change so that you can feel ready, healed, better and in control, this episode will explain how it's possible to feel those things now–before you've figured everything out.

I'm going to explain how to access your higher self—not as a future fantasy, or as someone you'll be someday when you get everything right, but as a real-time frequency shift grounded in neuroscience, nervous system regulation, and the principles of manifestation..

You'll learn:

• Why your higher self isn't someone you become—it's someone you tune into

• How to use quantum physics to attract positive thoughts and feelings that alter your reality

• The role your subconscious mind plays in your brainwave states and vibrational coherence between your heart and brain

• A simple daily practice using breath, emotion, and intention to align your internal frequency

This episode blends science and soul. I'll show you how to reprogram your internal signal so that your reality reflects who you already are—not who you're still trying to become.

Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL if you're ready to fully commit to your personal growth and do the work to get emotionally sober. Side effects include an 80 percent reduction in drinking.

Want daily updates from me?
TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer
Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer
Twitter (X): @NotAboutTheAlc
YouTube: @hangoverwhisperer

—Do you want coaching from Colleen on a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question. Your name will not be mentioned on air!

In this episode, Colleen shares a quiet but powerful moment from one of her recent coaching calls—where a client celebrated a huge win, and Colleen noticed her own body signaling that something was off. What unfolded wasn't a rupture, but a subtle shift: a reminder that even seasoned leaders can bypass consent in moments of well-meaning reflex. And that noticing the signal doesn't mean spiraling—it means listening.

Through her own self-check-in, she unpacks what it looks like to be emotionally sober in the face of mild shame: not resisting it, not fixing it, just feeling it long enough to hear what it's pointing to. Rather than defending her role or projecting the discomfort outward, Colleen models the kind of internal pause that turns self-awareness into relational repair—and deeper self-trust.

This episode isn't about coaching techniques. It's about what happens when we make space to feel the moment before we justify it. Because sometimes, the most responsible thing we can do is let the feeling teach us—before we write the story.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

• Your feelings about someone else's feelings are still your feelings—and they're worth examining.

• Shame doesn't require a defense; it often just needs acknowledgment and space.

• Coaching without consent—even gently—removes agency from the client.

• Emotional sobriety invites curiosity before assumption.

• Being wrong doesn't mean you've failed—it may mean you're still learning.
  
  

If you are ready to get support from a community of women who are co-creating this change with intention and clarity— Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL. 

Do you want help from Colleen with a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question for Colleen's NEW Q& A episodes. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

Find me on:

YouTube: @HangoverWhisperer

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer 

X (Twitter) : @NotAboutTheAlc

Transcript

You've been kicking yourself for finishing the bottle (again) when you promised it was going to be just one glass. This episode explains why trying harder isn't working, and gives you three principles of self-directed neuroplasticity that actually rewire your brain so drinking less stops feeling like you're fighting your own instincts.

What you'll learn:

• Why over-drinking isn't a willpower failure. It's a survival strategy your nervous system built to keep up with your life

• How to stop setting goals your brain can't work with, and start pointing it at what you actually want

• The four drinking patterns running high-achieving women, and why you can't see the one running you

• Why fighting old habits reinforces them, and what to build instead

• The low bar goal that keeps you consistent when your stretch goal isn't realistic

Not sure why you drink the way you do?
Click here to take the 3-minute quiz to find out which of the four drinker types is running your nervous system. You'll get your results plus my new Take It or Leave It Roadmap Series delivered to your inbox. 

Find me on:

YouTube: @HangoverWhisperer

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer 

X (Twitter) : @NotAboutTheAlc

In today's episode, Colleen walks us through a deceptively simple question that came up on a recent coaching call: How do I actually feel my feelings? The answer isn't mindset. It isn't a technique. It's presence. She explores the difference between thinking about emotions and physically experiencing them—without adding a story, a solution, or a label.

With grounded metaphors and everyday honesty, she invites you to see emotions as temporary energy—not identity. You'll hear what happens when we resist that energy, and how easily it creates stagnation, self-protection, and shame loops that can shape entire patterns of behavior.

If you've been trying to "work on yourself" without shifting how you relate to your emotional state, this episode may open a quieter, more embodied door.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

• Feeling your feelings means staying present with physical sensation—not interpreting it.

• Resistance to emotion creates stagnation and keeps old stories alive.

• Emotions aren't problems to fix; they're energy to allow.

• Identity forms when we attach meaning to temporary emotional states.

• You don't need to change your story—just stop holding onto it.

If you are ready to get support from a community of women who are co-creating this change with intention and clarity— Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL. 

Do you want help from Colleen with a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question for Colleen's NEW Q& A episodes. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

Find me on:

YouTube: @HangoverWhisperer

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer 

X (Twitter) : @NotAboutTheAlc

Transcript

Click here to watch this episode on YouTube!

If you've ever wondered whether medication could help you drink less — or you've tried naltrexone and felt disappointed — this episode is for you.

I'm joined by Katie Lain, founder of Thrive Recovery and a fierce advocate for the Sinclair Method — a science-backed approach that uses naltrexone to reduce alcohol cravings over time. Katie shares her personal story of going from daily binge drinking to finding freedom without needing to get sober. She's also going to explain what most people get wrong about relying on medication alone to change their relationship with alcohol.

If you've been stuck in the "gray area" — drinking more than you want to, but not seeing yourself as an alcoholic — you'll love this conversation. You'll walk away with a big-picture understanding of what it takes to rewire the brain for lasting change, and how to move through the messy middle of behavior change without shame, guilt, or black-and-white thinking.

Katie Lain is the founder of Thrive Alcohol Recovery. You can find her @thrivealcoholrecovery on YouTube, Instagram, Linked-In and Facebook. 

Want daily updates from me?
TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer
Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer
Twitter (X): @NotAboutTheAlc
YouTube: @hangoverwhisperer

Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL if you're ready to fully commit to your personal growth and do the work to get emotionally sober. Side effects include an 80 percent reduction in drinking.

—Do you want coaching from Colleen on a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

Email

In today's episode, Colleen shares a personal and refreshingly honest story about her relationship with nicotine—and how emotional sobriety has shifted the way she responds to temporary imbalance. What starts as a candid reflection on sneaky vape relapses becomes a powerful reminder that healing isn't about perfection. It's about how we respond when we veer off course.

Colleen takes us through her own journey of regulating her nervous system, loosening old beliefs about addiction, and trusting that balance always returns—especially when we stop making a big deal out of being human. This isn't a story about failure; it's a blueprint for self-trust, grace, and gently coming home to yourself without shame.

If you've ever found yourself back in an old habit and wondered, "Did I just ruin everything?"—this episode offers a softer, smarter answer: No. You just forgot for a second how resilient you really are.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

• Your comeback is always stronger when you respond to imbalance with curiosity, not panic.

• Slipping into an old habit doesn't mean you've failed—it means you're human.

• The belief that you must "hack" your body to be okay is a lie; balance comes from within.

• There's equal evidence that you can self-correct—so feed that belief instead.

• Emotional sobriety means trusting your body, your experience, and your ability to return to center.

If you are ready to get support from a community of women who are co-creating this change with intention and clarity— Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL. 

Do you want help from Colleen with a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question for Colleen's NEW Q& A episodes. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

Find me on:

YouTube: @HangoverWhisperer

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer 

X (Twitter) : @NotAboutTheAlc

Transcript

In today's episode, Colleen lifts the veil on a common self-sabotage mechanism that often flies under the radar: worry. What begins as a moment of genuine joy and success quickly dissolves into anxiety—and not because something actually went wrong, but because her nervous system quietly panicked at how good it all felt.

Using a relatable personal story and the concept of the "upper limit problem," Colleen explores how we unconsciously block positive emotions the moment they start to expand. Whether it's a burst of pride, creative momentum, or a deep sense of peace, many of us unknowingly kink the hose of our own emotional flow—defaulting to worry as a way to shut it all down.

This episode offers a practical and empowering reframe: your worry isn't a warning—it's a signal that something good is trying to get in. If you're ready to stop letting anxiety pull the plug on your joy, this one's for you.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

• Worrying is rarely helpful—it's often just your brain's way of shutting down positive feelings.

• The moment you feel amazing is often the exact moment your brain tries to sabotage it.

• Overthinking is usually under-feeling—go back to what you were feeling before the worry kicked in.

• Blocking good feelings also blocks creative, aligned thoughts. Don't let your brain shut the door on new ideas.

• Ask yourself: What positive emotion is this worry trying to block? That question can change everything.

If you are ready to get support from a community of women who are co-creating this change with intention and clarity— Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL. 

Do you want help from Colleen with a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question for Colleen's NEW Q& A episodes. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

Find me on:

YouTube: @HangoverWhisperer

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer 

X (Twitter) : @NotAboutTheAlc

Transcript

Click here to watch on YouTube!

If you've ever done an alcohol free challenge for 30, 60 or 90 days, maybe even a year, only to fall back into old habits when you started drinking again— this episode is for you. In today's deep dive, Colleen Freeland explains why behavior-based sobriety models (like Sober Sis, Annie Grace, and Casey Davidson's approaches) can actually keep you trapped in the very drinking cycle you're trying to escape.

You'll learn why the real issue isn't alcohol — it's the perfectionistic, all-or-nothing mindset these programs reinforce. Colleen unpacks the neuroscience of habit change and explains why shame, identity labels, and emotional avoidance block your brain's ability to rewire for good.

She'll walk you through the Default Mode Network, Reticular Activating System, and the Habenula — three key parts of the brain where habits live — and show you how to reprogram your subconscious mind through identity-based change and emotional safety.

🔍 In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why sobriety programs are a psychological "bait and switch"

• The difference between behavior change vs. identity change

• How all-or-nothing thinking fuels binge cycles

• What it really means to build trust with yourself

• Why you need to stop counting sober days

• How to redefine success in a context that has nothing to do with alcohol

Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL if you're ready to fully commit to your personal growth and do the work to get emotionally sober. Side effects include an 80 percent reduction in drinking.

Want daily updates from me? TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer Twitter (X): @NotAboutTheAlc and YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@hangoverwhisperer

—Do you want coaching from Colleen on a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question. Your name will not be mentioned on air!

In today's episode, Colleen peels back the curtain on one of the most radical shifts we can make: recognizing that we are not our thoughts—we're the observer behind them. What starts as a reflection on managing the energy in your body becomes a masterclass in emotional authorship, reminding us that our thoughts, not our circumstances, are what create our lived reality.

Using the metaphor of a self-driving car, Colleen breaks down how most of us are unconsciously letting outdated programming steer our lives. But it doesn't have to be that way. When you take back the wheel—choosing how you want to feel and filtering your thoughts through that emotional compass—you begin to rewrite the narrative of your life, one aligned action at a time.

This episode is both a wake-up call and a permission slip: to believe what feels good, let go of what causes suffering, and trust that healing your inner world is how you change the outer one. If you've ever wondered whether it's really possible to feel free, peaceful, and powerful in your own skin—this is your answer.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

• You are not your thoughts—you're the one hearing them. Use that awareness to change your story.

• Your body is your compass; if a thought feels heavy or constricting, it's not the truth you need.

• You don't need external validation to feel good—you need internal alignment.

• Emotional energy is your language with the universe. Tune it, and your life will start to reflect it.

• The bravest thing you can do is feel your feelings and then choose the ones you want more of.

If you are ready to get support from a community of women who are co-creating this change with intention and clarity— Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL. 

Do you want help from Colleen with a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question for Colleen's NEW Q& A episodes. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

Find me on:

YouTube: @HangoverWhisperer

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer 

X (Twitter) : @NotAboutTheAlc

Transcript

In today's episode, Colleen walks us through a high-stakes moment with one of her clients—standing at the emotional fork in the road between old habits and radical self-responsibility.

After a tense night at her childhood home, surrounded by triggering family dynamics and judgment, this client found herself spiraling into shame after a single shot of tequila… and a familiar pattern of self-attack. With her sister likely ready to confront her, she reached out for support—not to fix the situation, but to reclaim her power before it got hijacked.

What unfolds is a masterclass in nervous system protection, mindset choice, and learning how to stop reacting to the stories in your head (and the ones projected onto you). This episode is your reminder that peace isn't earned through explanation—it's chosen in the moment, with breath, presence, and courage.

If you've ever felt like you have to prove, fix, or defend your choices just to feel okay again—this one will show you another way.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

• You can't rewrite the story from inside the story—you have to leave it behind to create something new.

• Your body is your true self. Protect it like a mama bear.

• Emotional pain often comes not from others' opinions, but your own mind's interpretation of them.

• You don't owe anyone an explanation to feel okay. Permission comes from you.

• Real power is choosing how you want to feel—and aligning your actions to create that state, without waiting for someone else to "get it."

If you are ready to get support from a community of women who are co-creating this change with intention and clarity— Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL. 

Do you want help from Colleen with a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question for Colleen's NEW Q& A episodes. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

Find me on:

YouTube: @HangoverWhisperer

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer 

X (Twitter) : @NotAboutTheAlc

Transcript

Click here to register for the neural rewrite masterclass! How to escape your negative self-talk.

Click here to watch this episode on YouTube! 

What happens when you're the person everyone counts and you're secretly falling apart?

In this episode, Colleen sits down with tech founder, entrepreneur and coach Mike Hardenbrook for an honest conversation about what it looks like when high-functioning people hit their limit. Mike opens up about the moment his drinking stopped working, why success can be a mask for burnout, and what it really takes to start living from self-trust instead of self-discipline.

Mike's story is proof that you don't have to lose everything to change—but you do have to stop pretending everything's fine.

If you're tired of performing under pressure, this episode will show you how to walk away from the bad habits that aren't serving you anymore without losing your edge--or the fun version of yourself. 

Mike has also developed a brand of supplements specifically for drinkers looking to cut back that have been shown to reduce alcohol cravings up to 60% and correct the nutritional deficiencies caused by regular drinking. 

Find Mike:
Mike's Instagram 
Mike's Website. 

Click here to shop for the Cloud 9 supplements mentioned in the interview.

Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL if you're ready to fully commit to your personal growth and do the work to get emotionally sober. Side effects include an 80 percent reduction in drinking.

Want daily updates from me?
TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer
Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer
Twitter (X): @NotAboutTheAlc 
YouTube: @hangoverwhisperer

—Do you want coaching from Colleen on a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

In today's episode, Colleen shares a real-life moment of emotional sobriety in action—when an old blog post, a rogue email, and a morning scroll tried to hijack her peace before she even got out of bed.

What begins as a minor tech task quickly spirals into a stress response… until she catches it. Instead of reacting from urgency, she pauses, reconnects with her intention for the day, and remembers: just because it feels urgent doesn't mean it is.

This episode is a practical, embodied reminder that emotional sobriety isn't about getting it perfect—it's about noticing the pattern before it runs your whole day. If you're done letting false alarms steal your time, energy, and presence, this one shows you how to reclaim control—without rushing to fix anything.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

• You are the director of your attention—not your email, not your stress, not your past habits.

• Feelings aren't facts—your body is just signaling what your brain has been rehearsing.

• New habits don't erase old ones—you overwrite them with intention and repetition.

• Sensations that constrict you are red flags that you're believing an old, unhelpful thought.

• Your day doesn't begin when you check your phone—it begins when you decide how you want to feel.

If you are ready to get support from a community of women who are co-creating this change with intention and clarity— Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL. 

Do you want help from Colleen with a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question for Colleen's NEW Q& A episodes. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

Find me on:

YouTube: @HangoverWhisperer

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer 

X (Twitter) : @NotAboutTheAlc

Transcript

In today's episode, Colleen reveals the sneaky way our own thoughts quietly become emotional abuse—and how to interrupt the habit of thinking things that hurt.

From bedtime mirror pep talks to buried beliefs about being "a hot mess," this episode explores how subconscious thought loops create the feelings that sabotage your confidence, relationships, and self-trust. Colleen explains how your nervous system isn't reacting to your circumstances—it's reacting to your story. And most of that story? It's fiction you've been rehearsing for years.

If you're ready to stop bullying yourself with thoughts you'd never say out loud to a friend, this episode is your start to choosing a better script and creating safety in your own mind.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

• The way you feel about yourself is just a reflection of the thoughts you repeat.

• Your thoughts aren't facts—they're habits.

• Negative emotions are your body's way of flagging old, outdated beliefs.

• If you wouldn't say it to someone else, it doesn't belong in your internal dialogue either.

• The path to healing starts with noticing the thought, pausing the habit, and choosing again—on purpose.

If you are ready to get support from a community of women who are co-creating this change with intention and clarity— Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL. 

Do you want help from Colleen with a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question for Colleen's NEW Q& A episodes. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

Find me on:

YouTube: @HangoverWhisperer

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer 

X (Twitter) : @NotAboutTheAlc

Transcript

You're not a woman who needs more information. You read the books. You follow the sober curious accounts. You've done Dry January. You've downloaded Sunnyside or Reframe. Every Sunday morning you promise yourself this week is going to be different.

And here you are, still on the hamster wheel.

There's nothing wrong with you. You're just trying to solve the wrong problem.

This week Colleen walks through three blindspots that keep busy, successful women stuck in cycles of overdrinking. Why your identity is running the show without you knowing it. Why your refusal to slow down feels like strength. And why you can't criticize or out-think your way out of a pattern you can't see.

Plus the story of teaching yoga from a chair while on bedrest with her fourth pregnancy, pushing a double jog stroller a mile and a half to the pool with four kids, and why none of this was ever actually about the alcohol.

If you want a raw, real, honest conversation about what's actually going on, book a free discovery call. It's not about what's wrong with you. It's about figuring out what kind of support you actually need. Those are very different conversations.

If you see the benefit in having a private conversation with a certified coach, Click Here To Schedule A Free Discovery Call

Watch The Free 45 Minute Masterclass: The science behind take it or leave it–why some women can and how you can too. 

Find me on:

YouTube: @HangoverWhisperer

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer 

X (Twitter) : @NotAboutTheAlc

Click here to register for the Rewrite Neural Pathways to Escape Negative Self-Talk Workshop on July 12th

Click here to watch this episode on YouTube

Do you have confidence and discipline in most areas of your life, and feel befuddled as to why your drinking feels so hard to control?

If your drinking feels out of alignment with your values, your goals, or your sense of self, this episode will give you a clear understanding as to what's really going on, and also five powerful, science-based strategies that will help you stop yourself from over-drinking—without relying on willpower, restriction, or shaming yourself into submission. 

Whether you're trying to moderate, avoid shame spirals, or feel more in control after a stressful day, these tools will help you reset your nervous system, reconnect with your values, and get your brain off autopilot so you can build new habits that align with who you really are.

🔑 You'll Learn:

• Why your brain craves alcohol when you're stressed (and how to rewire that urge)

• How "Delay, Don't Deny" instantly puts you back in control

• Why emotional goal setting works better than setting limits on your consumption

• How to rehearse success using mental imagery

• What it means to take an "upstream" perspective—and why trying to stop yourself from overdrinking at the end of the day is about as useless as trying to stop the last domino from falling

• How checking in with your tomorrow self can interrupt the "f-it" cycle

Overdrinking is not about your relationship with alcohol. It's about your relationship with yourself—and these strategies help you rebuild self-trust, one decision at a time.

Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL if you're ready to fully commit to your personal growth and do the work to get emotionally sober. Side effects include an 80 percent reduction in drinking.

Want daily updates from me? TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer Twitter (X): @NotAboutTheAlc and YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@hangoverwhisperer

—Do you want coaching from Colleen on a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

In today's episode, Colleen unpacks why your background alarm is going off—and how to finally turn it off.

You're not lazy. You're not broken. And your bedtime resistance, your anxious spinouts, your self-sabotage? They're not random. They. Are. Patterns.

Habits formed by younger versions of you who were just trying to stay safe.

This episode dives into how childhood beliefs shape your nervous system, why emotional energy gets trapped in the body, and how to reclaim that energy instead of wasting it on panic, shame, or perfectionism. If your anxiety feels like it runs the show, Colleen gives you a way to interrupt the pattern and stop thinking your way out of a feeling problem.

Whether you're healing from overdrinking, a divorce, or just trying to move through your day with more peace, this one shows you exactly how to get back into your body and claim your power.

Key Takeaways:

• That "resistance" you feel? It's not laziness—it's a child part of you stuck in a story.

• Your background alarm (aka chronic anxiety) is often a relic from the past—not a reaction to the present.

• Trying to think your way through a feeling problem only keeps the alarm ringing.

If you're done spiraling, numbing, or wondering why you sabotage the things you say you want—this episode is your wake-up call to stop overriding your body and start listening.

And if you're ready to reduce your drinking by 80% and finally trust yourself again? Schedule a discovery call with Colleen or the team- BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL. 

Do you want help from Colleen with a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question for Colleen's NEW Q& A episodes. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

Find me on:

YouTube: @HangoverWhisperer

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer 

X (Twitter) : @NotAboutTheAlc 

Transcript

You've probably heard me say the common phrase "the call is coming from inside the house" — but what if every judgment you make about someone else is too?

In this episode, Colleen unpacks the concept of The Black Mirror — the idea that your emotional reactions to other people are often projections of the stories, beliefs, and insecurities you hold about yourself.

You'll learn how to flip the script when you're triggered by someone else's behavior, turn judgment into powerful self-awareness, and use emotional sobriety skills to stop reacting from fear and start responding from clarity. This is shadow work, made practical.

This episode is for the woman who is ready to take her power back… by owning what's hers and releasing what isn't.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

• The traits you judge in others often reflect disowned parts of yourself.

• Emotional reactivity is a mirror — not a fact.

• Changing "they think…" to "I feel…" is a powerful way to access hidden beliefs.

• Boundaries come from clarity, not resentment.

• Emotional sobriety means learning to feel what you feel without making it mean something is wrong with you.
  
  

If you are ready to get support from a community of women who are co-creating this change with intention and clarity— Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL. 

Do you want help from Colleen with a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question for Colleen's NEW Q& A episodes. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

Find me on:

YouTube: @HangoverWhisperer

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer 

X (Twitter) : @NotAboutTheAlc

Transcript

Click here to watch the full interview with Carley on YouTube

In Part 2 of Carley's story, we dive into the healing that began once she joined the program. You'll hear how she learned to regulate her nervous system, rewire her brain, and change the story she told herself about who she was.

Carley shares how she finally stopped chasing external validation, started putting herself first without guilt, and showed up more fully — not just for herself, but for her kids, her husband, and her work.

We also talk about what it means to "be emotionally sober" and why drinking less wasn't the ultimate win for Carley — it was becoming the woman she never thought she could be.

This part of the conversation is a celebration of what's possible when you stop trying to get sober and start learning to feel safe in your own body.

What you'll hear in Part 2:

• The skills Carley developed that helped her reduce her drinking by 80%

• How emotional sobriety changed her marriage, her parenting, and her self-talk

• Why she now calls herself "unrecognizable" — in the best way

• What she would say to any woman who's scared to take the first step

Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL if you're ready to fully commit to your personal growth and do the work to get emotionally sober. Side effects include an 80 percent reduction in drinking.

Want daily updates from me?
TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer
Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer
Twitter (X): @NotAboutTheAlc
YouTube: @hangoverwhisperer

—Do you want coaching from Colleen on a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question. Your name will not be mentioned on air!

Most women don't realize how uncomfortable they are with feeling good—until things start going too well. That's when the sabotage creeps in. A snappy comment. A skipped workout. An unnecessary glass of wine.

In today's episode, Colleen breaks down the concept of the "upper limit problem" from The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks—and explains how perfectionists and people-pleasers unknowingly block joy, ease, and success by clinging to struggle.

You'll learn how your emotional thermostat gets set in childhood, why guilt and discomfort with pleasure keep you stuck, and how to reset your internal baseline so peace and happiness stop feeling unsafe.

This episode is a powerful reminder that you don't have to earn your joy. You just have to stop arguing for your limitations.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

• The "upper limit problem" is a self-imposed glass ceiling that blocks success, love, and creativity.

• Most high-achieving women are used to pain—and don't know how to tolerate feeling good.

• Guilt is often the signal that you're expanding beyond what feels "acceptable" to others.

• You don't need permission to feel ease, rest, or joy. You just need a new intention.

• Emotional sobriety means letting go of the need to suffer in order to deserve what you want.
  
  

✨ What if your next breakthrough wasn't about doing more… but feeling more?

If you're ready to stop drinking just to take the edge off your own growth, then Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL. 

Do you want help from Colleen with a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question for Colleen's NEW Q& A episodes. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

Find me on:

YouTube: @HangoverWhisperer

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer 

X (Twitter) : @NotAboutTheAlc

Transcript

In today's episode, Colleen shares a powerful one-on-one coaching conversation with a client who was dreading a weekend trip with her judgmental, high-maintenance mother-in-law. What started as a fear of overdrinking turned into something much deeper—a real-time lesson in emotional ownership, boundaries, and what it means to become unfuckwithable.

This episode isn't about family dynamics—it's about taking your power back. If you've ever agreed to something just to avoid conflict and ended up feeling resentful, this is for you.

You'll walk away with practical language, new scripts, and the mindset shift that will help you stop outsourcing your emotional well-being to other people's moods.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

• Feeling trapped isn't a fact—it's a sign you haven't fully claimed your power of choice.

• Boundaries are about what you will do, not about controlling others.

• Being "unfuckwithable" doesn't mean you don't care—it means you stop performing to keep the peace.

• You don't need to change other people's reactions to feel okay.

• Resentment is often a sign that you said yes when you meant no.

If you are ready to get support from a community of women who are co-creating this change with intention and clarity— Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL. 

Do you want help from Colleen with a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question for Colleen's NEW Q& A episodes. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

Find me on:

YouTube: @HangoverWhisperer

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer 

X (Twitter) : @NotAboutTheAlc

Transcript

Click here to watch the full interview with Carley on YouTube

In this raw and relatable conversation, I'm joined by one of my incredible clients, Carley — a driven healthcare professional, mom of two, and former daily drinker who once believed her only two choices were to either quit drinking forever or keep white-knuckling it with shame and regret.

Carley opens up about what her drinking looked like behind closed doors and the pressure she put on herself to "keep it together" — until it started to fall apart. She shares how overachieving, perfectionism, and people-pleasing became coping mechanisms, and how alcohol slowly crept in as her off-switch.

We talk about the moment she realized her mental math wasn't working anymore, the emotional buildup that led her to finally book a discovery call, and what shifted when she heard someone say: "You don't have to get sober. You just have to feel better."

This is an incredibly powerful episode for anyone who has ever felt stuck between drinking too much and feeling like you can't stop completely. Carley's story is proof that emotional sobriety isn't about rules — it's about freedom.

What you'll hear in Part 1:

• The hidden stressors that led Carley to overdrink (even as a healthcare worker who knew better)

• The fear of reaching out for help — and what made her finally do it

• The myth of "just try harder" and why it never works

• The exact moment she realized she didn't have to choose between chaos and abstinence

Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL if you're ready to fully commit to your personal growth and do the work to get emotionally sober. Side effects include an 80 percent reduction in drinking.

Want daily updates from me?
TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer
Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer
Twitter (X): @NotAboutTheAlc
YouTube: @hangoverwhisperer

—Do you want coaching from Colleen on a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

In today's episode, Colleen unpacks a subtle but powerful mindset that can completely shift how you experience stress, pressure, and time. Whether it's a packed calendar, an airport sprint, or your own inner critic barking about everything you should be doing, the real problem isn't your to-do list—it's your nervous system.

This episode explores how urgency is often just emotional dysregulation in disguise, and why "getting everything done" will never create the calm you're actually craving.

If you're constantly on the go, juggling work, family, and the secret shame of overdrinking, this one will help you slow down without falling behind—and start practicing emotional sobriety in the way you move through your day.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

• Feeling rushed is not a fact—it's a nervous system state.

• Stress often masquerades as urgency, but urgency isn't truth.

• When your body is dysregulated, your brain makes up reasons to panic.

• Emotional sobriety means choosing how you want to feel and leading with that.

• You don't have to suffer through your schedule—you can rewire how you move through it.
  
  

If you are ready to get support from a community of women who are co-creating this change with intention and clarity— Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL. 

Do you want help from Colleen with a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question for Colleen's NEW Q& A episodes. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

Find me on:

YouTube: @HangoverWhisperer

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer 

X (Twitter) : @NotAboutTheAlc

Transcript

If you're drinking more than you want to, but every time you try to cut back it feels like one more thing to do… this episode is for you.

Today, I'm sharing the real story that kept me stuck in the drinking cycle for years—the one that has nothing to do with alcohol:
🙋🏼‍♀️ "I don't have enough time."

From the liquor store parking lot to the 87-item to-do list that ran my life, I walk you through how that one belief created stress, depletion, and ultimately... a nightly bottle of wine.

You'll learn my 5-step Rewrite & Release method for deconstructing the neural pathways that are making you feel overwhelmed, out of control, and like you have nothing left to give—except a glass of wine at the end of the day.

This is the work that actually rewires your brain.
This is what it means to get emotionally sober.
This is where your freedom begins.

Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL if you're ready to fully commit to your personal growth and do the work to get emotionally sober. Side effects include an 80 percent reduction in drinking.

Want daily updates from me? TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer Twitter (X): @NotAboutTheAlc and YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@hangoverwhisperer

—Do you want coaching from Colleen on a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

In today's episode, Colleen shares a personal reflection on what it means to stay emotionally sober when things are going really well. When the business is booming, the boxes are checked, and it feels like everything is finally clicking.

Most of us assume that emotional work is about learning how to handle hard moments—grief, anxiety, cravings, conflict, etc. Though that's true in it's own right, there is still a catch.

----> If your mood is dictated by external wins, then your nervous system is still being hijacked, and the crash that follows might be more subtle—but it can also be just as dysregulating.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

• Emotional sobriety isn't just about surviving the lows—it's about regulating the highs, too.

• A perfectionistic "high" can feel just as dysregulating as a shame spiral, even if the story is more flattering.

• True well-being comes from presence, not performance.

• What goes up must come down—and emotional maturity is learning how to come back to center with love, not fear.

If you are ready to get support from a community of women who are co-creating this change with intention and clarity— Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL. 

Do you want help from Colleen with a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question for Colleen's NEW Q& A episodes. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

Find me on:

YouTube: @HangoverWhisperer

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer 

X (Twitter) : @NotAboutTheAlc

In this episode, Colleen pulls apart something that sounds right, but quietly keeps women stuck: thinking about your feelings instead of actually feeling them.

Because most women in this space aren't avoiding the work.
They're doing a ton of it.

They can explain their patterns.
They understand their triggers.
They know why they drink.

And yet… nothing really shifts.

Colleen walks through the difference between intellectual processing and physical release, and why emotional energy that doesn't move doesn't disappear… it stays in the body.

That's where the tension, the anxiety, the shutdown, and yes... the cravings, come from.

This isn't about more insight.
It's about learning how to actually let something move through you instead of managing it in your head.

And for most women, that's the part they've never been taught.

🔑 Key Takeaways

~Why understanding your emotions isn't the same as processing them
~How emotional energy gets "stuck" in the body
~Why overthinking creates anxiety, tension, and cravings
~The cultural conditioning that teaches women to suppress expression
~What it actually looks like to release an emotion (not just label it)
~Why you can't selectively numb pain without numbing joy
~A simple 3-step emotional release practice to start reconnecting with your body

This episode isn't asking you to figure anything out. It's asking you to stop trying.

Because the shift isn't in your thinking… it's in your willingness to feel what's already there.

If you'd like to learn more about our Emotional Sobriety Coaching programs:

---> Click here to schedule a discovery call

---> Watch The FREE Masterclass

Find me on:

YouTube: @HangoverWhisperer

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer 

X (Twitter) : @NotAboutTheAlc

In this episode, Colleen breaks down the difference between thinking your feelings and actually feeling them—and why most high-achieving women get stuck in a loop that keeps them stressed, stuck, and searching for answers in the wrong places.

You'll learn a simple, body-based skill that helps you shift out of emotional overwhelm and back into clarity, presence, and personal power—without needing to fix, solve, or overexplain anything at all.

Whether you're drinking to numb the noise or overthinking your way into burnout, this episode will show you how to interrupt the loop and finally let go—for real.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

• Feeling your feelings is a body-based skill, not a thinking exercise.

• Thoughts create sensations—so the more you think, the more you feel, and vice versa.

• Most people try to think their way out of feelings, but this fuels the problem.

• Observing the energy in your body without judgment allows emotions to release.

• Your power lies in focus—what you pay attention to is what changes.
  
  
  

Your feelings aren't a problem to fix. They're a signal from your body asking to be felt.

If you are ready to get support from a community of women who are co-creating this change with intention and clarity— Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL. 

Do you want help from Colleen with a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question for Colleen's NEW Q& A episodes. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

Find me on:

YouTube: @HangoverWhisperer

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer 

X: @NotAboutTheAlc

Transcript

Today's episode is for the woman who's doing everything right—and still feels like she's falling apart.

Colleen sits down with Laurie James, somatic coach and author of Sandwiched: A Memoir of Holding On and Letting Go to talk about what happens when your nervous system hits a breaking point. Laurie ended up in the hospital—twice—after leaving a toxic marriage, raising four daughters, dating again, writing a book, and trying to heal.

This is a raw, honest conversation about how success can hide trauma, why "pushing through" is often dissociation in disguise, and how to regulate your nervous system before your body takes matters into its own hands.

💡 Key Takeaways:

• If your body shuts down, it's not random—it's internal wisdom.
  
  

• Autoimmune issues and fatigue are often trauma responses.
  
  

• You can't think your way to safety—you have to feel it in your body.
  
  

• "Small, tolerable steps" are more healing than breakthroughs.
  
  

• Emotional sobriety starts by noticing what your body is already trying to say.

Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL if you're ready to fully commit to your personal growth and do the work to get emotionally sober. Side effects include an 80 percent reduction in drinking.

Click here to get Laurie's free Beginner's Guide to Somatic Healing
Find Laurie James on Instagram @laurie.james and Facebook: @Laurie James
Laurie's Podcast is Confessions of a Free Bird w/ Laurie James

Connect on socials!

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer Twitter (X): @NotAboutTheAlc and YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@hangoverwhisperer

—Do you want coaching from Colleen on a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

Most of us see anxiety as a personal flaw—something to fix, medicate, or avoid. But what if anxiety isn't the problem at all? What if it's the invitation?

In today's episode, Colleen breaks down the two types of anxiety as explained by Dr. Russell Kennedy—foreground alarm and background alarm—and shares a personal story of how unresolved fears and childhood programming were quietly driving Colleen into burnout... even though her mindset looked great on the surface.

This isn't just about alcohol. It's about understanding the real source of your stress, shifting from self-bullying to self-trust, and learning how to work with your nervous system instead of against it.

Whether you're drinking to deal with anxiety or simply tired of pushing through life at full speed, this episode will help you stop fighting the wrong battle—and start healing what's actually underneath.

• Foreground anxiety is triggered by perceived threats—usually created by your thoughts.

• Background anxiety is rooted in unresolved emotional trauma, often from childhood.

• Even when your mindset is strong, your body can still hold onto old fear patterns.

• The real solution isn't doing more—it's slowing down to listen and release.

• Emotional sobriety is the power to choose your response, not just manage your reaction.
  
  

Give yourself permission to rest, slow down, and check in with your body instead of overriding it with more effort.

If you are ready to get support from a community of women who are co-creating this change with intention and clarity— Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL. 

Do you want help from Colleen with a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question for Colleen's NEW Q& A episodes. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

Find me on

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer 

X: @NotAboutTheAlc

Transcript

In today's episode, Colleen dismantles one of the most common mindset traps she see's in her clients: the belief that anxiety is something to get rid of. If you've ever said, "I'm just an anxious person," or used alcohol to calm your nerves before a flight, presentation, or party—you're not alone. But what if anxiety itself isn't the problem?

She'll walk you through a real client breakthrough where they shifted the focus away from "less anxiety" and toward something far more powerful: a regulated nervous system. You'll learn why trying to "not drink" or "not be anxious" backfires neurologically, and what to focus on instead.

• Anxiety is normal; our problem is thinking it's a problem.

• Focusing on what you don't want wires your brain for more of it.

• The brain can't solve a negative—it needs a clear, affirmative goal.

• Regulating your nervous system is the secret to lasting change.

• You don't need to "not drink." You need to do something else on purpose.
  
  

Next time you feel anxious, ask yourself:
What do I want to feel instead—and what would support that feeling right now?

Make a plan for how you want to feel before the plane takes off, the event begins, or the trigger hits.

Then Reflect.

If you are ready to get support from a community of women who are co-creating this change with intention and clarity— Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL. 

Do you want help from Colleen with a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question for Colleen's NEW Q& A episodes. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

Find me on

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer 

X: @NotAboutTheAlc

Transcript

After 10 months of consistent progress, one of my clients recently found herself drinking every day for two weeks. In this episode, I walk you through the private coaching conversation we had—what really caused the setback, how she responded, and why it had nothing to do with alcohol. If you've ever told yourself "I should be farther along by now," or felt the crushing weight of shame after slipping into old patterns, this episode is a must-listen. You'll learn how to recognize when you're caught in a thinking problem—not a drinking problem—and how to respond in a way that propels you forward instead of holding you back.

What You'll Learn:

• Why over-drinking isn't a sign of failure—but an invitation to go deeper

• The biological reason why stress makes you revert to old coping habits

• How thoughts like "I don't have enough time" silently sabotage your behavior

• Why the perception of failure activates the "kill-switch" for your motivation

• The power of slowing down, asking for help, and telling yourself the truth

Key Insight:
You can't change your drinking without changing your thinking. And you can't change your thinking if your body is in a stress response. Emotional sobriety means learning to create enough internal safety that you can question your own thoughts—without collapsing into shame.

—Want daily updates from me? Find me on TikTok @hangoverwhisperer and IG @thehangoverwhisperer and YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@hangoverwhisperer

—Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL if you're ready to fully commit to your personal growth and do the work to get emotionally sober. Side effects include an 80 percent reduction in drinking.

—Do you want coaching from Colleen on a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

In today's episode, you'll hear a deeply personal story about the night Colleen's college-age kids brought home a big bottle of vodka—and invited her to join them.

Years ago, this would've been the moment she feared the most. But something powerful has shifted. You'll hear how self-trust changes everything, how desire—not discipline—is what drives real transformation, and why the solution to alcohol use disorder has nothing to do with drinking.

Whether you're still stuck in the "managing it" phase or wondering how to build a life that feels bigger than your nightly glass of wine, this episode will show you how to trade self-protection for self-permission—and how to begin crafting a new kind of evening ritual, one that gives you energy instead of stealing it.

💡 Key Takeaways:

• You don't have to stop drinking—you just have to stop lying to yourself about what you actually want.

• Self-trust doesn't mean never drinking—it means knowing you can, but not needing to.

• Suffering happens when there's pain without meaning. Healing begins when you give your struggle a purpose.

• The desire to stop thinking about alcohol is valid—but you must replace it with something you do want to think about.

• Knowing isn't a thought. It's an experience.
  
  

✨ Action Step:

Create a "purpose list" for your evenings. No pressure, no big goals (seriously)—just a short list of new things you'd like to try, feel, or experience. The fastest way to uncover your deeper desires is to give yourself permission to explore.

If you are ready to get support from a community of women who are co-creating this change with intention and clarity— Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL. 

Do you want help from Colleen with a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question for Colleen's NEW Q& A episodes. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

Find me on

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer 

X: @NotAboutTheAlc

Transcript

If the solution to alcohol use disorder isn't a behavior, but a feeling— HOW THE HELL DO YOU PRACTICE A FEELING?

In today's episode, Colleen breaks down the mindset shift that will completely change the way you think about manifestation. Not the toxic, glittery, vision-board version. But the grounded, neuroscience-backed practice of training your body and brain to feel powerful on purpose—so you don't need alcohol to feel that way for you.

Colleen explains why "wanting" and "waiting" energy keeps you stuck, why your thoughts aren't facts (even the convincing ones), and how to get off the mental hamster wheel of self-doubt, disappointment, and shame. If you're ready to stop "trying to change" and start experiencing change in real time—this one's for you.

 Key Takeaways:

• The solution to alcohol use disorder is a feeling—not a behavior.

• Thoughts are habits. What you believe isn't always true—it's just familiar.

• Manifestation isn't magic; it's alignment. Feel like the version of you you want to become.

• Wanting and waiting energy blocks progress. "What's working now" energy opens the path forward.

• You can only think how you feel. Change your feeling, and your brain will catch up.
  
  

Action Step:

Get a What's Working Now journal. Start tracking all the tiny signs that your transformation is already happening. Even if you wake up hungover. Especially if you wake up hungover. The more you train your brain to notice wins, the more progress you'll make.

If you are ready to get support from a community of women who are co-creating this change with intention and clarity— Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL. 

Do you want help from Colleen with a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question for Colleen's NEW Q& A episodes. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

Find me on:

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer

X: @NotAboutTheAlc

Transcript

Most women assume their drinking habit is a willpower issue. But what if your body is actually sounding an alarm?

In today's episode, Colleen sits down with functional medicine expert Dr. Meg Mill to unpack the hidden connection between histamines, hormones, and alcohol. If your wine tolerance has changed, your moods are all over the place, or you're feeling bloated, anxious, or inflamed—this conversation is essential.

Dr. Meg explains how histamines affect everything from headaches to anxiety, why your red wine might hit differently depending on the time of month, and what to do if you feel like your body is reacting to everything lately.

This isn't about giving up pleasure—it's about understanding what your body is asking for.

💡 Key Takeaways:

• Histamines are immune messengers that can drive inflammation and trigger symptoms like anxiety, insomnia, and headaches

• Alcohol both contains histamines and stimulates their release, especially during periods of hormone fluctuation

• You don't need to eliminate foods/drinks that contain histamines forever—but you might need a temporary reset

• Functional medicine is about root cause—not symptom suppression

• If your wine habit has escalated, it might be your nervous system, not your personality

Find Dr. Meg Mill on social media @drmegmill

Click here to get Dr. Meg's Essential Guide to Histamine Intolerance: 

—Want daily updates from me? Find me on TikTok @hangoverwhisperer and IG @thehangoverwhisperer and YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@hangoverwhisperer

—Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL if you're ready to fully commit to your personal growth and do the work to get emotionally sober. Side effects include an 80 percent reduction in drinking.

—Do you want coaching from Colleen on a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

In today's episode, Colleen shares a story about a client who unsubscribed from her email list—and how that one glitch almost triggered a cascade of false assumptions, unspoken tension, and missed opportunity. It's a reminder that the smallest emotional reactions (the ones that barely register) are often the most dangerous. Because they go unchecked. Unquestioned. Unchallenged.

This episode will help you stop letting your emotions drive blind—and show you how to reroute your thinking so you can create a different future than your past.

💡 Key Takeaways:

• Emotions are learned rules encoded into your body—and most never reach conscious awareness.

• A belief is just a thought you stopped questioning.

• Micro-assumptions shape your reality more than you realize.

• What you feel first isn't always true—but it is always an opportunity.

• If you want your future to be different, you have to stop bringing your past with you.
  
  
  

✨ Action Step:

Pause today and ask: "Where am I assuming something without checking it?" Then get curious. Say the weird thing. Ask the uncomfortable question. You might be one honest conversation away from everything changing.

If you are ready to get support from a community of women who are co-creating this change with intention and clarity— Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL. 

Do you want help from Colleen with a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question for Colleen's NEW Q& A episodes. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

Find me on

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer

Transcript

In today's episode, Colleen shares the most powerful skill you can develop on your emotional sobriety journey: how you respond to yourself when you slip into old habits.

Whether you drank more than you planned or simply feel like you've lost your way again, this episode will rewire how you think about failure—and help you stop reinforcing the very pattern you're trying to break.

Colleen walks you through the real moment of change (it's not what you think), why "starting over" is a trap, and the nervous system reset that turns shame into self-trust.

💡 Key Takeaways:

• It's not about what happened—it's about how you respond to what happened.

• Beating yourself up is the habit that keeps the drinking habit alive.

• Every habit you want to break began as an act of self-protection or survival.

• You don't need to try harder—you need to design better systems.

• Emotional sobriety means you don't make it mean something about you.

✨ Action Step:

Notice where you feel shame or stuckness in your body. Breathe into that space and offer yourself a different response in that moment when it feels strongest: one rooted in curiosity, compassion, and forward motion.

If you are ready to get support from a community of women who are co-creating this change with intention and clarity— Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL. 

Do you want help from Colleen with a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question for Colleen's NEW Q& A episodes. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

Find me on

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer

Transcript

Now that I'm on the other side of my recent slip back into drinking every night, I can see exactly what happened—and more importantly, I can explain the mechanism that makes this so dangerous for high-achieving women.

In this episode, I'm breaking down why nightly drinking doesn't just affect your health—it systematically destroys your confidence, your self-trust, and your sense of who you are. And I'm giving you the exact framework for how to stop.

In this episode:

• Why the belief "I'll feel better when things calm down" is actually a symptom, not wisdom

• The mind virus that makes your brain blame everything wrong in your life on alcohol

• How shame disguises itself as "personal accountability" and "radical honesty" in high achieving women

• The reason you can't think your way out of a thinking problem (which is what this is)

• What actually shifted for me—and why I don't need willpower to stay sober during the week

Ready to do the work?

If you'd like to to have a private conversation with a certified coach, Click Here To Schedule A Free Discovery Call

Watch The Free 45 Minute Masterclass: The science behind take it or leave it–why some women can and how you can too. 

Find me on:

YouTube: @HangoverWhisperer

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer 

X (Twitter) : @NotAboutTheAlc

Today's episode is a must-listen for any woman navigating midlife hormonal changes and struggling with overdrinking. 

Colleen sits down with Bria Gadd—the Period Whisperer—to talk about the real reason so many high-achieving women hit a wall in their 30s and 40s. This is an honest conversation about how to hear your body's whispers before they become screams, and why pushing through your exhaustion puts your body into "health debt."

If you've ever wondered whether your fatigue, mood swings or wine cravings have more to do with stress than weakness, this episode will show you how to shift from survival mode to sustainable wellness.

💡 Key Takeaways:

• Your period symptoms are not random—they're messages.
• "Health debt" happens when you spend more energy than you have.
• Overexercising and undereating can actually cause you to drink too much.
• The exact strategies that created your success may be causing your burnout.
• Recovery starts with simple, foundational shifts like sleep, food, movement, and pleasure.

Find Bria Gadd

 https://www.briatheperiodwhisperer.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bria_period_whisperer/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BriaThePeriodWhisperer/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@briagadd YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bria_period_whisperer Podcast: https://www.briatheperiodwhisperer.com/the-period-whisperer-podcast

—Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL if you're ready to fully commit to your personal growth and do the work to get emotionally sober. Side effects include an 80 percent reduction in drinking.

—Want daily updates from me? Find me on TikTok @hangoverwhisperer and IG @thehangoverwhisperer and YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@hangoverwhisperer

—Do you want help from Colleen with a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

In today's episode, Colleen shares a simple and powerful practice that can shift your energy in seconds—and help you stop carrying what your body is desperate to let go of.

If you've ever felt like you should stop drinking, overworking, or people-pleasing—but you keep doing it anyway—this episode will show you why resistance doesn't work, and how to reconnect with the wisdom of your body instead.

Plus, Colleen walks you through a one-breath nervous system reset called The Sigh—a technique that helps you release emotional pain, shift mental patterns, and return to a state of balance. No willpower required.

💡 Key Takeaways:

• The harder you try to not do something, the more you want to do it.

• Letting go is not a mindset—it's a felt, physical action you can practice.

• You don't have to analyze your pain to release it—just notice where it lives in your body.

• The sigh is a natural, energetic reset your body already knows how to do—you just have to do it on purpose.

• The truth that got you here might be the same truth that's holding you back.
  
  
  

✨ Action Step:

Practice the one-breath sigh technique Colleen teaches in this episode. Notice what happens in your body when you stop thinking and start releasing.

If you are ready to get support from a community of women who are co-creating this change with intention and clarity— Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL. 

Do you want help from Colleen with a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question for Colleen's NEW Q& A episodes. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

Find me on

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer

—Click here to TAKE THE QUIZ: Do you have a drinking problem or a thinking problem?

Transcript

Today's episode is all about emotional flow—how energy moves through your body and what to do when it gets stuck. Colleen explains how your thoughts can block the natural upward movement of desire, inspiration, and curiosity—reversing the flow and creating emotional heaviness, anxiety, and burnout.

You'll learn why it's not always necessary to unpack your childhood or analyze every emotion. Sometimes the simplest shift comes from asking: is this thought opening me up, or shutting me down?

Whether you're stuck in your career, your relationship, or your relationship with alcohol—this episode will show you how to unclog your energy, reclaim your creativity, and speak your truth into the world.

💡 Key Takeaways:

• Your brain is the gatekeeper of your energy—every belief either expands or contracts you.

• Heaviness and anxiety are often the result of blocked emotional flow, not personal failure.

• You don't have to do a deep dive into your trauma to free yourself—you just have to notice the energetic state you're in.

• You can change your reality by changing what you believe and acting from a more open state.

• "I create as I speak" isn't just a phrase—it's a practice of embodiment and emotional sobriety.
  
  
  
  

✨ Action Step:

If you are ready to get support from a community of women who are co-creating this change with intention and clarity— Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL. 

If you want help from Colleen with a situation you're struggling with- Click here to submit your question for Colleen's NEW Q& A episodes. Your name will not be mentioned on air! 

Find me on

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer

Transcript