244 episodes
Sober Powered Gillian Tietz, MS, CAMS-I
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- Health & Fitness
I promise you, you're not a weak-willed loser with no self-control. There are a lot of reasons why we can't control the way we drink- trauma, lack of coping skills, stress, anger, anxiety. Plus, as you'll learn in my podcast, alcohol takes advantage of our vulnerabilities to hook us, then it changes our brains to keep us stuck and reliant on alcohol. It's not about willpower. In the Sober Powered Podcast, I use science, psychology, and compassion to help you understand why you use self-destructive coping skills like alcohol, what happens in the brain to make drinking spiral out of control and prevent us from drinking in moderation, and how to develop the coping skills and emotional sobriety you need to quit drinking and stay sober.
About me: I quit drinking on November 9, 2019. I have a master's in biology and I'm a certified anger management specialist and crisis intervention specialist.
Not sure where to start? My most popular episodes are 99, 150, 170, 177, 180, 186, 191, 194, 196, 197 and 202.
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E228: Why Alcohol Automatically Captures and Holds Your Attention
If you’ve stopped drinking, have you noticed that when you walk into a room your eyes immediately go to where the alcohol is? Or how you keep track of how quickly everyone is drinking and what drink they’re on without any effort? Or how you never realized how much people in TV shows and movies drink until now? This is because alcohol can capture and hold our attention, leading to increased cravings that make it difficult to not drink. In this episode you’ll learn what’s going on in the brain to get our attention stuck on alcohol, how this makes it more difficult to quit drinking, what factors increase the ability for alcohol to grab and hold our attention, and how we can overcome this to be successful in sobriety.
What to listen to next:
E224: alcohol makes your brain stop working
E211: the anticipation of a drink
E197: making the decision to quit drinking
Sober Powered Skills Bonus Episode: 3 Exercises to Increase Top-Down Control of Your Brain
https://www.soberpowered.com/skills
Sober Support:
Community & Meetings: Living a Sober Powered Life https://www.soberpowered.com/membership
Anger Management Program https://www.soberpowered.com/anger
Weekly emails on Fridays https://www.soberpowered.com/email
Free resources https://www.soberpowered.com/free
Thank you for supporting this show by supporting my sponsors. Learn more:
https://www.soberpowered.com/sponsors
If you enjoyed this episode please consider buying me a coffee to support my work https://www.buymeacoffee.com/soberpowered
Sources are posted on my website
Disclaimer: all of the information described in this podcast is my interpretation of the research combined with my opinion. This is not medical advice.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices -
E227: You Need a Goal (200 lb Deadlift Achieved!)
Let's talk about goal setting and building self-confidence. You've probably heard me mention off and on that I've had this goal to deadlift 200 lbs. I just achieved it. If you can stay put for a short story about my deadlift, then I promise I have a point. I want to get into goal setting, how to determine what your goal should even be, and what this can do for your self-confidence. I'm not talking about a goal to lose weight or drink in moderation.
What to listen to next:
E188: Wellness Over Weight Loss
E216: 4 Types of Impulsivity
Sober Support:
Community & Meetings: Living a Sober Powered Life https://www.soberpowered.com/membership
Anger Management Program https://www.soberpowered.com/anger
Sober Powered Skills (bonus episodes with practical application and coping skills) https://www.soberpowered.com/skills
Weekly emails on Thursdays https://www.soberpowered.com/email
Free resources https://www.soberpowered.com/free
Thank you for supporting this show by supporting my sponsors. Learn more:
https://www.soberpowered.com/sponsors
If you enjoyed this episode please consider buying me a coffee to support my work https://www.buymeacoffee.com/soberpowered
Sources are posted on my website
Disclaimer: all of the information described in this podcast is my interpretation of the research combined with my opinion. This is not medical advice.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices -
E226: Using Alcohol to Escape Your Life
Many of us use alcohol to turn off our brain, escape our problems, or check out, but escapism is actually associated with more intense drinking and lower life satisfaction. In this episode you’ll learn about the different theories behind escapism, why we’re doing this, and how it makes our problems worse. I hope that this episode can help you make some connections so you realize drinking isn’t helping you. I’ll also share a personal story of when I drank to escape and how that went for me.
What to listen to next
E213: self care is not temporarily turning off your brain
E214: self-medication
E216: 4 types of impulsivity
Sober Powered Skills Bonus Episode: One Cause of Escapism and How to Cope
https://www.soberpowered.com/skills
Sober Support:
Community & Meetings: Living a Sober Powered Life https://www.soberpowered.com/membership
Anger Management Program https://www.soberpowered.com/anger
Weekly emails on Thursdays https://www.soberpowered.com/email
Free resources https://www.soberpowered.com/free
Thank you for supporting this show by supporting my sponsors. Learn more:
https://www.soberpowered.com/sponsors
If you enjoyed this episode please consider buying me a coffee to support my work https://www.buymeacoffee.com/soberpowered
Sources are posted on my website
Disclaimer: all of the information described in this podcast is my interpretation of the research combined with my opinion. This is not medical advice.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices -
E225: 5 Strategies for Dealing with Relapses and Getting Back on Track
What causes a relapse? How can we recognize it and make changes before we actually relapse? In this episode I’ll discuss the path to relapse and what is going on. Whether you relapsed or want to be vigilant in case you relapse or get weird thoughts, then you’ll learn about denial, low insight, not being ready to quit, and 5 strategies to deal with a relapse.
What to listen to next:
E210: Good News, Your Brain Heals A Lot Within 90 Days… Unless You Relapse
E191: Going Back and Forth Makes Your Cravings Stronger
E212: Why Some People Get Sober and Others Don’t (Resilience and Epigenetics)
Sober Support:
Community & Meetings: Living a Sober Powered Life https://www.soberpowered.com/membership
Anger Management Program https://www.soberpowered.com/anger
Sober Powered Skills (bonus episodes with practical application and coping skills) https://www.soberpowered.com/skills
Weekly emails on Thursdays https://www.soberpowered.com/email
Free resources https://www.soberpowered.com/free
Thank you for supporting this show by supporting my sponsors. Learn more:
https://www.soberpowered.com/sponsors
If you enjoyed this episode please consider buying me a coffee to support my work https://www.buymeacoffee.com/soberpowered
Sources are posted on my website
Disclaimer: all of the information described in this podcast is my interpretation of the research combined with my opinion. This is not medical advice.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices -
E224: Alcohol Makes Your Brain Stop Working
Your brain has to be connected well to be able to work. We beat ourselves up because we know we shouldn’t drink, but then we do, or because we keep convincing ourselves it’ll be different this time, even though it’s never different. It’s easy to think this is because you’re a weak-willed loser with no self-control, but it’s just not true. In this episode I’m explaining how alcohol changes the way our brains are connected to make us continue drinking in an automatic loop while preventing us from using higher-order thinking skills at the same time. We need to be able to use our brain to get out of the back and forth.
What to listen to next:
E191: Going Back and Forth Makes Your Cravings Stronger
E128: Why Cravings are So Powerful (Attentional Bias)
E182: Why You Drink Habitually Without Thinking
E205: Kindling in Alcohol Withdrawal
E220: The Hippocampus and Alcohol: Blackouts, Memory Deficits, and Learned Associations
Sober Powered Skills Episode: Do This Daily to Turn Back On Your Brain
https://www.soberpowered.com/skills
Sober Support:
Community & Meetings: Living a Sober Powered Life https://www.soberpowered.com/membership
Anger Management Program https://www.soberpowered.com/anger
Weekly emails on Thursdays https://www.soberpowered.com/email
Free resources https://www.soberpowered.com/free
Thank you for supporting this show by supporting my sponsors. Learn more:
https://www.soberpowered.com/sponsors
If you enjoyed this episode please consider buying me a coffee to support my work https://www.buymeacoffee.com/soberpowered
Sources are posted on my website
Disclaimer: all of the information described in this podcast is my interpretation of the research combined with my opinion. This is not medical advice.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices -
E223: 6 Common Triggers for Drinking and How to Avoid Them
There are triggers to drink everywhere, but I’ve seen 6 common ones that mess up people’s attempts to get sober. In this episode I’ll explain what these are and how you can start dealing with them. I’m going to start our discussion with a personal lesson I learned about giving up when things get hard. We also need to learn how to push through discomfort, come out the other side, and build our confidence.
What to listen to next
E199: frustration tolerance
E216: 4 types of impulsivity (giving up quickly)
E157: brain fog and fatigue
E206: HALT: hungry, angry, lonely, tired
Sober Support:
Community & Meetings: Living a Sober Powered Life https://www.soberpowered.com/membership
Anger Management Program https://www.soberpowered.com/anger
Sober Powered Skills (bonus episodes with practical application and coping skills) https://www.soberpowered.com/skills
Weekly emails on Thursdays https://www.soberpowered.com/email
Free resources https://www.soberpowered.com/free
Thank you for supporting this show by supporting my sponsors. Learn more:
https://www.soberpowered.com/sponsors
If you enjoyed this episode please consider buying me a coffee to support my work https://www.buymeacoffee.com/soberpowered
Sources are posted on my website
Disclaimer: all of the information described in this podcast is my interpretation of the research combined with my opinion. This is not medical advice.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices