The Not Drinking Alcohol Today Podcast
Meg and Bella discuss the ups and downs of navigating an alcohol free life in Australia's alcohol centric culture. This highly rated podcast, featuring in Australia's top 100 self improvement podcasts, is a must for those that are trying to drink less alcohol but need some motivation, are curious about sober life or who are sober but are looking for some extra reinforcement. The Not Drinking Alcohol Today pod provides an invaluable resource to keep you motivated and on track today and beyond. Meg and Bella's guests include neuroscientists, quit-lit authors, journalists, health experts, alcohol coaches and everyday people who have struggled with alcohol but have triumphed over it. Our aim is to support and inspire you to reach your goals to drink less or none at all! Meg and Bella are This Naked Mind Certified Coaches (plus nutritionists and counsellors respectively) who live in Sydney.
The Not Drinking Alcohol Today Podcast
Talking alcohol and relationships with Lauren O'Hanlon
Lauren O'Hanlon shares her powerful journey from teen blackouts to a turning point that reshaped her life. Navigating the pressures of motherhood, “mommy wine culture,” and a near-divorce, she realised something had to change. Now two and a half years alcohol free, Lauren opens up about transforming her relationship, healing her identity, and finding freedom in making alcohol “small and irrelevant.” Tune in to hear how she turned pain into purpose as a sobriety coach helping others do the same.
MEG
Web: https://www.meganwebb.com.au/
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/meganwebbcoaching/
Unwined Bookclub: https://www.alcoholfreedom.com.au/unwinedbookclub
ConnectAF group coaching: https://www.elizaparkinson.com/groupcoaching
Sober Summit FREE ticket: https://soberlifecollective.spiffy.co/a/wZETXqkEdk/3495
BELLA
Web: https://isabellaferguson.com.au
Insta: @alcoholcounsellorisabella
Bi-Yearly 6-Week Small Group Challenges: Learn more: https://www.isabellaferguson.com.au/feb-2025-challenge
Free Do I Have A Drinking Problem 3 x Video Series: https://resources.isabellaferguson.com.au/offers/JTFFgjJL/checkout
Free HOW DO I STOP DRINKING SO MUCH Masterclass: https://resources.isabellaferguson.com.au/offers/7fvkb3FF/checkout
Online Alcohol Self-Paced Co...
Hi guys, it's Meg here. I'm just jumping on really quickly. Before my interview, I wanted to tell you about an amazing event that's coming up at the end of April. It's called the Sober Summit. I am thrilled to be a speaker at it this year. There are 24 of us speaking.
Speaker 1:I have had this as a goal for a long time and I'm just so honoured to be part of it. The tickets are free and with the free ticket, you will get access for 24 hours to the talks. There are three days and eight speakers each day. If you did want to upgrade 87 US you will get access to the talks for a year and you will also get an incredible amount of freebies. I'm not here to sell it. I'm here to tell you that it is just. It's beyond comprehension what's on offer. I have been a part of this for the last three summits as a participant, and I have jumped at everything because there is just so much to learn and it's so inspiring.
Speaker 1:I will put the link in the show notes, so, whatever platform you're listening on, go to the episode and it will come up with Bella and my links. The link to the Sober Summit will be below mine. Remember, it is a free ticket and it's your choice to upgrade. I just wanted to share with the listeners because you will know my story. I couldn't speak in front of people, this is a talk over Zoom, but it is a wide audience and it's definitely a challenge and a goal I had set for myself. So thank you all for getting me to this point. Please check it out. There's just so much value in this amazing three-day event. All righty on to my interview Today, I have my friend and fellow coach, lauren O'Hanlon. So good to have you here here, lo, how are you?
Speaker 2:I'm good, good, glad to be here.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Can we start by you telling us a bit about your story and how you got to here?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So you know my story. It starts in my teens. My family, they love to drink, irish Catholic family, and so you know there was always, you know, my parents were successful business owners and I would see them drink wine after work every night and so I just kind of correlated oh, that's what grownups do you know, that's how they unwind, and yeah. So I mean I had my first drink at a 311 concert when I was maybe 13, 14 years old and there was, you know, we were with one of my girlfriends, one of her older brother and sister and all of their friends.
Speaker 2:And so it was just kind of the cool thing to do, right, and it just it tasted so bad. It tasted so bad. But I was like you know what? Everybody else that's doing it. I like this girl's really cool talking to her, so it must be something that I should be doing. And so throughout high school it was just kind of your weekend parties. You know, if somebody's parents would go out of town, you would walk around with your case of warm beer, you know, cause you can't use the fridge and um, just little things like that.
Speaker 2:You know nothing, nothing crazy, but I did. You know it was in my early years that like I would black out, like I would black out in high school, um, and that just kind of set the tone for my drinking days to come too. Um, so I went off to college, I joined a sorority, I um partied, I did everything that I thought you were supposed to do in college. You know it's like I still made my classes though, but I I really took advantage of not living with mom and dad anymore, of that's where the binge drinking kind of started. You know, on again on weekends, not missing school or anything. But yeah, so college is know in the bartending industry and found something that I loved, that I was really good at and that made a lot of money and that came with a certain like rinse and repeat lifestyle, and so that kind of started in college. And yeah, you know, we would get off work and have drinks and things like that, but in college I never really drank behind the bar. It wasn't. It wasn't that want, that need yet. And so after college I moved up to Chicago and I moved to Wrigleyville, which is right across, like I moved a block away from Wrigley Field and it's just this slew of bars and restaurants and it's just it's a drinking town in the summer especially. So I was a bartender there and that's really really where, like the rubber kind of started hitting the road, like where the rinse and repeat just really started taking hold.
Speaker 2:And you know, I would. I that's also where I would come into work. Maybe if I was working a day shift, I'd come in a little bit hungover and it'd be like, oh well, I'll just put a little bit of Bailey's in my coffee. You know, it just kind of started small and things like that, and people would want to buy you shots from. You know like patrons would want to buy you shots and be like, okay, I guess I'll do one, you know, and that started becoming more and more frequent and it but I never really saw anything wrong with it. You know I was surrounded by like minded people who were all doing the exact same thing that I was. You know, we were taking shots, we were blacking out, we were thinking that that like waking up the next day with these stories was something funny. Where it's actually, you know, it's like how many more times do I have to lose a phone or a wallet or my purse or my dignity, right, like, who did I text, who did I call? And yeah.
Speaker 2:So that was kind of like my, my lifestyle in Chicago and that was that brought me up until, like my, my late 20s, and from there I moved down to Fort Lauderdale, florida, and it's it's, it's nickname is Fort Lickerdale. So it's, and it's true, you know it is a beach town with a drinking problem and everybody's on vacation. It is just a lifestyle of you know, there's that hashtag I live where you vacation, and that and it's really, really true. So I started bartending down there. I moved down there to get a full time job, use my college degree, but, much to my parents dismay, I went right back to bartending because the money was good, you get free booze, you know all of all of those perks and and I liked, you know, just being out, being social and and it's just always been something that I've enjoyed doing is, you know, speaking to people and whatnot. So got a bartending job on the beach. Got a bartending job on the beach and again lived that lifestyle.
Speaker 2:And while I was a bartender down here, I met my husband, who was also in the bar industry and we all kind of like ran in the same circle. He worked at a bar down the street and it was, it was just a really really alcohol absorbed friendships and relationships. And you know, my relationship with him when we were dating was so toxic when it, when it was, when alcohol was involved, there was, there, wasn't, there wasn't a single thing, a single reason that I wanted to leave when we were sober together. And then you just add alcohol and it was, it was torture and we ended up getting married and it was still. It was still really. You know it was. It was still really. You know it was.
Speaker 2:It was crazy, it was, um, you know, I finally this part of my story. It's funny because, like, I have his okay to talk about this now um, whereas this was something that I was always kind of covering up to maybe protect him and just everything that non-physical, nothing like that, but just very verbal and emotional, and because of that my drinking started ramping up also. So it was like here we are with these like serious, serious issues that involve alcohol, and now this is making me want to drink more and check out more and, you know, just kind of drown my sorrows, like that. And I got pregnant, like we, which was awesome because we were trying, we were trying and I got pregnant with my son and I ended up having two, two babies, in one year. So when, um, yeah, they're one year and 11, 11 days apart technically, so, um, I ended up having them and I I well, I had postpartum depression and all of a sudden I went from like this lifestyle of being out and being social to just being at home with, with an infant and a toddler and you know, just really really feeling stressed out and really, you know, that's kind of where I started to not really care, like I wasn't waking up and drinking by any means and I wasn't drinking all day, but if my kids stressed me out at 10, and I had a champagne split in the fridge, yeah, I would go grab it, you know, and that, really, that really started bothering me.
Speaker 2:Me. And another thing that I started was really noticing how mommy wine culture is a thing it's oh yeah, I mean, I knew all of the moms that would drink with me and and you know, vice versa, like we'd go to the playground and you know, be like, oh yeah, I've got, I've got my mom juice in here, whatever, and you know I look at it now and it's like, for what reason? You know? I remember making myself a vodka and soda. I was totally sober at the time. It was like five o'clock and we had I had to take my my oldest to karate and I was like, oh well, I'll just bring a cocktail there, you know, to get through it and stuff, not really thinking like hey, why do I need to be drinking to get through this? And then B, I'm drinking and driving with my children and like the two things that matter the absolute most to me, and so so there's that.
Speaker 2:But then to just kind of go back to real quick, back to my husband, because that that whole situation is what prompted me to really get curious about about becoming alcohol free. I thought that I was going to divorce him. I got a divorce lawyer and that's when the oh shit factor kind of struck for him and he started kind of doing his part and really cutting back and I started just digging into alcohol and behavior change and things like that and I came across a podcast that like it changed my life and you know I just really started learning the science behind it and why we're addicted or or why, why you know, it's everywhere. Because, like we as a society, hoisted on this pedestal. And I remember hearing on the podcast a few different things that, like I had never, I had no idea like that. It was a cause of anxiety and depression. You know I'd been on antidepressants and that was that. I never correlated it, never, ever correlated it. It was like, oh my God, thank God, I have this wine at night, you know, to kind of just like bring myself back down. But I didn't realize at the time what I was actually doing, that I was making it so much worse.
Speaker 2:Another thing that I learned is that alcohol causes cancer. And my sister, my older sister, she actually passed of cancer and she, when she and when she was diagnosed, she was terminal and the doctors had told her not not to drink alcohol. And I was mind blown because I'm like, are you kidding? You're going to take this away? You're? You're giving her a death sentence and you are telling her not to drink. And I not not even for a split second did I correlate alcohol poison, you know, like feeds cancer, never correlated that.
Speaker 2:And so all of these things, you know I started feeling a little bit like I had been part of the problem, being in the bar industry, pushing those one more drinks and, you know, just just serving it. You know, just just serving it. And and for people that sat at my bar that weren't drinking, I was judging them, like judging them, when in reality, like they knew so much more than I did at the time, I was the naive one. Um, so it it just. You know, yeah, my relationship now, my marriage now I am so happy to say it has. So I'm about two and a half years alcohol free. He's maybe like a year or so. It has never been better. It has. It is, it's a different person, it's a different vibe, it's a different atmosphere for our kids. It is a um, it just it feels right. And you know, that was kind of like I said a little bit earlier. You know I did.
Speaker 2:I got his permission to be able to talk about this because it is part of my journey and and he understands that and he understands what it almost did to our family, and I think that it's just really, really important.
Speaker 2:Sorry, I'm kind of going off on like a little soapbox over here, but I just think it's so important that there are. So I didn't realize how many women are suffering in silence, you know, and like I would hide a wine bottle in my closet because, you know, even though he knew that I might be drinking wine, I didn't want him to know how much I was drinking, you know, I wanted him to think that the glass that he saw me pour was my first glass, even though I don't think that I was really fooling anybody, um, especially, you know, your partner. Um, but it it just, you know, that's kind of kind of my story in a nutshell. It, um, it was just a life of, of a rinse and repeat, and thinking that it was okay that boat rides needed beer, that concerts needed beer, that baby showers, you know, had to have champagne, that you know all of that all of that, oh yeah, wow.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you so much for sharing and being so open. I just relate to so many things that you said and I think, too, it's just so important. I'm glad you brought up the relationship when you're drinking. I'm now divorced and I do get asked, you know, do you think if you'd done this earlier, your marriage would have survived? And it's, you know different things, survived and it's you know different things.
Speaker 1:But the one thing I can say is the the volatility between us when we drank was insane and it was getting worse. And part of um, part of the problem was that the kids saw that and didn't feel safe. And I I think you know domestic violence and that and I'm you know you said no physical, and it's not just physical. The amount of domestic violence that is fueled by alcohol is a huge statistic, you know, and yeah, so for anyone listening that's stuck in that cycle. I, it was when two of you were drinking's just different people, isn't it? You become different people and I just let you know we were as bad as each other, um, but it was. It was not nice. So I think it's a really important conversation and I love that your husband's also alcohol free now, but you've worked through it and you can see the difference. Um, because it's it, it's such, I mean, I totally felt like a different person. I'd wake up, think I would never have said or done those things you know, except that alcohol was involved.
Speaker 2:And it's like it's crazy because you know it's. You know that saying. It's like you never know what happens behind closed doors. But it's true because to everybody else we were fine.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Nobody. You know our, our close friends that I confided in, like my, my, my close friends or friends that had you know whatever they knew, but but customers that knew both of us, you know just, and you try to kind of hide that from family, or at least I did try to make it not as bad, because you don't want your parents to hate the person, and you know. And so when I started coming out with this part of my story, I started getting friends and women that were kind of like me too and and it just it. I mean that coupled with like the, the alcohol part, like how you know that part, I was always a drinker, I was always a drinker, I was always a drinker, but that part really ramped up, my, it was now it wasn't drinking for fun or to unwind, it was drinking to cope, yep, and that feels like a different type of drinking. That's when it doesn't matter what time it starts or you know what. You just want that numb feeling, or that's how I felt.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I totally relate to that. It's. It's like the, you know you were saying the depression and anxiety that you learn gets worse with alcohol. So does the whole relationship thing. You, alcohol makes it worse than you drink. To cover it up, which makes it worse again. I totally relate to that. And, and when people sort of ask me that question, you know, cover it up, which makes it worse again. I totally relate to that. And when people sort of asked me that question, you know, would it have been different? I don't know.
Speaker 1:There were other things as well, but all I know now is that by stopping drinking and working through all you know my issues and doing work on myself has just changed everything and just in any relationship I'm so much better at I respond. I don't react, you know. I think with alcohol the reactions are just bam, bam, you know, and it becomes just this competition to well for me, to, you know, be the loudest or get the final word in or whatever it is. There's so much clarity that's come now with stopping drinking in all my relationships. But I just love that you two are on a different path now and I can imagine the hashtag Me Too. So many people behind closed doors. You know, and I hope this gives people permission to reach out or to whatever, to know they're not alone, because I would say this is, this is a massive problem, like you said, um, alcohol's on a pedestal in our society, so yeah, it's just, it's like it's the, it's for, it's there for everything.
Speaker 2:It's like how do we, how do we, you know? I mean, I look back now, now, and I do know how we justified it. It's because everybody, you know, it's like it's been around for so long and that's what we did, and that's I learned from my parents, who learned from their parents, who learned, you know, and it's a vicious, like hamster wheel cycle. But also, you know the, as you know, like, since we're in this world, like the movement to and like the awareness and just the. I mean, I saw some statistic that alcohol free sales were up like 400 or something percent, which is awesome, you know. It's awesome because we're, we're, we're, we are ingesting poison and we don't realize it, absolutely, we don't realize it and you look at things like cigarettes Everyone knows they're bad.
Speaker 1:You look at the health movement of different. You know you go on Instagram and there's clean eating and raw foods and all that, but alcohol remained. So it's like I actually go. How has it taken this long? But I was one of the people. So you know, drinking, not not paying attention or ignoring. I knew by. You know by the end that it was bad, but I just chose to ignore that. I'll just drink. That thought away, so I completely yeah and it's.
Speaker 2:It's, you know, it was like when, when I started kind of, you know, like our term, the cognitive dissonance, like when I started feeling that it's like I was just, you know, it was like I'm still drinking, but I don't. But now I know that it's bad, but I really, really want one, but it's, you know, and it's like, as I'm pouring it into the glass, I'm like Lauren, what are you doing, you know? And it's just like it's it messes with our minds. And so I I totally get like how people women, moms, you know, men, I mean everybody, it's it doesn't discriminate, stays stuck.
Speaker 1:Oh, totally, totally and yeah, the cognitive dissonance. So Lauren and I both studied with this naked mind and, yes, that fight you have in your head, knowing but doing what you know is not right. But that was so part of the journey. So anyone that's kind of stuck in that is, that is part of the step forward. You know, and we help, we can help people get through that. But, um, also you mentioned at the beginning, which also I related to my first drink.
Speaker 1:I was 18, I was, I was older, but it was a binge drink and I blacked out. So I, when you said you were a blackout drinker from very young I don't often meet people that were from such a young age, but I recognise now I just drank so fast. It was going to happen. But yeah, and I was like you, I went to the UK and I worked in a pub and it didn't worry me, I didn't drink behind the bar because, yeah, it was only when I drank. I just totally drank heaps. But when you were talking about patrons buying you drinks, I suddenly had a memory that in the UK it's like the person would say I'll have a whatever and one for you, and so by the end of a shift we had 15, 20 drinks that had been paid for. Very enticing to work in that industry. We don't do that here in Australia, and until you said that I'd totally forgotten oh my god, I remembered how much.
Speaker 2:I drank. It's crazy. And then like people will back other people up with their drinks and like I don't know if you do this in Australia, but or at least at the bars. I worked out it was an upside down shot glass and it would go right in front of the person, you know, and people would have like five, six, seven shot glasses in front of them just waiting for that beer and you know like, and then, yeah, like you just said, as bartenders, it's like and one for you, you know, and it's like okay, and you know, and when you're wrapped up in that lifestyle, why wouldn't you? Yeah, it's, it's really appealing at the time, exactly.
Speaker 1:I and you also mentioned, you know, living away from home. Away from mom and dad. You could do what you want. I said to my daughter the other day something about living out of home. I was 18. She goes what, why didn't you move out? You know, I've got a 26 year old still living with me and my 19 year old and I said independence. But when you said that, I was like, yes, I could drink without worry, I didn't want to worry my mum, so not having to come home. And even when I did live at home because I did go back on and off, not for long I would stay at someone's house so I didn't worry her. I wanted to be able to drink as much as I wanted, knowing I was a blackout binge drinker. It just opened up the chance to drink more and I'm pleased to see that my daughters aren't doing that. You know it's it's very different to how I was. But, yeah, when you said that, I'm just like, oh, now the memory's coming back.
Speaker 2:Right, well, and when you just said, you know, it's like I would stay at someone's house because so it sounds like you and I had similar drinking styles and so I could never trust myself that I'd be able to, you know, and I got a DUI.
Speaker 2:I got it and that did not teach me. Oh, I did too, cost over ten thousand dollars and it taught me for a little bit, because I had to have an interlock in my car and um, but but in in like after that, after the crap part of it wore off, um, no, I would still. And I wasn't, you know, I wasn't, I wasn't blacking out and drinking and driving at that point, but I was having a couple glasses of wine and driving and it's like, why? How did I not learn my lesson? And, yeah, it's just, it feels really good now to like trust myself, to know that I can drive to a concert if I wanna go and drive myself home, not have to worry about it. It's still, you know, two and a half years later, it still feels weird to be able to do that but it feels so good.
Speaker 1:Oh, my god, it is so good. I had a DUI as well. I was 18 we're allowed to drink at 18 and my parents were away. It's, it's, it's still. I hate to talk about it, because it was a low, low, low point and obviously I'd only started drinking at 18. So it wasn't that I was a problem drinker. It was that when I drank, it was a low, low, low point and obviously I'd only started drinking at 18. So it wasn't that I was a problem drinker. It was that when I drank, I was a problem drinker because I binge drank and I went through a lot of years of anger because I was the idiot that drove. All my friends would have.
Speaker 1:But I am like that, I'll do it, I'll do it and I'm still someone'm still someone that will do things, not not stupid anymore, but I'm, you know, I can see that it was my personality too, and I, I. It upset me because I was the one that had to go through the humiliation, um, and I did the stupid thing I did, but it is so embarrassing to me that I did that. Anyway, it did, it did actually stop. I did not drink and drive again, but I did. I well, I did in my forties, just before I gave up I would drive to the bottle shop after a few drinks, something I said I'd never do, you know. So the cycle, you know, it came back. It took a lot of years, but there I was doing what I said I'd never do and that was one reason I stopped. I thought I don't want to be doing this and I know I'm not alone driving to the bottle shop after a few drinks. I know that.
Speaker 1:But it also worried me, and this worried me back in the day I would get a lot of taxis because I was worried that the next day I'd still be over the limit, and that was I wasn't waking up and drinking, but I knew my blood alcohol level was probably still high and I did drive the next day. I definitely didn't feel drunk like the day before, but I knew I could still have a reading. And so when I was driving to the bottle shop, or in my 40s the next day, when I was driving my kids to school, I got very worried that I'd be that mum on the news that was still over the limit the next day. And that was a massive reason because I didn't have the option to cab it when I was in my 40s because I had kids to drive around. So, like you said, just three, I'm three years just and oh my god, it is so nice. I see rbts like um breath testing police and I go pick me. It's like it's the opposite and now I don't get picked. I mean that.
Speaker 2:I want you to pull me over.
Speaker 1:When was your last drink?
Speaker 2:I want it. It's so liberating to say that too. It's like so freeing to like, not like to be able to say that and to not be worried, like if you know, knock, know, knock on wood, I got pulled over, it's not for drinking. Yes.
Speaker 1:I know, and did you ever take a different route home because you thought the police would be out, like I would go the long way, or a different way, just in case I was still over the limit or whatever it was?
Speaker 1:I did that so often and just the fear, you know just the fear, and I did get pulled over in my 40s and it was at 6 am and I had been drinking the night before and I had my whole family, like my mom and sister, in the car. I was driving them to the airport and I thought this is it, this is it. Well, I wasn't over the limit. I'm pleased to say um, I, but it was that fear and not knowing, and back then I didn't have a breath tester. I think if anyone does have these fears and doesn't want to stop drinking, get test yourself before you drive, because it's, it's not okay, it went against every value I had, the things we did. Oh my gosh, it's just, it is. And, like you said, you know, driving to a concert, parking, getting being able to leave and drive home, or whatever it may be a party, is like yes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I don't think like it. It still feels different and I don't think it'll ever get old, you know, I really don't it's. I was always so worried that, like this I guess this is kind of off on a tangent but I was always so worried that if I stopped drinking that my friends what you know, because all like currently, as I sit here, all of my friends are still in the bartending industry not all of them, but like a big chunk of them and I thought, ok, well, those they're going to think that I'm, you know, weird or boring and not invite me. And I just want anybody that's listening to know that, like, that's actually the opposite of what is going on. They're proud of me, they are, you know, some are reaching out and it's just, it's a, and I don't say that I'm alcohol free with shame anymore.
Speaker 2:I used to be embarrassed, you know, to admit that I didn't drink alcohol or you know, whatever. And it's like I don't like mayonnaise either, and I've heard this comparison before, but it it, it stuck with me because I don't like mayonnaise either and nobody gives an S H I T that I don't like mayonnaise. So why do they care what I am drinking Like why do they, why do they care? Why is it this bonding moment? Like why is it, why does it matter? And and I'm noticing, or I have noticed and and I'm living proof, and it sounds like you know you probably are too that, like our friends, don't care that we don't drink.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, totally. I mean, like you said, if anything, there's pride and and maybe a little bit of envy sometimes, you know, because it's not easy. But yeah, absolutely it's it's. Those fears were mine as well. You know I stop drinking I'll lose my friends or social life will be gone or whatever. But not at all, not at all. So totally, totally relate. But, um, it's so good talking to you and we could natter on all day, but what do you think? I know it's such an interesting topic and I do, you know, love that we did speak a bit about the couple situation, because I think that's a huge problem when you're drinking with your partner. So I just hope people have listened and don't feel so aligned now, but they can reach out to either of us. So what do you, douren? What do you offer?
Speaker 2:um, so I offer one-to-one coaching and um, you can find me at coachlaurenohanloncom and um, group coaching coming soon. And um, yeah, you know, and what I like to offer my clients is just, you know, being there, having done my own journey it's not a straight line and just being able to assure them that, like, they are going to be okay, this is going to be okay. You know, one thing that I had heard in my journey was this is not your fault, and I was like, oh, come on, like this is my fault. This is, you know, I'm the one that's putting the glass up to my mouth and whatnot, but it's actually not, you know, and and your brain plays a bigger role in it. And so, um, you know, just uncovering the science, doing that reframe is, um, it's a beautiful thing. Like to make alcohol small and irrelevant, to like go from somebody who, who couldn't imagine a life without alcohol to just literally not desiring it at all anymore. Um, is is like it's, it's. I just can't put into words how amazing it feels yes, absolutely now.
Speaker 1:I'll put your details in the show notes as well, so everyone can find you and um. But thank you so much for coming on today. It's just been so, so interesting to hear your story and thank you for sharing, and I know a lot of people will resonate with what you've said. So, for those listening, reach out to lauren and um and she can help you through. And you know the, the cognitive dissonance we were talking about, that period of time like when you know, you know that you shouldn't or you don't want to. That's what we can help with. There is hope. We are proof of that and you know. So please reach out to either of us if you, if you, want some help getting through that. Thanks so much.
Speaker 2:Lauren. Thank you so much, Megan, for allowing me to be here. I really appreciate that.
