Tribe Sober - inspiring an alcohol-free life!
My guest this week is an inspiring young man - Liam is a Brit who is now living in Germany. He began drinking at 13 and finds himself in early recovery in his 30's.
In this Episode
- Liam’s first experience of alcohol was at 13 when he downed half a litre of vodka and promptly passed out
- That experience would put many people off but in fact he was keen to do it again and carried on drinking heavily – keen to fit in with his skateboarding crowd.
- At 16 he left home to gain more freedom and that’s when drugs entered the mix.
- By the age of 24 he knew he had a problem on his hands and he did try to sober up now and again – problem was every time he did this his relapses would be serious – anything from a week to a month when he would be drinking from the moment he woke up – to the time he went to bed.
- Alcohol took Liam to a very dark place – he felt he had created a horrible life for himself and he just wanted to escape it.
- He had suicidal thoughts which were being fuelled by alcohol.
- In 2018 he started journaling - he would read back over the pages and see the pain in the words – he knew he had to do something or he would not survive.
- He chose an unusual method to get sober (one that is certainly not in our toolkit!) – he decided to move to a different country!
- Liam moved to Germany, where he re-invented himself as Sober Liam – he created an entirely new friend circle – anyone who didn’t accept his sobriety just didn’t fit in with his new life
- This approach reminds me of the “Pregnancy Principle” which Laura McKowan talks about in her book “We are the Luckiest”. She says treat your sobriety as a pregnancy – it has to be protected above anything else. Anybody or anything that doesn’t fit in with your sobriety has to go!
- In spite of his resolve it was obviously not an easy path and a few months into sobriety Liam wanted to drink – "to have a bit of fun" as he puts it.
- He powered through this difficult patch and started writing – the writing really helped him. He was writing about sobriety and it gave him some accountability.
- He was researching his articles and educating himself about the harm that alcohol does to us which also helped him to resist it.
- Liam is such a talented writer and I discovered him via his articles on Medium – his Soberversary is next month so I’m hoping he will write a "Goodbye to Alcohol" letter for our collection.
- If you haven’t discovered our "Goodbye to Alcohol" letters yet then please go to tribesober.com and hit Inspiration
- We talked about Liam's future – he has many happy and healthy years ahead of him which certainly wouldn’t have been the case had he still been drinking!
He even gave us a few tips…
- Find a community of people on the same path – people who will understand you. If you broadcast your sobriety to all your family and friends too early then you may find they are not all supportive.
- Have your story ready - sound confident when you say you’re not drinking – people will be less likely to persist.
- Accept the fact that you will never be able to drink and make it a priority for a while (back to the pregnancy principle)
- Don’t wait until you hit rock bottom!
- Spend time alone - search for activities which will bring you joy
- Here at Tribe Sober we start our annual 66 day challenge on 27 September - Sober Spring here in South Africa but can be a Sober Autumn as well!
- Membership also allows you to find your people as we welcome you into our supportive community - and this month new members will get a complimentary Sober Spring Challenge
- Just go to tribesober.com and hit the "join our tribe" button to read more about the benefits of membership
More info
- Subscription membership for Tribe Sober join up HERE
- To access our website click HERE
- If you would like a free copy of our "Annual Tracker" or our e-book "66 Days to Sobriety" please email janet@tribesober.com
- If you would like to come to our Saturday afternoon Zoom Cafe as a guest and meet our community just email janet@tribesober.com
Episode Sponsor
This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program. If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then sign up today
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Thank you for listening!
Till Next Week
Janet x
