How to Power Through When You Want to Give Up (E55)
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Gill discusses what to do when horrible things happen in your life and all you want to do is give up. She experienced something pretty bad recently, and has had similar experiences twice when she was drinking. In this episode, she walks you through how she handled this situation in all 3 occasions, how she handled it differently now that she is sober, how she resisted the urge to give up and drink it away, and what you can do to stay strong and move through pain when life gets hard.
Key Takeaways
When we drink to deal with trauma or bad experiences we extend our suffering. If we would just allow ourselves to actually deal with things, then we can get through it. Drinking only delays and intensifies our suffering.
Bad or stressful things happen in our lives all the time, and if mild stressors are making you want to give up on life, then you need to work on your emotional sobriety because that can be overcome and you can increase your tolerance for stress.
Whatever you feel compelled to do to process it, ask yourself, is this self-sabotage? It probably is. Choose something that isn’t self-sabotage and do that instead. You may be wording it as giving up, but binge drinking is really just self-sabotage. Note: this takes some self-awareness so if you’re not there in your emotional sobriety journey, then just keep working towards it.
Sources
Jia T, Xie C, Banaschewski T, et al. Neural network involving medial orbitofrontal cortex and dorsal periaqueductal gray regulation in human alcohol abuse. Science Advances. 2021;7(6):eabd4074.
Know Your Brain: Periaqueductal Gray. Neuroscientifically Challenged. 2016.
Ben Baumberg Geiger, George MacKerron. Can alcohol make you happy? A subjective wellbeing approach. Social Science & Medicine, 2016; 156: 184
American Addiction Centers Editorial Staff. Drunk in the Moment: We Can’t Drink Reality Away. DrugAbuse. 2016.
Cite this episode
Tietz, G. Episode 55: How to Power Through When You Want to Give Up. Sober Powered. 2021.
