6 Things To Expect At 6 Months Alcohol Free

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Stop Drinking Podcast, where we help
you make stopping drinking asimple, logical and easy
decision.
We help you with tips, toolsand strategies to start living
your best life when alcohol-free.
If you want to learn more aboutstop drinking coaching, then
head over to wwwsoberclearcom.

(00:21):
If you stopped drinking alcoholfor six months, what can you
expect?
Well, after not drinking myselffor almost seven years and
through helping hundreds ofclients get to the six-month
mark, I'm going to unpack sixthings that you can expect when
you go six months alcohol-free.
Hey, but listen, I'm not goingto be some motivational speaker
here.
That's just going to be like,hey, things are going to be

(00:41):
great, happy days.
No, I'm actually going to giveyou some of the things that you
might not expect to happen, butI want to do it.
So you're prepared.
Don't get me wrong.
Good things are going to happen.
But the fifth thing that I'mgoing to talk to you about I
mean that one is going to betouchy, but it could save you,
so make sure to watch thisentire video.
A very quick introduction.
My name is Leon Sylvester.
I'm the founder of SoberClear.
We're a coaching company thathelps business owners.

(01:03):
We help professionals.
We help people get control oftheir drinking quickly.
We have a totally new methodand if you want to understand
how it works, I've just finishedoff a totally new video
training that shows you how itworks, but it also breaks down
the science behind the method.
What we do is totally differentto everything else out there
and in this new video trainingis actually break down the
findings of what this academicpsychologist found, who we

(01:24):
commissioned to go and study theefficacy of our new method.
So if you want to access avideo training that shows you
how to use it and shows you thefindings of this report, just
click the link down below to goand watch that.
There's nothing for sale onthat video.
It's totally free, but it willshow you a new way to control
your drinking fast.
So what I'm going to ignore atthis point now is what method

(01:44):
you've chosen to use, becausethe thing is is there are
different ways to stop drinking.
Some people are going to havestopped drinking with willpower,
right.
Some of you are going to haveused AA meetings.
Some of you might be watchingthis video just purely curious
about what you could expect atsix months.
So I'm going to ignoreintricacies of different methods
and stuff like that.
So I'm just going to presumeyou've stopped drinking and not
think about the methods.
So the first thing that you canexpect at the six-month mark is

(02:07):
energy levels have started tostabilize.
So what can happen when you stopdrinking is the first week you
can feel slightly rough, you canfeel pretty down, you can feel
pretty lethargic and it's kindof like this whiplash, because
you've been drinking, you'vebeen elevating your dopamine
through a drug.
Then all of a sudden theartificial dopamine's gone.

(02:28):
So you can end up with thiskind of crash.
And this all depends on theindividual, right.
But by the six month markthings start stabilizing.
Now, for me my energy came backalmost instantly.
But you know, I stoppeddrinking in my twenties.
I didn't stop drinking in myfifts or my 60s, and I've worked
with clients who have drank for50 years.
Right, they've drank theirentire life.
So for them it was a verydifferent process.

(02:49):
It took time for them to kindof feel normal.
So by the six-month mark, 99.9%of people, the energy will be
fixed, they'll feel totallynormal and it'll feel stable.
But it all depends on theindividual.
The months leading up to thatit can fluctuate.
We have good days, we have baddays.
It all just depends on theperson, and, alongside energy
levels, other good things starthappening, like general

(03:10):
well-being starts to just bethere.
You just feel good aboutyourself and also your mood
generally stabilizes around thispoint as well.
But what you can really expectat six months is pretty much
every single person across theboard will start to feel stable
and again, like I said, for me,that happened within the first
week.
For others it can take sixmonths, but by this point you're
stable Now.

(03:30):
The second thing you can expectis now.
This isn't going to be relevantto everybody, but it was
definitely relevant to me butthings like anxiety and
depression should have lessened.
Now I'm not here to diagnosepeople with things like this.
All I can really do with thisis share my own experience.
What I found is that when Idrank alcohol is I would often
get like this crippling anxiety,and it would always happen Like

(03:51):
the night after a heavy night.
I'd wake up the next day and Iwould just feel so anxious.
They call it anxiety, and whenI stopped drinking alcohol, I
made a video about this, likewhen I was maybe one year sober.
But what I found is that itwasn't this miracle cure.
Anxiety is typically about afear of something happening in
the future.
Not always right, but a lot ofthe times we feel anxious about

(04:12):
the future.
And when I stopped drinkingalcohol there were still so many
unknowns.
My life was still a disaster.
I destroyed everything.
I destroyed my business, Idestroyed a relationship, I'd
run out of money, I was in a badplace, and just by stopping
drinking alcohol didn'tmiraculously fix my entire life
like that.
But what happened is I justkept putting one step in front
of the other and just slowlystarted rebuilding things.

(04:34):
That fear of the future startedto drop dramatically.
But I'm not saying there weren'tdays in that first six months
where I didn't get anxious.
There were, but by the sixmonth point it lessened
dramatically.
The same with depressionsymptoms.
Now, I don't think I ever trulysuffered with depression, but
when I drank I did feeldepressed.
I'm not saying I would everhave been necessarily clinically
diagnosed with that disorder,but when I stopped drinking

(04:56):
alcohol, like any depressivesymptoms, they pretty much just
went out the window.
Anxiety was a little bit of adifferent kind of thing, but
feelings of depression for me Ithink they just completely
disappeared.
I don't think I felt depressedin stopping once.
So for me, I know that therewas a massive link to feeling
crap and drinking alcohol, butby the six-month point these
kind of things they should havedropped dramatically.

(05:18):
I'm not saying that they'regoing to go away completely, but
alcohol often exacerbates thesetwo things.
The third thing at the six-monthmark is the trust in your
relationships will have startedto rebuild.
Now I don't know exactly whereyou are in your journey.
Right, I've worked with peoplewho have drank for years.
You know alcohol has strainedso many of their relationships

(05:38):
and they're kind of beyondrepair.
I've also worked with peoplewhose marriage was really on the
rocks and you know they were ata place where, you know, the
wife was just so upset with them, the husband was so upset with
them, but they were willing togive them another chance.
So, whilst I can't promiseanything at six months, what I
typically see happening amongstthe people that I work with and
in my own life is that the trustthat you've lost in certain

(06:00):
relationships because of alcoholis starting to rebuild.
My daughter is absolutelydelighted with me and she
actually said you know, I've gotmy dad back, which was an
awesome thing, because I didn'tknow.
You know I've told you before Ididn't realise they'd gone.
My relationship with my wife is, I mean, just a 180 degrees.
It's just been phenomenal.
My marriage has definitely beenso much better.

(06:21):
My wife and I are just on acompletely different level.
My kids are very supportiveBecause, instead of you
promising somebody you're notgoing to drink.
You're now six months without adrink, because a lot of the
times when it comes torelationships is I don't know
about you, but I've told myfriends and family a million
times that I'm going to stopdrinking alcohol, only to let
them down.
But when I finally did it and Istayed sober, they're starting

(06:42):
to think all right, he's forreal this time and it's a great
feeling.
But on this topic ofrelationships, it's not just
about your externalrelationships.
The other amazing thing thatstarts happening is the
relationship you have withyourself improves in ways that
you cannot imagine.
I tried to stop drinking for 10years, so can you imagine the
relationship I had with myself?
I kept trying to stop, I keptmaking promises to myself and I

(07:04):
kept breaking them.
So when I finally stoppeddrinking and I went six months
without drinking, I felt thisnew belief in myself.
Now, that actually happenedreally early on, I felt that
self-trust come back.
I don't know in the first week,but by six months I had so much
trust in myself that I couldstart thinking bigger.
I started setting bigger goals.
I started thinking, okay, if Icould do this, I could do that,

(07:28):
if I could do that, I could dothis.
And I started rebuildingself-confidence and self-trust
and that was one of the bestthings that happened to me, and
I hear that all the time withthe people that I work with.
The fourth thing to expect isthe and now this is where I'm
going to start getting realisticwith you.
At around the six-month mark,you will start to feel grounded
in your decision to not drink,but you will still think about
drinking alcohol.
It is impossible to not thinkabout drinking alcohol.

(07:50):
I don't know if you've readStop Drinking Books before, but
they'll always bring up thistopic.
You cannot stop thinking aboutalcohol.
We live in a world that isdominated by this drug.
It's in every supermarket, it'sin every TV show you watch,
it's in every movie.
The world is dominated by thisdrug and whether you're a week
sober, six months sober,sometimes even people that are
three years sober, you'll stillget these thoughts of drinking.

(08:11):
But I wanted to let you knowthat these thoughts are totally
normal.
During the first year of mestopping drinking is, I'd get
the thoughts a lot moreregularly and then over time
they just dropped until it waslike every six months.
And then, after a year of notdrinking is, maybe I'd think
about drinking, like I don'tknow three times a year.
Then it might have been everyyear and, to be honest, I think
the last time I thought aboutdrinking alcohol was like two or

(08:32):
three years ago now, like itjust is out of my head.
But during those first sixmonths you can expect those
thoughts to come up.
But the important thing is whatyou do with the thought.
If you start thinking aboutalcohol and start thinking that
you're missing out by notdrinking, then it's a recipe for
disaster.
But if you can counteract thosethoughts with feelings of like
okay, what I'm doing is awesome,and if you've truly reframed

(08:53):
the way that you view alcohol,those thoughts can actually be
very positive because it canremind you of the amazing
decision that you've made ratherthan make you feel like you're
missing out on something.
Now, again, this is somethingthat I specialize on doing If
you want to go and learn moreabout the program, the method,
how I actually help people.
Go and watch that free videotraining that shows you more
about the reframing process thatwe use.
So you can click the link inthe description to go and learn

(09:14):
about the report, the method,all that stuff.
But just expect some thoughtsto come up and maybe even expect
some kind of emotional wobble.
I told you I wasn't going to be100% positive, but I want to be
realistic, which leads me tothe fifth point.
Now this one is going to be theharshest of all, but it's the
most important.
So please pay close attention.
Once you reach the six-monthmark, you will feel normal.

(09:35):
What I mean by this is notdrinking alcohol will just be
your new baseline.
See, when you first stopdrinking alcohol, you'll go
through this temporary dip thatcan last a few days, maybe a
couple of weeks, but then whatwill happen is that you will
then start feeling good and inyour memory you'll remember how
bad things were.
So you have this very clearpoint of contrast, and what can

(09:55):
happen is, over the first fewmonths of stopping drinking
alcohol is you're just feelingbetter and better and better.
But there will be a point,maybe at the six month mark,
maybe at the three month mark,but you'll get to a point where
things just stabilize.
You just feel normal.
This is your new baseline, andwhat happens at this point is we
forget what it was like, weforget about the pain, we forget
about the hangovers, we forgetabout the upset relationships

(10:17):
and everything just feels kindof normal.
But that severe contrast thatyou had when you were first
getting started has gone.
So one of the most powerfulthings that you can do is never
forget why you're doing this.
What I get all my clients to dois write down 10 reasons why
they're committed to actuallygoing through with this, so they
can look back at this sixmonths down the road when those
thoughts are coming back.

(10:38):
Because, trust me, I've beenthere.
I've been six months sober,I've done it with willpower, and
then that thought came back andthen boom, I'm straight back to
drinking again.
Before you know it, life's backto ground zero.
But I want to warn you thatthings will just feel normal.
You'll almost forget that youdrank.
Now the sixth and final thing.
I really want to leave this ona positive note, but I just
wanted to be realistic with you.
But the sixth and final thingis this If you're six months

(10:59):
sober and you make it to sixmonths, firstly, congratulations
.
But what you've got to realizeis this is just the beginning.
Six months of not drinking isawesome.
It's an achievement, right?
It's a great thing to get to.
But I'm telling you, once youget that long-term sobriety

(11:20):
right One year, two years, fiveyears, 10 years I just don't
think you know how good life canbecome.
See, a lot of the people whoI've helped had no idea what
they were capable of.
So just keep focused, keeplocked in, keep the momentum
going.
Thanks for checking out theStop Drinking Podcast by Sober
Clear.
If you want to learn more abouthow we work with people to help
them stop drinking effortlessly, then make sure to visit
wwwsoberclearcom.