August 31, 2025 • 11 mins
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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):
So the very first sign is thatyou regularly drink more than
you plan to.
What I mean by this is that yousay I'm going to have one or
two drinks and then you drinksix.
You say I'm going to have halfa bottle of wine and then you
finish the bottle off.
If you do that, that is a signthat you are a high functioning
and I know the title of thisvideo may have used the word
(00:41):
alcoholic, but I'm going to saya high-functioning problem
drinker.
See, we will get into the otherseven signs in a second, but we
need to just kind of go offtrack to come back on so you can
get a more realistic look atthe entire picture.
So if we've not met yet, myname is Leon Sylvester and I run
a coaching company calledSoberClear.
What we do is we help businessowners and professionals get
control of their drinking in aslittle as 24 hours.
(01:04):
Now, it doesn't always happenthat quickly.
In fact, that's quite rare.
Usually it takes around two toseven days, but we help people
do it quickly.
We have a totally new methodthat doesn't involve labeling
people as alcoholics.
What we do is separate theperson from the problem and
attack the problem.
We attack paradigms andworldviews.
So, whilst the title of thisvideo may have said alcoholic,
and whilst there was a period inmy own life when I was
(01:26):
struggling to stop drinking thatI went to AA meetings and
called myself an alcoholic,there is no such thing Now.
If you don't like me tellingyou that, if you think that
you're an alcoholic and youfound success with the 12-step
approach, then this video isprobably not for you.
I'm sorry to say it, but I'mreally talking to people that
don't want to give themselvesthis label.
You might have clicked thisvideo thinking, well, what would
(01:46):
those signs actually look like?
Because I'm not going to try tolike downplay the problem and
say that there's not a problemin signs that come up with
people who have drinking issuesbecause there absolutely are.
But this idea that you are theproblem and that you're an
alcoholic and there's no knowncure for this made up self-help
term, this disease, I'm sorrybut I don't buy into it.
No medical doctor is going tolabel you an alcoholic.
(02:08):
The only way that you canbecome an alcoholic is if you go
to an AA meeting and thendecide if you are one.
But the next seven signs andthe first sign are signs that
you're a high-functioningproblem drinker.
We need to be able to separatethe two things.
We can't just label us as theproblem.
What we need to do is labelalcohol as the problem, the
drink as the problem, not theperson.
You could even argue problemdrinker isn't quite right
(02:31):
because it's still labeling theperson.
So I'm going to say it's aperson who has a problem with
alcohol.
Now, I know this might soundsemantics, but it's pretty damn
important.
Walking around with this labelthat you're an alcoholic to me
is dangerous, because if youbelieve this and you end up
drinking again, what ends uphappening?
Well, I'm the kind of personthat never stops, because I've
told myself when I'm analcoholic for all of these years
(02:52):
.
I don't want to go too deepinto this in this video, but I
know people that I met inmeetings that gave themselves
this label.
They thought they were addicts,they thought they were
alcoholics and then later onthey died from their addiction.
And I'm not blaming the labelfor these things.
These things could havehappened regardless.
But to give myself that labelno chance.
But there are still signs thatyou could be a high-functioning
person who has a problem withalcohol, and I'm not saying that
(03:15):
that problem doesn't needfixing, and I know that might
have sounded like semantics, butto me it can be life or death.
The second sign that you're ahigh-functioning individual who
has a problem with alcohol isthat you say you're going to
stop and then you don't.
Now another quick caveat here,and another side quest that we
kind of just have to go through,is that all of these things are
things that happened in my ownlife.
So I'm not telling you thisfrom a pedestal.
(03:37):
I'm telling you all of thisstuff from experience, as
somebody who drank for close to10 years and who hasn't drank
for seven years.
All of these signs, all of thethings I'm talking to you about,
are things that happened in mylife.
Telling myself that I was goingto stop drinking alcohol and
then failing to stop happenedmore times than I can count.
I can't tell you how many times, because it was infinite.
(03:57):
Every day I'd wake up andpromise myself right, that's it,
never again.
A day later, a week later,whatever three hours later,
sometimes I'm out drinking again, and I know not everybody has
this experience.
I've worked with people who are50 years of age.
They've never thought it was aproblem, and then they suddenly
think what am I doing?
And that's okay.
That wasn't my experience.
My experience is that I wasstopping and starting all the
(04:19):
damn time.
The third sign is that you lieabout your drinking or you try
and hide it.
You would be surprised howcommon this is.
When you drink alcohol, youknow what you're doing is wrong.
You know it hurts the peoplethat you love, but rather than
attack the problem, we justthink that they're never going
to notice.
Right, we can sneak thosedrinks in.
You know, I know people thatthey'll drink vodka because
(04:40):
there's less smell on the breathand maybe the partner doesn't
notice and listen.
I hate to say it, but when itcomes to lying about your
drinking, who are you reallylying to?
That's what we've got to askourselves, because the person
who gets hurt the most from thislie isn't your family or your
children or whoever, it's you,and it's a bitter pill to
swallow.
But lying and hiding yourdrinking is a sign that it might
be time to change.
(05:00):
So number four, and this is thefeeling I lived with for 10
years you might not have beenthere for the whole time that
you've drank for I had it butyou know deep down in your heart
that alcohol isn't helping you.
You know in your heart thatwhat you're doing is wrong.
There's a feeling thatsomething's not quite right, and
(05:20):
when you drink you have to kindof justify it to yourself.
Well, I'm relaxing, you know,I'm winding down after a
stressful day at the office.
I've got a family.
I've got, you know, all thesecrazy things getting thrown at
me 24-7.
I need a drink, but you know inyour heart what you're doing is
wrong.
What I found in my journey isthat feeling was impossible to
shake off.
The longer I drank, the worseit became, because what would
(05:41):
happen is I'd stop drinking,life would go better, I'd add
alcohol back into my life.
And then what do you thinkhappened?
Of course things got worse.
So the longer that I drank, theworse this feeling became,
until it all accumulated intostopping drinking seven years
ago.
I need to remind you thatalcohol is poison.
Alcohol is ethanol right.
If you drink enough of it, itwill put you in a coffin, it
(06:02):
will kill you.
You can overdose on this drugand die.
And if you ask me and you wantmy really honest opinion, I
don't think there's many peopleout there in 2025 and 2026 and
beyond that are drinking alcoholand thinking this is a good
idea.
I think people are starting towake up and I think that the
more that this is spreading andthe more people that are talking
about not drinking alcohol, themore that other people are
(06:23):
starting to question theirrelationship with this highly
toxic and addictive drug.
So, number five, the fifth sign,is that you play it out
mentally and you know thatthings aren't looking good.
What I mean by this is that ifyou really sit down and be
honest with yourself and you askyourself if my drinking
continues to increase or Imaintain this same level for the
(06:43):
next 15, 20 years, and you'retruly honest with yourself and
you see where it's going and youknow it ain't looking good, but
you still avoid solving theproblem, man, I just hate to say
it, but you've got an issueright.
There is an addiction there,because that's what all of this
is.
These signs are basically youburying the truth in exchange
for being addicted to a drug.
(07:04):
Think about it like this Justimagine you had this super
intelligent species that werejust so healthy and they could
look down at earth and they'dsee the wars, they'd see all the
chaos, whatever.
But then they'd see people drinkalcohol.
They'd be like what on earth isgoing on?
These people are consumingpoison.
What are they doing?
And I know that sounds like aweird kind of thought experiment
, but just think about itlogically.
(07:26):
Remove the emotion, remove theconditioning, remove all these
marketing messages and imagine ababy doing this.
A baby's never going to do this.
A baby's never going to putthis poison in their body and
think it's a good idea.
It only seems to happen when webecome adults, when we mature
right, because we all know inour heart where this is going.
Alcohol adds nothing to yourlife.
It's a carcinogen and all itdoes is accumulate bad things in
(07:48):
your body.
But it's an addiction andthat's another bitter pill to
swallow.
I know this video is probablynot the easiest one I've ever
made for you to listen to.
So number six, and this one isthe biggest one of all to me.
I don't know about you, but I'msure that you've got people in
your life that look up to you.
It doesn't matter how old youare, it doesn't matter how
successful you are.
You will be seen as a leader tosome people maybe your children
(08:09):
, a cousin, a friend and if youknow when you drink alcohol that
you are not setting the kind ofexample that you want to set to
them and you keep drinkingalcohol, sorry that you want to
set to them and you keepdrinking alcohol.
Sorry, but again, it's a huge,huge red flag.
Maybe you're functioning right,maybe you've got a good life
Things aren't that bad.
But if you have people in yourlife that look up to you and you
love, do you want them to drinkalcohol the way that you drink
(08:30):
it?
If the answer is no and youcontinue drinking alcohol, I'm
and me and my brother actuallyhave a 14-year age gap.
When I drank alcohol, I alwaysused to think of him because he
was young, growing up, and Ialways used to think I don't
really want to set an example assomebody that drinks alcohol to
this young man.
I want to show him health,right Fitness, success, career,
(08:52):
business.
I want to set that kind ofexample to him.
I don't want to set the exampleof.
It's okay to go and get smashedon a Friday night if you don't
like your life and get smashedon a Friday night if you don't
like your life.
I don't want to do that.
I want to set the example of ifyou've got a problem, deal with
the problem head on.
Don't bury it, don't bury youremotions through drinking
alcohol.
Fix your life.
That was almost the messagethat I wanted to give to him Now
.
I drank alcohol while my brotherwas growing up, but this one it
(09:14):
was like carrying a weightaround all the time.
I wanted to set a qualityexample to him, not one where
somebody's drinking alcohol.
It just wasn't what I wanted todo.
And I'm not judging right.
I'm not saying that my way isbetter than anybody else's.
I'm sure there's plenty ofbrothers and parents and people
out there that are far better atthe job than I am and they
drink and they set an evenbetter example.
But the whole point that I'mtrying to make here is that if
(09:36):
you know that when you drinkalcohol, you're not setting the
right example to the people thatyou love, but you keep doing it
I'm sorry to say it, but it'sanother sign, number seven, and
please make sure to stay tunedto the very last sign, because
the last sign is what all ofthis is built upon.
But you keep telling yourselfthat you'll do this later.
It's the old thing of like thediet starts Monday.
(09:56):
Right, I'll deal with thisafter the holiday, after the
wedding, after this stressfulevent, when life's calmed down,
then I can fix the problem.
And this is all built on thenext point that I'm going to get
into.
But if you keep tellingyourself I'll deal with this
later, I'll deal with this later, and then it never ends up
happening.
I'm sorry, but there is somelevel of addiction there.
But everything here is built onthe eighth sign.
The eighth sign that you're ahigh-functioning person who has
(10:19):
a problem with alcohol.
Let's separate the two together.
But the eighth sign is thatyou're afraid of what life would
look without drinking alcohol.
Fear is the foundation ofeverything.
People that drink alcohol areafraid of stopping because
they're afraid of what lifewould look if they don't drink.
Now, this is the exact problemthat my program fixes.
We remove the fear.
(10:39):
So stopping drinking becomes achoice.
There's no fighting, there's nowillpower, there's no begging
God to help you.
It becomes a logical choice.
But everything is built on thisfoundation of fear that somehow
, if I remove alcohol from mylife, then life's going to be
worse off, I'm not going to beable to deal with stress, I'm
not going to be able tosocialize, etc.
Etc.
Etc.
Thanks for checking out theStop Drinking Podcast by Sober
(11:01):
Clear.
If you want to learn more abouthow we work with people to help
them stop drinking effortlessly, then make sure to visit
wwwsoberclearcom.
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):
So the very first sign is thatyou regularly drink more than
you plan to.
What I mean by this is that yousay I'm going to have one or
two drinks and then you drinksix.
You say I'm going to have halfa bottle of wine and then you
finish the bottle off.
If you do that, that is a signthat you are a high functioning
and I know the title of thisvideo may have used the word
(00:41):
alcoholic, but I'm going to saya high-functioning problem
drinker.
See, we will get into the otherseven signs in a second, but we
need to just kind of go offtrack to come back on so you can
get a more realistic look atthe entire picture.
So if we've not met yet, myname is Leon Sylvester and I run
a coaching company calledSoberClear.
What we do is we help businessowners and professionals get
control of their drinking in aslittle as 24 hours.
(01:04):
Now, it doesn't always happenthat quickly.
In fact, that's quite rare.
Usually it takes around two toseven days, but we help people
do it quickly.
We have a totally new methodthat doesn't involve labeling
people as alcoholics.
What we do is separate theperson from the problem and
attack the problem.
We attack paradigms andworldviews.
So, whilst the title of thisvideo may have said alcoholic,
and whilst there was a period inmy own life when I was
(01:26):
struggling to stop drinking thatI went to AA meetings and
called myself an alcoholic,there is no such thing Now.
If you don't like me tellingyou that, if you think that
you're an alcoholic and youfound success with the 12-step
approach, then this video isprobably not for you.
I'm sorry to say it, but I'mreally talking to people that
don't want to give themselvesthis label.
You might have clicked thisvideo thinking, well, what would
(01:46):
those signs actually look like?
Because I'm not going to try tolike downplay the problem and
say that there's not a problemin signs that come up with
people who have drinking issuesbecause there absolutely are.
But this idea that you are theproblem and that you're an
alcoholic and there's no knowncure for this made up self-help
term, this disease, I'm sorrybut I don't buy into it.
No medical doctor is going tolabel you an alcoholic.
(02:08):
The only way that you canbecome an alcoholic is if you go
to an AA meeting and thendecide if you are one.
But the next seven signs andthe first sign are signs that
you're a high-functioningproblem drinker.
We need to be able to separatethe two things.
We can't just label us as theproblem.
What we need to do is labelalcohol as the problem, the
drink as the problem, not theperson.
You could even argue problemdrinker isn't quite right
(02:31):
because it's still labeling theperson.
So I'm going to say it's aperson who has a problem with
alcohol.
Now, I know this might soundsemantics, but it's pretty damn
important.
Walking around with this labelthat you're an alcoholic to me
is dangerous, because if youbelieve this and you end up
drinking again, what ends uphappening?
Well, I'm the kind of personthat never stops, because I've
told myself when I'm analcoholic for all of these years
(02:52):
.
I don't want to go too deepinto this in this video, but I
know people that I met inmeetings that gave themselves
this label.
They thought they were addicts,they thought they were
alcoholics and then later onthey died from their addiction.
And I'm not blaming the labelfor these things.
These things could havehappened regardless.
But to give myself that labelno chance.
But there are still signs thatyou could be a high-functioning
person who has a problem withalcohol, and I'm not saying that
(03:15):
that problem doesn't needfixing, and I know that might
have sounded like semantics, butto me it can be life or death.
The second sign that you're ahigh-functioning individual who
has a problem with alcohol isthat you say you're going to
stop and then you don't.
Now another quick caveat here,and another side quest that we
kind of just have to go through,is that all of these things are
things that happened in my ownlife.
So I'm not telling you thisfrom a pedestal.
(03:37):
I'm telling you all of thisstuff from experience, as
somebody who drank for close to10 years and who hasn't drank
for seven years.
All of these signs, all of thethings I'm talking to you about,
are things that happened in mylife.
Telling myself that I was goingto stop drinking alcohol and
then failing to stop happenedmore times than I can count.
I can't tell you how many times, because it was infinite.
(03:57):
Every day I'd wake up andpromise myself right, that's it,
never again.
A day later, a week later,whatever three hours later,
sometimes I'm out drinking again, and I know not everybody has
this experience.
I've worked with people who are50 years of age.
They've never thought it was aproblem, and then they suddenly
think what am I doing?
And that's okay.
That wasn't my experience.
My experience is that I wasstopping and starting all the
(04:19):
damn time.
The third sign is that you lieabout your drinking or you try
and hide it.
You would be surprised howcommon this is.
When you drink alcohol, youknow what you're doing is wrong.
You know it hurts the peoplethat you love, but rather than
attack the problem, we justthink that they're never going
to notice.
Right, we can sneak thosedrinks in.
You know, I know people thatthey'll drink vodka because
(04:40):
there's less smell on the breathand maybe the partner doesn't
notice and listen.
I hate to say it, but when itcomes to lying about your
drinking, who are you reallylying to?
That's what we've got to askourselves, because the person
who gets hurt the most from thislie isn't your family or your
children or whoever, it's you,and it's a bitter pill to
swallow.
But lying and hiding yourdrinking is a sign that it might
be time to change.
(05:00):
So number four, and this is thefeeling I lived with for 10
years you might not have beenthere for the whole time that
you've drank for I had it butyou know deep down in your heart
that alcohol isn't helping you.
You know in your heart thatwhat you're doing is wrong.
There's a feeling thatsomething's not quite right, and
(05:20):
when you drink you have to kindof justify it to yourself.
Well, I'm relaxing, you know,I'm winding down after a
stressful day at the office.
I've got a family.
I've got, you know, all thesecrazy things getting thrown at
me 24-7.
I need a drink, but you know inyour heart what you're doing is
wrong.
What I found in my journey isthat feeling was impossible to
shake off.
The longer I drank, the worseit became, because what would
(05:41):
happen is I'd stop drinking,life would go better, I'd add
alcohol back into my life.
And then what do you thinkhappened?
Of course things got worse.
So the longer that I drank, theworse this feeling became,
until it all accumulated intostopping drinking seven years
ago.
I need to remind you thatalcohol is poison.
Alcohol is ethanol right.
If you drink enough of it, itwill put you in a coffin, it
(06:02):
will kill you.
You can overdose on this drugand die.
And if you ask me and you wantmy really honest opinion, I
don't think there's many peopleout there in 2025 and 2026 and
beyond that are drinking alcoholand thinking this is a good
idea.
I think people are starting towake up and I think that the
more that this is spreading andthe more people that are talking
about not drinking alcohol, themore that other people are
(06:23):
starting to question theirrelationship with this highly
toxic and addictive drug.
So, number five, the fifth sign,is that you play it out
mentally and you know thatthings aren't looking good.
What I mean by this is that ifyou really sit down and be
honest with yourself and you askyourself if my drinking
continues to increase or Imaintain this same level for the
(06:43):
next 15, 20 years, and you'retruly honest with yourself and
you see where it's going and youknow it ain't looking good, but
you still avoid solving theproblem, man, I just hate to say
it, but you've got an issueright.
There is an addiction there,because that's what all of this
is.
These signs are basically youburying the truth in exchange
for being addicted to a drug.
(07:04):
Think about it like this Justimagine you had this super
intelligent species that werejust so healthy and they could
look down at earth and they'dsee the wars, they'd see all the
chaos, whatever.
But then they'd see people drinkalcohol.
They'd be like what on earth isgoing on?
These people are consumingpoison.
What are they doing?
And I know that sounds like aweird kind of thought experiment
, but just think about itlogically.
(07:26):
Remove the emotion, remove theconditioning, remove all these
marketing messages and imagine ababy doing this.
A baby's never going to do this.
A baby's never going to putthis poison in their body and
think it's a good idea.
It only seems to happen when webecome adults, when we mature
right, because we all know inour heart where this is going.
Alcohol adds nothing to yourlife.
It's a carcinogen and all itdoes is accumulate bad things in
(07:48):
your body.
But it's an addiction andthat's another bitter pill to
swallow.
I know this video is probablynot the easiest one I've ever
made for you to listen to.
So number six, and this one isthe biggest one of all to me.
I don't know about you, but I'msure that you've got people in
your life that look up to you.
It doesn't matter how old youare, it doesn't matter how
successful you are.
You will be seen as a leader tosome people maybe your children
(08:09):
, a cousin, a friend and if youknow when you drink alcohol that
you are not setting the kind ofexample that you want to set to
them and you keep drinkingalcohol, sorry that you want to
set to them and you keepdrinking alcohol.
Sorry, but again, it's a huge,huge red flag.
Maybe you're functioning right,maybe you've got a good life
Things aren't that bad.
But if you have people in yourlife that look up to you and you
love, do you want them to drinkalcohol the way that you drink
(08:30):
it?
If the answer is no and youcontinue drinking alcohol, I'm
and me and my brother actuallyhave a 14-year age gap.
When I drank alcohol, I alwaysused to think of him because he
was young, growing up, and Ialways used to think I don't
really want to set an example assomebody that drinks alcohol to
this young man.
I want to show him health,right Fitness, success, career,
(08:52):
business.
I want to set that kind ofexample to him.
I don't want to set the exampleof.
It's okay to go and get smashedon a Friday night if you don't
like your life and get smashedon a Friday night if you don't
like your life.
I don't want to do that.
I want to set the example of ifyou've got a problem, deal with
the problem head on.
Don't bury it, don't bury youremotions through drinking
alcohol.
Fix your life.
That was almost the messagethat I wanted to give to him Now
.
I drank alcohol while my brotherwas growing up, but this one it
(09:14):
was like carrying a weightaround all the time.
I wanted to set a qualityexample to him, not one where
somebody's drinking alcohol.
It just wasn't what I wanted todo.
And I'm not judging right.
I'm not saying that my way isbetter than anybody else's.
I'm sure there's plenty ofbrothers and parents and people
out there that are far better atthe job than I am and they
drink and they set an evenbetter example.
But the whole point that I'mtrying to make here is that if
(09:36):
you know that when you drinkalcohol, you're not setting the
right example to the people thatyou love, but you keep doing it
I'm sorry to say it, but it'sanother sign, number seven, and
please make sure to stay tunedto the very last sign, because
the last sign is what all ofthis is built upon.
But you keep telling yourselfthat you'll do this later.
It's the old thing of like thediet starts Monday.
(09:56):
Right, I'll deal with thisafter the holiday, after the
wedding, after this stressfulevent, when life's calmed down,
then I can fix the problem.
And this is all built on thenext point that I'm going to get
into.
But if you keep tellingyourself I'll deal with this
later, I'll deal with this later, and then it never ends up
happening.
I'm sorry, but there is somelevel of addiction there.
But everything here is built onthe eighth sign.
The eighth sign that you're ahigh-functioning person who has
(10:19):
a problem with alcohol.
Let's separate the two together.
But the eighth sign is thatyou're afraid of what life would
look without drinking alcohol.
Fear is the foundation ofeverything.
People that drink alcohol areafraid of stopping because
they're afraid of what lifewould look if they don't drink.
Now, this is the exact problemthat my program fixes.
We remove the fear.
(10:39):
So stopping drinking becomes achoice.
There's no fighting, there's nowillpower, there's no begging
God to help you.
It becomes a logical choice.
But everything is built on thisfoundation of fear that somehow
, if I remove alcohol from mylife, then life's going to be
worse off, I'm not going to beable to deal with stress, I'm
not going to be able tosocialize, etc.
Etc.
Etc.
Thanks for checking out theStop Drinking Podcast by Sober
(11:01):
Clear.
If you want to learn more abouthow we work with people to help
them stop drinking effortlessly, then make sure to visit
wwwsoberclearcom.
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Cardiac Cowboys
The heart was always off-limits to surgeons. Cutting into it spelled instant death for the patient. That is, until a ragtag group of doctors scattered across the Midwest and Texas decided to throw out the rule book. Working in makeshift laboratories and home garages, using medical devices made from scavenged machine parts and beer tubes, these men and women invented the field of open heart surgery. Odds are, someone you know is alive because of them. So why has history left them behind? Presented by Chris Pine, CARDIAC COWBOYS tells the gripping true story behind the birth of heart surgery, and the young, Greatest Generation doctors who made it happen. For years, they competed and feuded, racing to be the first, the best, and the most prolific. Some appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, operated on kings and advised presidents. Others ended up disgraced, penniless, and convicted of felonies. Together, they ignited a revolution in medicine, and changed the world.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.