EP358 Why you need wine when you're stressed (and how to reduce cravings without whiteknuckling) with Sian Cook

Colleen Freeland (0:00)

If you actually want to get to a point where you can just relax and enjoy yourself with or without a drink in your hand, without feeling like you're white knuckling or having to worry that one drink is going to turn into the whole bottle, then you have to understand that what really needs to change is not how much or how often you drink, it's why you're drinking. You have to take the time to see what alcohol is really doing for you. Because if it wasn't serving a purpose, it wouldn't feel so hard to just tell yourself no.

My guest today is Sian Cook, and Sian was in The Next Chapter a couple of years ago. If you're new here, The Next Chapter is my one year signature program for high achieving professional women who want a more holistic, science-backed methodology for alcohol reduction. Instead of the traditional just get sober approach, where you have to choose between labeling yourself as an alcoholic or convincing yourself that any drinking is bad, because alcohol is a toxic poison.

Sian is trained in medicine and has worked as a medical advisor in pharmaceuticals. And the reason I'm having her on the show today is because she has spent the last year and a half developing a very targeted supplement that supports women who tend to drink as a way of coping with their stress. Because reducing stress is not just taking stuff off your plate. Stress is a physical issue. It's a sign that your brain doesn't have enough of the nutrients and neurotransmitters it needs to support your nervous system.

So inside my program, I do this quiz that we give to all clients to help them figure out which amino acid supplements they need based on their symptoms. But the end result has been kind of a long shopping list and a lot of pills to swallow. And it does make a huge difference. I use that stuff every day, so it's worth it. But it's also kind of complicated.

And Sian decided to solve that problem for us. She dug into the same research that I did, just on a much deeper level, the research by Charles Gantt. He wrote the book End Your Addiction Now, and took it upon herself to develop a formula that's turnkey, like just scoop and swallow. So in this episode, she and I are going to talk about what's really driving your alcohol cravings, like what's happening in the brain and the nervous system, so that you can walk away with a clear understanding of specific nutritional support that can make the process of changing your relationship with alcohol and stress so much easier. And yes, she is going to offer a discount to our listeners. So if you decide you want to try it, just type Colleen into the promo code when you check out. But before we do the interview, I just want to say welcome to all of you new listeners and just say, I am so happy you're here, and I'm hoping that you just found your people. And if you don't know me yet, I'm Colleen Freeland, Founder of Emotional Sobriety Coaching. And this show is for high achieving women who are tired of having to rely on willpower to control themselves and who want to do the deeper work to become the type of woman who actually prioritizes herself and who takes her own needs seriously. Because that woman has no desire to fall face first into a bottle of wine. So if this resonates with you, just make sure you hit the follow or the subscribe button. So I keep showing up in your feed. And one more thing before we do the interview. I just want to let you know I am hosting my live Get Happy Not Sober event this weekend to help you uncover the real reasons why reducing your drinking feels so much harder than it should be.

This is an ideal opportunity for you to work directly with me without making a huge commitment. So I'm kicking it off this Friday with a hands on workshop that's going to expose the normal seemingly helpful everyday habits that are actually draining your capacity to handle both good and bad stress. And that's causing you to feel like you need a drink in order to take the edge off. And then on Saturday, you're going to get to see how those habits affect your drinking while you're drinking in the mindful drinking experiment. And then Sunday, we're going to wrap it up with conversation and coaching about the specific ways that you can support yourself as you set the goal to become the version of you who not only prefers drinking in moderation, but who also genuinely enjoys a quiet, sober evening as much as you do going out and being social and having fun. Now, general admission to this event, Get Happy Not Sober, is free, but there are two upgrade options depending on how much access you want to meet. So pause this episode right now, find the link in the show notes, and get registered. Because this event really can be your turning point.