You are listening to the Take a Break podcast with Rachel Hart, episode 22.

Whether you want to drink less or stop drinking, this podcast will help you change the habit

from the inside out. We're challenging conventional wisdom about why people drink

and why it can be hard to resist temptation. No labels, no judgment, just practical tools

to take control of your desire and stop worrying about your drinking.

Now here's your host, Rachel Hart.

Hello, hello everybody. How are you? What are you doing?

It is a beautiful, beautiful day in San Francisco. We have bright blue skies that I'm looking at right now.

June gloom is nowhere to be found, which means that I am not wearing a puffy coat

in the middle of June, which makes me very happy. All right, so I had a whole plan for what I was going to talk about on today's episode,

but right before I was about to record, I had a coaching call with one of my clients.

And she reminded me of something that I think is so important, something that I think a lot of you listening to

are going to really relate to. And so I decided to scrap everything and switch topics.

We were talking about the work she's doing to drink less. And she said to me,

you know, Rachel, sometimes I feel like the person who I really am, the real me,

is trapped inside this other person who is struggling with her drinking.

Like there are two parts of me and I'm at war with myself. And I just want to finally figure out

who I am without this struggle so that the real me can come out of hiding.

I will tell you that when she said this, it stopped me right in my tracks because it brought me right back to what it was like when I was struggling with my drinking.

I'll tell you, I have such a vivid memory of living on the upper west side, waking up in my shoebox of an apartment, hung over yet again,

and thinking to myself, I know this isn't right. This isn't who I'm supposed to be.

This isn't what I'm supposed to be doing. This is not how my life was supposed to go.

...