You are listening to the Take a Break podcast with Rachel Hart episode 346.

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.

All right, everybody. We're going to be talking about drinking when you meet someone new.

I was actually doing an article recently, an interview for an article about alcohol and dating.

It really got me thinking about, why do we drink when we meet new people?

And it applies both to romantic and platonic situations.

Sometimes you're meeting someone for a first date.

Sometimes it's heading out to a neighborhood meetup.

You know, whatever it is, I think a lot of people realize that drinking in these settings is so ingrained.

So ingrained that it's just easier when you have a drink in your hand to meet someone new.

Certainly, this was true for me.

And so when I first took a break from drinking where I was really about re-evaluating my relationship with alcohol and understanding,

you know, why I had all this desire, I will tell you that I had a lot of worries about both dating because I was single at the time and meeting new people.

And my brain was a little bit like, I don't know if this is going to work because this is what we do.

Like, we go on dates, we make new friends and we have a drink in our hand.

Like, that's what you do. Otherwise, I'm just going to feel really weird and anxious and awkward.

And, you know, for a long time, I was in a situation where it just felt like, I don't know, maybe this is just impossible without a drink.

But I'm here to tell you that it's not impossible.

So we're going to talk today about why we do this, why we have this kind of ingrained pattern with drinking when we're meeting new people.

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