Alison Spittle ‘The compulsion to eat was stronger than wanting to live’
How Do You Cope?
Significant Productions
4.9 • 868 Ratings
🗓️ 27 April 2026
⏱️ 74 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What does it mean when your coping mechanism stops working for you?
John speaks to comedian, podcaster, writer and actor Alison Spittle about using food as protection, and how it shaped her sense of self.
After a serious health scare forced a change, Alison found herself confronting feelings she had numbed with food. She reflects on being treated differently since her weight change, how it feels to address emotions she had previously buried, and the complexity of labels.
On Thursday in our bonus episode The Gratitude List, Alison shares the 5 things that she is currently grateful for.
You can send in your thoughts and reflections to hello@howdoyoucopepod.com or via howdoyoucopepod.com
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If you need support, you can find advice and someone to talk to by visiting www.samaritans.org, emailing jo@samaritans.org or calling 116 123.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello everyone, it's John here, just letting you know that I've written a book. It's called Thirst, 12 drinks that changed my life, and it's available to pre-order now. In many episodes of How Do You Cope, you'll have heard me talk about my relationship with alcohol, and in writing Thirst, I wanted to explore what alcohol means. Why did it mean more to me than other people? Why did it mean some things felt better, and why did it mean so many things went wrong? I also talk about lots of other things you'll have heard me |
| 0:24.5 | and my guests discuss on how do you cope. Meditation, physical pain, gratitude, trauma and therapy. |
| 0:30.8 | There's even a chapter about my bum and its relationship with Buddhism. So if that piques your |
| 0:35.1 | interest, thirst is available to pre-order now. And the |
| 0:38.3 | audiobook, read by me, is available to save or pre-order wherever you get audiobooks from. |
| 1:01.1 | Before we start, just a quick flag that this episode contains discussions about suicide. |
| 1:04.4 | For support on this topic, see the links in the show notes. |
| 1:08.9 | Hello and welcome to How Do You Cope with me, John Robbins. |
| 1:11.8 | This is the show where I speak to fascinating guests about the hardships they've overcome |
| 1:13.7 | and the coping mechanisms that allowed them to do so. |
| 1:17.4 | Today's guest is the comedian, writer, actor and podcaster Alison Spittle. |
| 1:22.8 | Alison's comedy career began when she was working |
| 1:25.1 | at the Irish radio station, I Radio, |
| 1:28.5 | when one of the presenters asked if she'd ever thought about doing stand-up. She was booked in to do seven |
| 1:32.9 | minutes of material two weeks later, and hasn't looked back since. Her latest show, |
| 1:38.4 | 2025's Big, won the comedian's Choice Award for Best Show. Bigg explores her experience after contracting cellulitis and septicemia, or blood poisoning. |
| 1:49.2 | She was told by a family member that she needed to lose weight. |
| 1:52.6 | It was a conversation she'd had before with health professionals, |
| 1:55.9 | but the severity of her condition led Alison to act on it. |
| 2:00.1 | Bigg explores Alison's relationship with her size, |
| 2:02.6 | food and trauma, how they interact, and how other people's reaction to her weight has been a |
| 2:07.6 | constant theme in her life. And these are many of the topics that we covered in our conversation. |
... |
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