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Sober Powered: The Neuroscience of Being Sober

E273: How the Sober Brain Breaks Down Alcohol Associations (But They’ll Build Back Up if You Drink Again)

Sober Powered: The Neuroscience of Being Sober

Gillian Tietz, MS, CPRC

Science, Self-improvement, Education, Health & Fitness, Mental Health

4.91.2K Ratings

🗓️ 28 March 2025

⏱️ 33 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We believe alcohol is required for vacations, unwinding, dealing with stress, celebrating, and socializing. We have built up powerful associations in our brains to reinforce these beliefs through dopamine and repetition. After you get sober, facing life without alcohol can feel impossible. Everything reminds you of alcohol. You start to notice how prevalent it is on TV and in movies. In this episode, I’m explaining how the brain builds associations with alcohol, how that gets worse while we stay in the back and forth, and how we break down these associations after getting sober.  What to listen to next: E267: Resources vs Support: Are You Setting Yourself Up for Success? E202: WTF is "The Work"? E270: Incubation of Craving Work with me: Community & Meetings: Living a Sober Powered Life https://www.soberpowered.com/membership Sober coaching https://www.soberpowered.com/sober-coaching  Weekly email: You’ll hear from me on Fridays https://www.soberpowered.com/email Courses: The non-negotiable mindset https://www.soberpowered.com/mindset-course Anger Management  https://www.soberpowered.com/anger Thank you for supporting this show by supporting my sponsors. Learn more: https://www.soberpowered.com/sponsors If you enjoyed this episode please consider buying me a coffee to support all the research and effort that goes into this podcast. This is a one woman show! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/soberpowered Sources are posted on my website Disclaimer: all of the information described in this podcast is my interpretation of the research combined with my opinion. This is not medical advice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

We believe that alcohol is required for vacations, unwinding, dealing with stress, celebrating,

0:08.0

socializing, and basically everything else.

0:11.0

We have built up powerful associations in our brains to reinforce these beliefs through dopamine and repetition. After you get sober, facing life without alcohol can feel

0:25.3

impossible. Everything reminds you of it. You start to notice how prevalent it is on TV and in movies,

0:33.0

and you think of all the things that you have coming up, and you can't imagine how you will do those things

0:39.0

without alcohol. In this episode, I'm explaining how the brain builds associations, how that

0:45.5

gets worse while we stay in the back and forth, and how we break down these associations

0:51.2

after getting sober. And before we dig in, I'd like to take a moment to thank my

0:56.4

sponsors who made this episode possible. Life can feel like a full contact sport sometimes,

1:03.2

and when we're sober, that can feel overwhelming. Now the stress and anxiety can start to build up

1:08.9

while we're working on our tools to self-regulate.

1:12.0

But it can feel like a lot.

1:13.5

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1:19.0

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1:26.1

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1:30.0

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1:35.3

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1:41.4

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1:46.0

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1:52.0

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2:02.0

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2:04.8

It's easy.

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