E279: The Pendulum Effect of Healing

Sober Powered: The Neuroscience of Being Sober

Gillian Tietz, MS, CPRC

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

4.9 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 9 May 2025

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When we start doing “the work”, it’s normal for your behavior to swing hard in the other direction. Emotions become more intense, old memories flood back, or you may feel like everyone needs to know how they’ve wronged you. This is the pendulum effect. We are learning how to do life without alcohol, and that process takes experimentation. In this episode, I explain why the pendulum effect happens, what to expect, the most common things I’ve observed, and 3 ways to start coping so the pendulum can begin to settle in the middle. You’ll learn about all the different things that are going on in your brain that make the healing process more intense. What to listen to next: E247: Sober Sleep is the Best Sleep, But Not Right Away E269: Autopilot Mode E276: A Burst of Mental Clarity at 60 Days Sober (Cognitive Healing) 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 Free resources https://www.soberpowered.com/free Courses: The non-negotiable mindset https://www.soberpowered.com/mindset-course Anger Management https://www.soberpowered.com/anger Support the show: If you enjoyed this episode please consider buying me a coffee to support all the research and effort that goes into this podcast https://www.buymeacoffee.com/soberpowered Thank you for supporting this show by supporting my sponsors https://www.soberpowered.com/sponsors 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	When we start doing the work, it's normal for your behavior to swing hard in the other direction.
0:07.7	Emotions become more intense, old memories flood back, or you may feel like everyone needs to know
0:14.3	how they've wronged you. This is the pendulum effect. We are learning how to do life without alcohol, and that process takes experimentation.
0:24.2	In this episode, I explain why the pendulum effect happens, what to expect, the most common
0:30.7	things that I've observed, and three ways to start coping, so the pendulum can begin to settle in
0:37.3	the middle. You'll learn about all the
0:39.4	different things that are going on in your brain that make the healing process more intense.
0:44.8	And before we dig in, I'd like to take a moment to thank my sponsors who made this episode possible.
0:51.1	Ever felt like your body's running on chaos and caffeine? Sometimes it's not always just you.
0:56.0	It could be your hormones too.
0:58.0	If you're wondering why you feel like a moody swamp witch one minute and a sad tortilla the next,
1:03.0	don't worry, you're not broken.
1:05.0	It's hard enough being a woman, but then throw in PMS, perimenopause, menopause,
1:10.0	and all of a sudden, your husband's breathing
1:12.3	fills you with a deep rage. Don't even get me started on their chewing. Happy Mammoth is dedicated
1:18.9	to making women's life easier, and that's why they created hormone harmony for women of all
1:25.3	ages who are struggling with hormonal symptoms like mood swings, low
1:29.0	libido, poor sleep, and bloating. Many women struggle with cravings for alcohol from PMS,
1:34.8	perimenopause, or menopause, and that's because these symptoms make us want to drink to cope.
1:40.2	One bottle of hormone harmony is sold every 24 seconds, and many women are saying, I feel like myself again.
1:47.6	For a limited time, you can get 15% off your entire first order at happy mammoth.com.
1:53.9	Just use the code power at checkout.
	...

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