This is Annie Grace and you're listening to this naked mind podcast where without

judgment, pain or rules, we explore the role of alcohol in our lives and culture.

Hi friends, it's Annie Grace and I am answering your questions. I am the author of this naked mind.

I am trying to answer these questions in all sorts of strange places now that my kids are out of school

and my schedule is a little bit wonky. But anyway, today's question is from Lucy and she says,

hi Annie, I've been watching your videos and finding lots of comfort in them. I have a question,

what do you do when you miss the feeling of euphoria, the high from drinking? As much as I drink to relax

and even bigger part of me drinks for the buzz and the high, how do you deal with missing that or

is it just me and does no one else miss it? Well, no, Lucy, it's definitely not just you.

I think that that's a huge reason that a lot of us drink is sort of the, you know, the letting go

of everything, the idea that in a bottle you can find complete kind of joy and relaxation and

just, you know, a different mind state than you were a few minutes ago and that kind of is encapsulated

in the high. So my advice based on my journey is kind of a few fold. First, I would say next time

you drink and you experience this high, pay really close attention to it, okay? So pay close attention

to how quickly you start to feel it. Notice if it's before, if a lot of it is the anticipation of

having that drink, like for me, I really started to feel really good and happy and even giddy, like

when I was pouring the wine or getting it out of the cupboard, which was hugely eye-opening for me,

because what you want to determine here is how much of it is the real true high from drinking

and how much of it is just kind of a placebo and a mental thing and a mental relief that you're

getting from doing something that you want to be doing and that you're anticipating, because a

huge amount of the human experience when it comes to happiness is anticipation. You know, when we've

done that with drinking and we almost trick ourselves a little bit into anticipating something,

...