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.

So this is a readers question. If you have questions for me, you can always email helloatdismakedmind.com

and I'm very happy to answer. So we awesome, high Lisa, good to see you.

Okay, awesome, thanks guys. All right, so this is a question and it's basically like how do I stay alcohol for you

during times of extreme stress? And the question is, okay, I'm on day 22 of being completely sober and so far I'm doing okay,

but I have court in less than a week and I have to testify against my husband for his assault and I'm really struggling to cope with the stress.

Any tips for how to stay sober and trying times, I know if I'm drinking all crumble but it's so hard not to relax with a glass of wine.

So first of all, congratulations on 22 days. It's amazing and that is a very intense example of extreme stress.

And I think that a lot of us like just whatever is happening in the world right now, we are dealing with various levels of extreme stress.

And sometimes we don't even want to admit that, we don't even want to say anything's affecting us, but things are affecting us.

And I think giving ourselves grace and realizing that is awesome. So first of all, I would just celebrate yourself. I would celebrate how far you've already come.

I'd celebrate the fact that you've been asking this question because it just shows such great intention.

And I would just make it your primary goal to be super super super gentle with yourself.

So some tips for making sure that you can maintain this are journaling is my best and most favorite friend.

I have probably I can't even imagine how many words I've written in journals. I journal every single day.

Sometimes I journal on the notes up in my phone. Sometimes I do voice memos to myself. Sometimes I've got a notebook by my bed.

I've got a notebook in my office. I've got a notebook in the bag. I carry with me. I never far away from a journal.

I love pen and paper the best and just processing through this. And the questions that I would ask yourself in this journal is, why do I think a drink will relax me?

Really getting to the root and the core of that belief because you said I find it so hard not to relax with a glass of wine.

Now understanding without a shadow of a doubt that the relaxation you're going to feel with a glass of wine is going to be completely artificial.

And the cost of it is going to be much higher than the reward. So what do I mean by this?

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