HSP – A Highly Sensitive Sobriety
Sober Awkward
Victoria Vanstone
4.8 • 533 Ratings
🗓️ 27 July 2025
⏱️ 54 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Does being sober make you an HSP, or are HSPs just more likely to drink in the first place? It’s the ultimate chicken-or-the-wine-glass scenario.
In this emotionally flammable episode, Vic and Hamish dive headfirst into the weird world of the Highly Sensitive Person – a personality trait that affects 15–20% of people and, as it turns out, possibly 100% of sober awkward podcast hosts.
Are you the kind of person who cries at Bluey, avoids loud pubs, or needs a lie down after a trip to IKEA? Do you feel the vibes of a room before you’ve even taken your coat off? Do toilet paper adverts make you weep? Then you mightjust be one of us.
Vic realises she’s been diagnosed with just about everything but scurvy, and Hamish confesses his secret talent for emotional sponge-mode. Together, they unpack what it means to feel everything, all the time, especially once the numbing power of booze is removed.
Expect:
– Tangents about crying in supermarkets
– The healing power of chocolate pretzels
– A touching tale of being lost in the Himalayas
– And a surprisingly heartwarming conclusion about how being sensitive might actually be your secret superpower
So, are we all just too sensitive, or finally learning how to feel?
And is sobriety turning us into HSPs… or just helping us discover we always were?
Plug in, get comfy, and let the awkward feelings commence.
🎧 Show Notes
For more information on Clean Slate just head to www.cleanslateclinic.com
💛 Resources & Links
📘 Victoria’s memoir – A Thousand Wasted Sundays
A brutally honest and hilarious look at motherhood, anxiety, and ditching the booze.
🎧 Listen to more Sober Awkward episodes
👉 https://open.spotify.com/show/4qXlSc9lDGStYLeYIjrWPH?si=7eea2d3fd3ed4998
🫖 Join The Cuppa Community
Our private, supportive online space for sober folk
📘 Get the Sober Awkward Guide
Our downloadable toolkit for ditching booze the awkward way.
📱 Follow us for daily sober fun:
Instagram: @soberawkward
TikTok: @soberawkward
Facebook: Sober Awkward Community for Women
🚨 Helplines & Support
🇦🇺 Australia
– Alcohol & Drug Foundation (ADF) – 1300 85 85 84
– Lifeline – 13 11 14 (24/7 crisis support)
– Hello Sunday Morning / Daybreak App – hellosundaymorning.org
🇬🇧 UK
– Drinkline (NHS) – 0300 123 1110
– Alcoholics Anonymous UK – www.alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The cattle's boiled, Vic. |
| 0:03.7 | Great, perfect timing. |
| 0:05.7 | Just a dash of milk for me, please, mate. |
| 0:09.5 | Here you go. |
| 0:10.9 | Should we get started then? |
| 0:17.3 | Have you ever woken up on a Sunday morning and said, |
| 0:19.9 | I'm never drinking again, |
| 0:21.4 | and then found yourself waving 50 bucks at a barman by happy hour? |
| 0:25.1 | Are you wondering why everyone else can stop at one, |
| 0:27.8 | while you head to a dodgy after-party with a weird bloke called Disco Dave? |
| 0:31.6 | If so, it might be time to take a deeper look at your relationship with your reliable social crutch, alcohol. |
| 0:38.1 | On each episode, we'll investigate our own dysfunctional dealings with booze |
| 0:42.2 | and find out if it's possible to stop this deeply ingrained habit |
| 0:45.4 | before things get too messy. |
| 0:47.5 | Yep, we're going to open up a shame shed of humiliating drinking stories |
| 0:51.1 | to help you understand why waking up from a booze coma each weekend with a |
| 0:54.9 | kebab sticking out of your top pocket might actually be negatively impacting your health. |
| 0:59.9 | Hamish and I are here to delve into what it's like being sober, an unwanted warts and all look |
| 1:05.3 | into why giving up those cheeky pints or putting down those mummy wines will make you feel happier, |
| 1:12.0 | help your anxiety and mental health, and turn you into the most sparkly authentic version of you. |
| 1:16.5 | Won't that mean I become boring though, Vic? |
| 1:18.3 | Well, Hamish, we'll just have to wait and see. |
... |
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