I Thought Alcohol Was Helping My Anxiety—It Wasn’t | Monnica’s Naked Life | EP 882

This Naked Mind Podcast

Annie Grace

Education, Self-improvement

4.7 • 2.8K Ratings

🗓️ 21 February 2026

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

TRIGGER WARNING: This episode contains discussions of severe alcohol use disorder, blackout drinking, hospitalization, family trauma, and parental death. Using alcohol to calm down—does it actually work, or does it quietly make everything harder? Monnica didn’t start drinking to escape her life. She drank to manage it. What began as a way to settle postpartum nerves slowly turned into a cycle of binge drinking, blackouts, and fear. For years, Monnica believed alcohol was helping her cope with anxiety, stress, and overwhelm—until it stopped working altogether. In this episode, Monnica shares how undiagnosed anxiety shaped her relationship with alcohol, the wake-up calls that forced her to look closer, and how learning to regulate her nervous system helped her finally break free. In this episode, Monnica discusses: Starting to drink postpartum and using alcohol to calm down during stressful days as a stay-at-home mom Saving wine bottles and not recognizing the signs of alcohol addiction escalating Blackout drinking episodes leading to dangerous situations and memory loss The devastating night police were called after a confrontation with her son Waking up in the ER on her daughter's birthday after being found unconscious outside Walmart Finding This Naked Mind on Instagram and winning free access to The Path Learning about cognitive dissonance, giving alcohol a job, and the short chemical window of relief Understanding how childhood trauma and hidden material held her back The power of vulnerability, curiosity, and compassion in the recovery journey Receiving an Alive stone in June 2024 and experiencing a profound shift in her relationship with alcohol And more topics… Episode links: nakedmindpath.com Related Episodes: Why do I have so much anxiety the day after drinking? - Reader Question - E02 - https://thisnakedmind.com/ep-02-reader-question-much-anxiety-day-drinking/ Overcoming Alcohol-induced Anxiety - Marcus’ Naked Life - E607 - https://thisnakedmind.com/ep-607-naked-life-story-marcus-widblom/ Overcoming Drinking To Cope with Depression and Anxiety - Susan’s Naked Life - E681 https://thisnakedmind.com/ep-681-naked-life-story-susan-h/ Ready to take the next step on your journey? Visit https://learn.thisnakedmind.com/podcast-resources for free resources, programs, and more. Until next week, stay curious! Quince: Go to⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Quince.com/naked⁠⁠⁠⁠ for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns Hungryroot: Get 40% off your first box + a free item for life at ⁠⁠⁠⁠Hungryroot.com/mind⁠⁠⁠⁠ with code mind BetterHelp: BetterHelp makes it easy to get matched online with a qualified therapist. Sign up and get 10% off at ⁠⁠BetterHelp.com/nakedmind⁠⁠ Shopify: Sign up for your one-dollar-per-month trial and start selling today at⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Shopify.com/mind⁠⁠

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to This Naked Mind with Annie Grace.
0:14.4	Hey, everybody, and welcome to The This Naked Mind podcast. I'm Cole Harvey, and I'm filling in for the
0:20.2	amazing Annie Grace today. And today we have a
0:23.3	naked life story, and we get to hear Monica tell her story around alcohol. Hey, Monica, good to have you on.
0:30.1	Peace, Cole. It's very nice to be here with you. Yeah, absolutely. So glad you're able to
0:35.8	skid on here and your willingness to share your story with others. It's really big, and we really appreciate that. So glad you're able to skid on here and your willingness to share your story with others.
0:39.4	It's really big and we really appreciate that. So thank you.
0:42.2	Yes. And just to see a familiar face after the one year ends is very confident to my soul as well.
0:50.0	Because you go out into the world, you spend a year with the coaches, you know, and with the members that's there.
0:58.4	And you kind of really get close and intimate and you share a lot of space together.
1:03.5	And so it's kind of like a little nervous when you go out into the world on your own with new faces, new people, your family, some who understand
1:13.1	and some who don't understand. So just to feel your energy today is very confident. I'm so happy.
1:18.6	Oh, well, I really appreciate that. Thank you. Yes. Yeah. Well, why don't you just take us back
1:24.9	to the beginning of your alcohol journey and just tell your
1:28.6	story about it?
1:29.3	Okay.
1:30.1	So I actually started my drinking career later in my life.
1:36.8	Alcohol was never a big thing to me.
1:38.9	I never knew that I would even get into an intimate relationship with alcohol. Like I said, I started later on in my life.
1:48.1	Once I put everything together, I just kind of realized that my drinking began postpartum
1:54.9	during the time after I had my son. And it just started out as something that I would do with his father.
2:02.4	His father is a, well, what you would call controlled drinker, but he is an addict nonetheless.
	...

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