Let’s Talk Nervous Systems – with Sarah Rusbatch
Sober Awkward
Victoria Vanstone
4.8 • 533 Ratings
🗓️ 5 April 2026
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week on Sober Awkward, Vic chats with one of her favourite sober buddies, sobriety coach - Sarah Rusbatch about something many of us completely ignored while we were drinking… our nervous systems.
For years we thought alcohol was helping us relax. Turns out it was often doing the exact opposite, keeping our bodies stuck in stress mode.
Sarah breaks down what’s really going on in our nervous systems, why so many of us feel wired, anxious or exhausted, and what we can actually do to regulate ourselves without reaching for a drink.
Vic admits she learned loads in this chat and had a few lightbulb moments along the way. Make sure you listen right to the end for a simple breathing exercise you can try with us. And in true Sober Awkward style, Vic pops back in 24 hours later with a little update after trying a couple of the things Sarah suggested. It’s amazing what a difference a day can make when you start paying attention to your nervous system.
Listen wherever you get your podcasts.
Find Sarah's courses, retreats, challenges and more here - https://sarahrusbatch.com
and join her amazing April alcohol reset challenge here - https://sarahrusbatch.com/30day-af-program
💛 Resources & Links
📘 Victoria’s memoir – A Thousand Wasted Sundays
A brutally honest and hilarious look at motherhood, anxiety, and ditching the booze.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Oh, the kettle's boiled. Excellent timing. I'll just make myself a quick cupper, take a deep breath and pretend I know exactly what I'm doing. Right, let's get started. |
| 0:15.5 | Have you ever woken up on a Sunday morning with massive anxiety and said to yourself, I'm never drinking again, |
| 0:22.6 | only to find yourself waving 50 bucks at a barman by happy hour. Do you ever wonder why everyone |
| 0:27.8 | else can stop at one while you end up at a dodgy after party holding hands with a weird bloke called |
| 0:32.9 | Disco Dave? If so, it might be time to take a closer look at your reliable social crutch alcohol. |
| 0:40.0 | On this podcast, I investigate my own deeply dysfunctional dealings with booze and find out what |
| 0:45.4 | it's really like navigating this alcohol-drenched world, one fizzy water at a time. |
| 0:50.6 | I'm going to open up a shame shed of humiliating drinking stories to help you understand why |
| 0:55.4 | waking up with one eyebrow missing and a kebab sticking out of your top pocket might actually |
| 0:59.9 | be negatively impacting your health. So what happens when you put down those cheeky pints and |
| 1:05.5 | finally let go of those rewarding mummy wines? I guess we're just going to have to wait and see. |
| 1:10.9 | I'm Victoria Vanstone and this is sober awkward. |
| 1:17.4 | Oh, for fuck's sake. |
| 1:18.9 | It looks like somebody's sprayed some ants in here |
| 1:21.5 | and then just presumed that they've all died |
| 1:23.9 | and left the carcasses for me to clean up. |
| 1:30.3 | I'm not sure if anyone or any other mums particularly feel like this, like everything is always left to us. I'm now surrounded by the |
| 1:36.1 | bodies of small insects, which is lovely, as you can imagine. Occasionally my kids do help out, |
| 1:41.8 | I must say, but there is a lot of huffing and puffing going on in this house at the moment. |
| 1:46.2 | Actually, I did ask George yesterday to wipe down some surfaces and he used oven cleaner on the wood bench tops and it ate away at the wood and totally destroyed it. |
| 1:56.0 | So yeah, I'm either cleaning up after people or cleaning up after people who have tried to clean up and then left |
| 2:01.3 | me with more cleaning up. I was going to say it all works out in the wash, but it doesn't. I think |
... |
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