Shaz Didn’t Know What to Call It—Alcoholic, Binge Drinker, or Gray Area Drinking—But He Knew He Had to Stop
Sober Motivation: Sharing Sobriety Stories
Brad McLeod
4.8 • 596 Ratings
🗓️ 16 January 2026
⏱️ 82 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Gray Area Drinking, Binge Drinking, Alcoholism, Alcohol Use Disorder or Problem Drinking? How Do You Know When Alcohol Is the Issue.
In this episode of the Sober Motivation Podcast, Brad sits down with Shaz to share a raw and honest story of alcohol's role, blackouts, secret drinking, and pandemic-era daily drinking. This conversation is for anyone who doesn’t see themselves as fitting with a label, but still feels uneasy about their relationship with alcohol.
Shaz walks through how alcohol shifted from social use to binge drinking, how gray area drinking quietly escalated, and how secrecy, rationalization, and comparison kept him stuck for years. You’ll hear why waiting for a diagnosis or label delayed real change—and how sobriety, connection, and community support became the turning point.
If you’re sober curious, questioning your drinking, or wondering whether life would feel better without alcohol, this conversation offers clarity, validation, and a path forward—without shame or judgment.
Contact Shaz on IG: https://www.instagram.com/shazman07/
Sober Motivation Community: https://sobermotivation.mn.co/
Sober Motivation Website: https://www.sobermotivation.com
Support the Podcast: https://buymeacoffee.com/sobermotivation
Contact me anytime: brad@sobermotivation.com
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to season five of the Sober Motivation Podcast. |
| 0:03.4 | Join me, Brad, each week as my guest and I share incredible and powerful sobriety stories. |
| 0:08.6 | We're here to show sobriety as possible. |
| 0:11.4 | One story at a time. |
| 0:14.2 | Let's go. |
| 0:17.1 | What happens when you've made it on paper? |
| 0:19.6 | Family, business success, a new house, the American dream. |
| 0:24.0 | And yet you're quietly falling apart behind closed doors. Am I an alcoholic, problem drinking, binge drinking, or gray area drinker? |
| 0:31.5 | These are all questions Shaz asked themselves in private. At times Shaz felt that alcohol was given him an edge in life. This episode is about |
| 0:39.3 | more than just quitting alcohol. It's about wanting happiness so badly that you'll let the old |
| 0:45.2 | version of you die and discovering that the opposite of addiction isn't willpower, its connection. |
| 0:50.5 | And this is Shaz's story on the Sober Motivation podcast. |
| 0:56.2 | Good to have you back, everyone. |
| 0:59.4 | Happy 2026, our first episode. |
| 1:05.7 | We're really setting the bar high for the podcast this year, kicking the year off with my buddy Shaz. |
| 1:15.8 | You'll hear how we met and how we continue to connect to this day. This is an incredible story. Over 225 stories, I believe, here on the podcast, somewhere in and around there. This one really hit, as a lot of |
| 1:22.5 | them do. This is where I see the most people struggle. |
| 1:28.5 | This is it is to where things are kind of going all right in a lot of different ways. |
| 1:34.6 | And Shaz will walk us through his experience, but it was great to connect. |
| 1:38.2 | Catch me at the end, though, because I have a lot more thoughts. |
| 1:40.7 | I just don't want to give away any of the story. |
| 1:43.5 | Welcome back to another episode of |
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