Sobriety and Midlife - with Dana Bowman
Sober Awkward
Victoria Vanstone
4.8 • 533 Ratings
🗓️ 18 January 2026
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What happens when midlife hits… and you’re already sober?
In this brilliantly honest and often hilarious episode, Vic is flying solo (Hamish wisely sat this one out) to chat with author Dana Bowman, a woman who thought she had long-term sobriety nailed, until menopause, food, marriage, parenting, body image, and a global pandemic all piled in at once.
Dana’s story, told in her book Humble Pie, is about far more than sobriety. It’s about what happens when recovery collides with midlife. As menopause crept in, Dana found herself veering into binge eating and food addiction, struggling with comparison, scrolling, isolation, and frantic over-exercising. Just when she thought she’d dealt with the big stuff, life threw everything else at her… and eventually forced a reckoning.
Vic hasn’t read Humble Pie yet, but after hearing Dana talk about relapse, HRT, sugar cravings, dopamine dips, invisible women, and upgrading her sobriety toolkit, she knows it’s going to be a wildly relatable ride. Expect real talk about perfectionism, changing bodies, and why custard creams sometimes end up doing the emotional heavy lifting.
Whether you’re pre, peri or post-menopause, or just quietly wondering why life feels harder than it used to, this one’s for anyone who’s ever felt like they were falling apart… and learning to laugh their way through it anyway.
💛 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 | 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 |
| 0:42.1 | 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 in 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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