The Social Pivot - with Sober Dave
Sober Awkward
Victoria Vanstone
4.8 • 533 Ratings
🗓️ 8 March 2026
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Vic is eight years sober tomorrow… and something is quietly shifting....
She has realised this week that the anxiety she feels around certain social situations isn’t because she can’t cope. It’s because she no longer wants to.
For years she believed being able to sit comfortably around drinking was a sober skill to master. She could handle it. She could manage the energy. She could leave early. But the low-level anxiety never really disappeared.
So what happens when you realise it’s not about capability, it’s about alignment?
Joined by Sober Dave from One for the Road, Vic unpacks this sober pivot. Dave brings his usual grounded, thoughtful take as they talk about people-pleasing, the subtle weight of being “the sober one”, and how long-term sobriety sometimes asks you to quietly change the rooms you sit in.
After meeting properly at the jungle retreat, something clicked for both of them about the kind of connection they actually want more of. This episode is about that shift, about choosing friendships and environments that feel nourishing rather than draining, and about allowing sobriety to keep evolving.
Because maybe it isn’t about whether you can sit in certain spaces anymore.
Maybe it’s about whether you still want to?
Find out more about Dave by following him @soberdave and if you need some support in your sobriety then check out his website - https://www.soberdave.co.uk/
💛 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
🫖 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
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 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. |
| 0:15.4 | 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 else |
| 0:28.0 | can stop at one while you end up at a dodgy after party holding hands with a weird bloke called |
| 0:32.8 | 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 |
| 0:45.3 | it's really like navigating this alcohol-drenched world, one fizzy water at a time. I'm going to |
| 0:51.0 | open up a shame shed of humiliating drinking stories to help you understand why |
| 0:55.3 | waking up with one eyebrow missing and a kebab sticking out of your top pocket might actually be |
| 1:00.1 | negatively impacting your health. So what happens when you put down those cheeky pints and finally |
| 1:05.9 | let go of those rewarding mummy wines? I guess we're just going to have to wait and see. I'm Victoria |
| 1:11.7 | Vanstone and this is sober awkward. Sometimes weeks go well for me and other times they don't go so |
| 1:26.3 | well. But I think that's okay. I'm hoping it's part of this |
| 1:30.9 | amazing sobriety learning curve or something like that. I'm hoping everything I do has a reason, |
| 1:37.6 | but sometimes I'm not so sure. This week has been one of those weeks where nothing really |
| 1:44.0 | dramatic happened, but everything |
| 1:46.6 | shifted for me. I didn't even know this was possible so far in. I'm eight years sober, |
| 1:53.3 | and for most of those years, I've told myself that hanging out with drinking buddies was just |
| 1:58.9 | something I needed to learn how to do well. I thought the |
| 2:03.1 | anxiety I felt when I was out was because I didn't drink anymore and I needed to learn how to be |
| 2:09.6 | better at it. I thought it was because I'm different because I had to build a thicker skin. |
| 2:14.8 | I told myself it was a skill that I needed to develop, socialising, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Victoria Vanstone, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Victoria Vanstone and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.