Too Much, Too Young? with Sean
Sober Awkward
Victoria Vanstone
4.8 • 533 Ratings
🗓️ 15 February 2026
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Giving up alcohol in her twenties felt impossible for VIc.
Back then, drinking wasn’t just normal, it was the entire social structure. Nights out, friendships, dating, coping with stress, it all seemed to revolve around booze. So when someone decides to step away from it early, without a dramatic rock bottom or life implosion, it raises an interesting question..... Is something changing?
In this episode, Vic sits down with Sean, 28 and one year sober, who realised early on that alcohol wasn’t actually adding much to his life.
What started as very social drinking slowly crept into something else. Sean would finish a night out, grab a bag of cans on the way home, and carry on drinking alone. Before long, it was completely out of control. The pints were adding up. His mates noticed. His parents were worried. His girlfriend eventually gave him an ultimatum.
But after facing the truth about where his “normal” drinking was heading, Sean made a change.
Now, sober alongside his partner, he represents a growing shift we’re seeing in younger generations choosing clarity, mental health and self-trust over hangovers and hazy weekends.
Together they talk about what it’s really like to quit while your friends are still deep in drinking culture, whether younger people are genuinely drinking less, and what you gain when you stop before alcohol has decades to dig its claws in.
This conversation isn’t about regret or doing things “perfectly”.
It’s about curiosity, culture shifts, and the quiet bravery of opting out sooner rather than later.
Whether you’re questioning your own drinking at 23 or reflecting back at 43, this one might make you think.
You can listen to Sean's band and find out more @conflictmanagerband
💛 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
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Oh, the kettles boiled. Excellent timing. I'll just make myself a quick cupper, take a deep breath and pretend I know exactly what I'm doing. |
| 0:10.8 | 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, |
| 0:22.7 | only to find yourself waving 50 bucks at a barman by happy hour. Do you ever wonder why everyone else |
| 0:28.1 | 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. |
| 0:40.1 | 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. |
| 0:50.7 | I'm going to open up a shame shed of humiliating drinking stories to help you understand |
| 0:55.2 | why waking up with one eyebrow missing and a kebab sticking out of your top pocket might |
| 0:59.6 | actually be negatively impacting your health. So what happens when you put down those cheeky |
| 1:04.8 | pints and finally let go of those rewarding mummy wines? I guess we're just going to have to |
| 1:09.8 | wait and see. I'm Victoria |
| 1:11.7 | Vanstone and this is sober awkward. My bloody hell, some people, a weird thing just happened to me |
| 1:24.8 | at Coles. For those listening in the UK, that's like the Australian |
| 1:28.1 | version of Tesco's. I was just minding my own business as you do when you're doing your shopping. |
| 1:34.0 | And a lady came up and tapped me on the shoulder and said, are you, Vic, from Sob Awkward? |
| 1:39.2 | I was really excited. I go all stupid and giggly when people do things like this. And I was practically |
| 1:45.7 | asking her to whip her tits out so I could sign them. But I didn't because before I could, |
| 1:51.2 | she said, you don't look very much like your Instagram page, which I really wasn't expecting. |
| 1:58.7 | I thought she was just going to say, I love the podcast, |
| 2:17.7 | I've been sober, blah, blah, blah, love listening to you, but that's not what happened. She just said, you don't look like your Instagram page. Of course, I was very taken aback. So I just said, well, I just take my photos in a good light and a good angle and I just don't really want to look old on Instagram. I don't know why. |
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