No Alcohol Needed: The Podcast

It is absolutely possible to have fun socializing while sober! If you are trying to figure out socializing sober and are finding it super awkward and frustrating - you are so not alone! Navigating your social life - sober - is hard, when all you've known for most of your adult life is pre-gaming before parties, drinking to feel confident, and all of your social events revolved around how much drinking you'd be able to do. In this episode we talk about learning how to socialize sober - social awkwardness and all. 
"How many things did I do that I had to drink to enjoy?"
In this episode:
Asking friends to help keep you accountable
Facing pressure from others to drink, after you've said no
Talking to others about your sobriety
Choosing supportive friends
Alternatives to going out for drinks
Dealing with society's assumption that everyone drinks
Coping with social anxiety
How our standards for friendships change
Replacing things you no longer enjoy with new things
The power of virtual recovery pathways
The value of internet friendships and connections
"Everything I did revolved around drinking."
Get in touch:
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Visit our website at throughtheglassrecovery.com
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Not knowing how to cope with emotions is one of the most common causes of relapse. In this episode, we are joined by sober influencer Hadley, and our friends Monica and Michal, as we talk about how we've gone from trying to escape from our emotions to being able to sit through them. From social discomfort to grief, to happiness and joy, listen as we explore what that's looked like in each of our separate journeys.
"You don't have to drink to make emotions go away. That happens on its own."
In this episode:
Discomfort of social anxiety and introvertedness
Discovering your identity - sober
The effects of not learning to cope with emotions in our youth
Learning to pause and understand the emotion before acting
Observing emotions and situations from the outside
Mommy wine culture and its lies
The emotional roller coaster of early sobriety
Understanding that you won't feel this way forever
Self parenting techniques
Navigating happiness and joy is also a challenge
"When I drank to numb an emotion, I only felt better for like, 5 minutes."
Keep in touch with Through the Glass Recovery:
Visit our website at throughtheglassrecovery.com to sign up for our weekly newsletter, and to gain access to our FREE weekly recovery meetings.
You can also find Julie and Steve on: Instagram Facebook Tiktok

Dealing with stress in recovery can be one of the most difficult challenges that many people face. In this episode, we're joined by Mike and Bill, hosts of the Sober Not Mature podcast, and Nancy McKay, a certified life coach. Together we talk about some of the stressful situations we've been faced with, and how we learned to move through them now that alcohol is no longer an option. Listen as we share our best tips and advice for handling stress in healthy ways.
"I have the power to change my thoughts about anything."
In this episode, you'll hear about the following:
A huge list of tips and tools for getting through stressful moments
"Triggered" really just means feeling discomfort
Ways to distract or sideline thoughts about stress
The value of reaching out for help
Acute vs. Chronic stress in recovery
Recognizing some of the physical symptoms of stress
Learning not to minimize the "small" stressors in each day
Helping others can relieve stress on both sides
Understanding how to change your perspective to move from stress to gratitude
"There's nothing wrong with being uncomfortable sometimes. It's called life."

Nancy J. McKay is a Certified Wayfinder Life Coach, Certified Equus Coach® & Master Facilitator. She is f*ing passionate about helping women face difficult life challenges head-on with courage, curiosity and grit so that they can get to the other side faster, feeling confident, stronger and more resilient. Nancy has been in recovery from alcohol addiction since 2009 and is an ovarian cancer survivor since 2015. She founded Amazing Outlook Coaching, LLC in 2018 at the age of 61. Nancy is also a two-time international best-selling author and speaker, sharing her inspiring story of recovery and creating a new life after cancer. She lives in Lakewood, Colorado with her husband and their two rescued Westies. You can connect with Nancy athttps://www.amazingoutlookcoaching.com 

Mike and Bill have both been sober since April, 2010 and they met at a sober living facility in Cleveland, OH. Through that facility, they were introduced to Alcoholics Anonymous  and they continue to practice those principles to this day. They have a weekly podcast, Sober Not Mature, that can be found anywhere that podcasts are heard or you can visit their website, www.sobernotmature.com.
Let's connect!
Visit our website at throughtheglassrecovery.com to sign up for our weekly newsletter, and to gain access to our FREE weekly recovery meetings.
You can also find Julie and Steve on: Instagram Facebook Tiktok

Join us as we kick off Season 2 with an incredible conversation about how to beat alcohol cravings.
"You won't feel this way forever."
Besides learning how to beat alcohol cravings, we help you work through:
 
Coping with FOMO when it shows up as a trigger
Creating and using a sober toolbox
Surviving even the hardest cravings without giving in
Breaking the habit of situational triggers
Alcohol and social situations
Giving yourself permission to put your sobriety first
Cognitive dissonance - the argument inside your brain
Finding the courage to talk about the hard things
Recognizing the physical symptoms of triggers before it gets out of hand
Romanticizing the old days
Understanding that cravings aren't a sign of a failing recovery
 
"Never make a permanent decision based on a temporary emotion."
 
Katie talks about her toolbox, that she uses to help her stay sober. Here's her list of tools:
Call my sponsor
Call my husband
Go to a meeting
Take a walk with my dog
Call/text sober support people
Watch recovery Tiktok
Write a prayer to put in my God box
Set a 10 minute timer
Meditate/breathing exercises
Pray and let go of my will
 
Meet our guests:
Robbie started his sobriety journey due to being sick of the same old story he would put himself though. He found his cannabis and alcohol use getting worse as the years went on. He used them to cope with everything and anything. Robbie is now nine months sober, and couldn't be happier with his decision to take on this new journey. Robbie co-hosts Golden Hour Adventures podcast and can be found on Instagram @runshills605.
It doesn't matter if you're a few days sober or ten years sober - cravings happen. At their best, they are annoying. At their worst, the sneak up on you when you least expect it and smack you upside the head and suddenly everything is spinning and you don't know which way is up. By the end of this episode, you'll have a whole new stack of tools to add to your sober toolbox, and you'll realize that cravings aren't actually something to fear or feel bad about at all.
Katie B is 42 years old from Dallas, Texas but currently lives in Everett, WA. She has a handsome husband of 7 years with 1 16 year old son,  Jakob,  and 2 bonus kids, Layla, 15 and Isaac, 20. For the last 2.5 years she's worked at the same rehab facility where she got sober. Her sobriety date is March 16th, 2016 after 28 1/2 years of active addiction and alcoholism. 
Matt is a 38 year old father of 2 from Burnt Hills, NY who works in State government. He’s an avid outdoorsman, and his favorite times are those he gets to spend with his children playing games, reading, and coaching his son's sports teams. Matt has attempted both inpatient and outpatient treatment multiple times in the past 5 years,and last year had the opportunity to experience residential sober living at Release Recovery in Westchester County. He encourages people who are still struggling to reach out and know it's ok to ask for help. You can find Matt on Instagram @shamman780
Watch Matt's story on YouTube here.
 
 
Get in touch:
 
throughtheglassrecovery@gmail.com
 
Visit our website at throughtheglassrecovery.com
 
Find us on: Instagram Facebook Tiktok
 

"Say No Without Feeling Guilty" is our last re-release for the summer, before we get back to producing new episodes! We've had an amazing couple of months off, and we're also so excited to get back to regularly producing new content to help support you, no matter where you are in your recovery journey.
In this episode, we chat with Antje, Kelsey, and Sonia about overcoming people pleasing and learning how to say no without the guilt. It’s easy to want to keep everyone else happy, but we do so the expense of our own happiness. We agree to things we don’t want to, out of fear that we will disappoint others, and the result is that we disappoint ourselves.
“I was everything to everybody and nobody to myself.”
Some of the points and topics we cover include:
Over-explaining ourselves
Finding out who really supports our recovery
Honoring ourselves by making our own decisions
Choosing authenticity over meeting expectations
Allowing others to say no to us, also
Not apologizing unnecessarily
Getting angry at ourselves for letting others walk all over us
Fear of disappointing others (and then realizing that’s their problem.)
Start with easy conversations to practice for the hard ones
Demonstrating to our kids and others that saying no is okay
Learning to honor ourselves, our feelings, and our wants
Learning to sit with discomfort
Learning to avoid engaging in toxic conversations and behaviors
Dealing with the consequences of saying yes when we didn’t want to
Pausing before responding to allow ourselves time to think
Valuing our time enough to say no
"Saying yes when we really want to say no leads to resentment."
Meet our guests:
Kelsey started a TikTok account to share her sober journey and inspire others. Since she started, she’s gained 23,000 followers. You can find her at https://www.tiktok.com/@kelseygoessober and on instagram at https://www.instagram.com/kelsey_sorensen_/
Sonia is the creator and owner of EverBlume, a recovery resource that places members in small support groups based on their specific needs and situations. For more information, visit joineverblume.com or visit Sonia’s Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/joineverblume/
Antje first discovered drinking as a way to “fix” her eating disorder. She thought that drinking was more acceptable than binging and purging all of her meals. When drinking grew more and more out of control, she reluctantly considered sobriety in January of 2022. Soon after, she found connection and support in an online sober community. She is so glad to that she took that first, scary step and gave sobriety a chance.
Keep in touch!
throughtheglassrecovery.com
throughtheglassrecovery@gmail.com
Instagram – @through_the_glass_recovery

Are perfectionism and addiction connected? Join us we we dive into how perfectionism is linked to addiction, and how we've overcome it in recovery. We’re joining recovery coach and Instagram sober superstar Daph, the host of Creating Ripples podcast, Alex, and our good friend John to talk about how perfectionism shows up in our recovery. It seems like some people struggled with perfectionism, and it was one of the causes of their drinking. And others fight perfectionism now that they’re in recovery, wanting to make up for lost time. Either way, we’re diving into perfectionism into this episode, sharing what we’ve learned and sharing where we’ve struggled.
“I realized I lived my whole life by expectations.”
Some of the concepts we cover include:
Trying to ‘perfect’ our recovery
Learning to embrace where we are right now
Parenting and perfectionism
Learning to accepting being ‘good enough’
Finding balance in the all or nothing mentality
People pleasing and becoming a doormat
The opposite of perfectionism – where we don’t even bother to try
Trying to get people to like us
Discovering our own expectations
Communicating and knowing our limits
The tendency to quit things we can’t do perfectly
Talking to ourselves like we would if we were children
“We shouldn’t ‘should’ our lives away.”

In this episode, as we explore the idea of rebuilding trust in addiction recovery, we learn that we must always start with learning to trust ourselves again. Listen as we are joined by Debs, Brian, and Antje in what was our first official Through the Glass Recovery Podcast episode. We were still figuring out what we were doing, but this conversation was raw and honest and beautiful and filled with wisdom, and it's an honor to be able to share it with you. It remains one of our favorite and most powerful podcast episodes, and we're excited to re-release this remastered copy. 
In this episode:
Trusting yourself to maintain sobriety
It's our job to show others that they can trust us
Overcoming the damage caused by lies
Lying by omission
Understanding the other person's point of view
Recognizing that it takes time for our growth to be visible to others
Rebuilding trust with our children in addiction recovery
The freedom of no longer feeling like a fraud
Learning to trust others with our stories
Trusting our own authenticity - that we will be accepted just as we are
Keeping promises to ourselves must be the priority.
Join in the conversation!
We would love to hear your thoughts:
Visit our website at throughtheglassrecovery.com
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In this episode, we discuss what we've learned about managing negative emotions in recovery.  Most of us with alcohol problems used drinking to numb the emotions we didn't otherwise know how to deal with. The hard ones - grief, sadness, depression, anxiety, regret, dread. When we decide to get sober, we have to find ways to deal with those emotions, without turning them off. Listen as we are joined by Molly, Chelsea, and Brian to share how we've learned to accept our emotions and move through them in healthy ways.
Healthy distraction as a coping mechanism
Tools for distracting
Learning to give space to our emotions
Validating vs. invalidating emotions
Learning to treat yourself kindly
The trial and error process of developing coping skills
How to take breaks from hard emotions without using substances
EMDR therapy
Finding community and learning to share the hard things
Accepting that being uncomfortable is part of the process
Let's Connect!
throughtheglassrecovery.com
throughtheglassrecovery@gmail.com
Instagram - @throughtheglassrecovery

Authenticity is the pathway to healthy friendships in recovery
When we quit drinking, one thing we worry about is how our relationships and friendships are going to change. It can be intimidating. Will we be any fun to hang out with anymore? Will our friends support our decision? Are we going to lose friends? Listen as we share our experiences with all of these questions, and a lot more. In this episode, we talk with Debs, Brian, and Ben about how nurture healthy friendships in recovery
Other aspects of friendships in recovery that we discuss include:
How we've inspired others by being honest about our recovery
Learning to let go of friendships that no longer serve our values
Discovering new and more meaningful friendships
How we make new friends now that we are sober
Discussing how our standards for friendships have grown
How we are better at being good friends
Realizing that vulnerable, meaningful conversation creates true connection
Honoring ourselves by saying no and being careful about choosing what events we attend
What we end up realizing is that we used to drink to feel like we fit in. Now we share our sober, authentic selves and we learn where we truly belong. As Brene Brown says, "Fitting in is the greatest barrier to belonging."
Join in the conversation!
We would love to hear your thoughts:
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How honest are you, really?
Let's chat about the importance of honesty in recovery. Have you ever hidden a bottle of alcohol from your partner and worried all day that they’d find it? Told someone you’d quit drinking, but just hid it from them instead? Have you ever told the hair dresser you love your new style, when inside you’re cringing?
Honesty seems easy… until we really get honest with ourselves. In this episode, we talk with Brian, Antje, and Michal, with special guest Corina, about honesty in recovery. Most of us consider honesty to be an important value in our lives, but the more we dig into it, the more we realize the places where we tend to be more dishonest than we thought – lying to make others feel better, lying by omission, lying to ourselves. Listen as we dig into honesty, and talk about some of the areas we struggle, and what we’ve learned.
Other areas of honesty in recovery that we discuss in this episode include:
Being brutally honest with ourselves is the foundation of recovery
Can honesty be self-serving?
Lying about likes/dislikes to fit in
Saying “I’m fine” when we’re not
Misplaced honesty and vulnerability
Perfectionism – omitting truths to maintain the “perfect” appearance
Lying is based in shame and fear
Taking the time to discover our own truth
There’s an enormous sense of freedom in being honest
Lying to avoid hurting others’ feelings or disappointing them
In-depth discussion about journaling effectively as a sobriety tool
“Awareness of the problem is the first step to the solution.”
In the introduction to the topic, Julie mentions the book Rewired by Erica Spiegelman. Rewired is the book that Julie used to jump-start her recovery journey, and reinforces the importance of honesty in recovery. For more information about the book and the author, visit www.ericaspiegelman.com
We’d love to hear from you!
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