Gill welcomes Beth Bowen, LMSW to the show. This episode is your guide to understanding why we use alcohol to attempt to regulate our nervous system and calm us down. Alcohol is a quick fix that brings down intolerable emotions, but drinking to cope makes us even less tolerant of big emotions in the future.

In this episode you’ll learn:

Beth’s experience working with veterans and in the emergency room as a social worker
The idea of “knowing better” better not being able to change your drinking
The risk to licensure for a medical or mental health professional struggling with substances
Emotion intensity and drinking to regulate emotions
How our nervous system works and how it can become dysregulated
Why we are so drawn to drinking alcohol to regulate our nervous system
What the window of tolerance is and how this can increase the risk of turning to alcohol to cope
Why morality (good/bad, strong/weak) has nothing to do with it
How do identify if you have a narrow window of tolerance and how to improve your ability to tolerate emotions
How to learn healthy coping strategies

Beth is a therapist and sober coach living in Austin, TX with her husband and two boys. She has been sober from alcohol for 4.5 years, and now helps other women change their relationship with alcohol through group and 1:1 coaching. Beth also founded Sober Stories, a multimedia platform dedicated to the power of storytelling in the sober space. Sober Stories publishes new podcast episodes every Friday, featuring interviews of folks all across the sober spectrum.

Connect with Beth:
https://wearesoberstories.com/

https://bethbowen.co/

Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sober-stories/id1612979571

My interview on Sober Stories:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sober-powered-with-gill-tietz-of-sober-powered/id1612979571?i=1000559091670

As a listener of Sober Powered you get special discounts from my sponsors! Thank you for supporting the show by supporting my sponsors!

Soberlink is offering you $50 off an alcohol monitoring system that includes a breathalyzer device with facial recognition that allows you to share your sobriety in real time. Soberlink has also created a free resources guide specifically for Sober Powered listeners “How to Hold Yourself Accountable in Early Recovery”. Use this link to get your copy of the guide
https://bit.ly/3Bp2krx

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Disclaimer: This is not medical advice.

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