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I spent a long time asking myself whether I had a problem with alcohol. Not out loud but in my head. It usually started in that window between waking up and getting out of bed, then in the shower, at my desk over coffee, on the drive home. I was good at thinking things through, solving problems. I’d built a career on it. So I thought this through, thoroughly and continuously. I solved precisely: nothing. That was the loop. I’ve since heard versions of it from almost every man

You started the day with a clear intention. Not drinking tonight and you meant it. By mid-morning it still felt on track. By lunch, manageable. Then five o’clock arrives and you’re cooked! You pack up, amble to the car and somewhere on the drive home you pass the friendly drive-through. The one you’ve pulled into more times than you remember. Oh yeah, today is a hard no. But this night, a small voice surfaces. "A drink would be good right now..." You push it down and keep dr

There's a recurrent theme I come back to in my coaching work. It describes something so precisely that most men stop for a moment and will recognise it instantly. Not because it's confronting but because it's accurate. You might know it too. The f*ck it switch. Most men I work with know this moment intimately. They may or may not have had the same name for it. In that tiny gap between logic and impulse, they blinked at the drink they weren't supposed to have and just shrugged

What are the 10 most commonly asked alcohol questions? Most men who are quietly questioning their drinking start the same way. They go looking for answers online. Reddit threads at midnight, Quora questions they'd never ask out loud, Google searches they clear from their history. The questions are usually the same. Am I drinking too much. Why can't I just moderate. How do I know if I actually have a problem. I spent some time researching the questions men ask most often about

A cold vodka soda with a slice of lemon poses a playful question, challenging typical health perceptions. In today’s health-focused world, many people are curious about the nutritional aspects of alcoholic drinks. You might hear claims that certain beverages, like red wine or vodka, offer health benefits. While these ideas are popular, they are often based on myths rather than solid evidence. It's important to recognize that the alcohol itself may negate any benefits offered

There are two ways to try to change your drinking. I know this because I tried both. The first is behaviour based. You decide to stop, you white knuckle your way through it, and you use willpower to hold the line every time the urge surfaces. I did this for nearly nine years. Then I caved and drank again. The second is different. You stop trying to stop. You dig into understanding what alcohol actually does, how it works, why it has the hold it does. You change the way you fe

The Moderation Cycle, what is that? Well, the Moderation Cycle is closely related to the four stroke Otto Cycle. The Otto cycle describes the internal combustion engine processes of induction, compression, ignition, and exhaust. Otherwise known as suck, squeeze, bang, blow. (Yes its a little bit tongue in cheek but there is a message here) Like the Otto Cycle, the Moderation Cycle too, has four stages: It Sucks - Feeling or knowing your current drinking is a problem It Squeez

Don't let drinking be the sneaky future thief! What if the choices you make around drinking today are quietly stealing from the person you desire to become? Most of us make short term decisions without much thought for how alcohol affects our future. We act on convenience, push through, do what everyone else is doing. Rarely stopping to ask what the cumulative effect of those choices might actually look like ten or twenty years from now. Twenty years ago if you had asked me w

The never ending Alcohol Moderation Cycle! It starts with an awareness, an awareness that something about your drinking is not quite right, somehow not serving you and you feel its beginning to impact on your life. You start to question what you are doing, are you drinking too much, are you harming yourself or others? Everyone has hangovers but you seem to have them more than you ever did. Comments from family and friends start to add to your feelings of not liking where you

I get it. You just want to drink normally. Have a couple, enjoy yourself, and leave it at that. But somewhere along the way that stopped working. Alcohol seems to take more than it gives now. It gets away from you at times. There's a pull to keep going once you start that wasn't always there. You stare at your third or fourth drink and ask yourself why. Why can't I just have one or two like everyone else seems to. In the back of your mind there's a nagging worry that somethin

Normalisation of Deviance", ‘The gradual process through which unacceptable practice or standards become acceptable. As the deviant behaviour is repeated without catastrophic results, it becomes the social norm..' Over time, as our drinking increases and our problems slowly increase, we accept it as the new normal within ourselves. Until we become aware our drinking ISN'T normal, ISN'T serving us, we cannot even envisage change. Then, one day we think to ourselves, usually i

Some roots are stubborn and buried deep. much like our subconcious thoughts about what alcohol does for us! I tripped over the old hibiscus stump for a final time, the eyesore been dead for a while and it was time to dig it out! You could say it it was definitely no longer serving us in that corner of the garden. I went to work on removing it, the surface roots were pretty easy to break away. Being an Alcohol Freedom Coach I'm often thinking about parallels between my alcohol

Never underestimate the power of the subconscious mind. You might think your conscious mind and subconscious are on an even keel, however when push comes to shove the subconscious can make itself known in amazing and sometimes scary ways. One Thursday afternoon on my way home from work I pulled into the supermarket carpark to pick up some milk and bread. Since the local liquor store entrance was right next door to the main entrance I had an internal conversation about getting