Welcome to the Stop Drinking Podcast, where we help you make stopping drinking a simple, logical and easy decision. We help you with tips, tools and strategies to start living your best life when alcohol-free. If you want to learn more about stop drinking coaching, then head over to wwwsoberclearcom. Do you want to know something absolutely crazy? I have been terrified of something for years absolutely terrified and when I say years, I'm talking five plus years. I've been so scared of this and today I'm going to explain what this fear is and how it is exactly the same as giving up alcohol. So if you're thinking about giving up drinking, you're contemplating it, you'd like to do it, but there's something that seems to be holding you back or even pulling you back into drinking, and you've tried a few times already. You need to watch this video. This is going to change the game. So I've drank coffee for a very long time, as long as I can remember, and it started when I was a teenager. It was a job that I had, like you know, friday, saturday night kind of thing, where I was washing up pots in an Italian restaurant. I think I've done every job known to man, right. I've been a pot wash, I've been a chef. I've done ironing in the school holidays, you know, pressing cloves. I've worked in car washes. I've been a tree surgeon. I've done laboring. When I was growing up I just did everything. I'd do anything. If somebody said there's a job going, I'm taking it Anyway. So I was working in this Italian restaurant and then I got introduced to it espresso, and I remember, you know, I just hated the taste of coffee for so long and I was about I think I must've been 19 at the time and I'm not going to tell you what I did the night before, no-transcript better, and I was able just to push through that shift and that was it. I think I've drank coffee every day from that point onwards. There's been a few times where I've had a break for a week or whatever, but that might've only been one or two times, right?
Speaker 1:Anyway, the past maybe year, I'd say I've always wanted to feel what life was like uncaffeinated. I just wanted to know what it was like. I wanted to know how I'd be if I'd be more focused, if I could concentrate better, how my productivity would be. Would it be nicer to be around. I just wanted to see what life would be like.
Speaker 1:But I just kept putting it off, and putting it off, and putting it off. I kept telling myself I just want to stop drinking coffee now, but then I wouldn't do it. And this is exactly how I was when I was stopping drinking alcohol. I would want to change, but then I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't do it, I wouldn't do it. But why not?
Speaker 1:What was it? Well, it was fear, nothing more than fear. And it was a totally irrational fear, because what I was actually afraid of was the withdrawal of quitting coffee. I was scared that I'd get headaches. I was scared that I was going to suffer with insomnia, that I was going to be depressed. I was just going to be lethargic. It was going to be this terrible, terrible thing that I built up in my head. So I just would never face it. I just wouldn't do it.
Speaker 1:But anyway, after months of deliberation, I finally said you know what I'm doing? It right, this is it. And I felt bad for three days. Not that bad, but I had low energy. I'd go for a nap for the first three days, like two hour nap in the afternoon, and then I'd sleep for 10 hours straight. But after those first maybe three days, physically I felt fine. I felt absolutely normal and there was truly nothing to be afraid of.
Speaker 1:But anyway, a lot of you will be glad to know that I did go back to caffeine. I took five weeks off, so don't worry, I'm not going to come for you and your coffee, right, alcohol? Yeah, I'm going to keep going hard at people that drink alcohol and trying to help them change. I ain't going to go near your caffeine, don't worry about it. But the weird thing is is, despite me stopping drinking and despite me knowing that the withdrawal is just not that bad Okay, don't get me wrong. With alcohol it can be. I know that's a different category for some people, but in my experience it just wasn't that bad I still built that fear up with a totally different drug for months on end.
Speaker 1:I just like with people that drink alcohol, it's I put it off and I put it off, and I put it off All because of this completely irrational fear. Sure, there were a few days that weren't that great, but they weren't that bad either. After those three days I was back at the gym, I was exercising and it was normal, right the exercise. I didn't need to push myself any harder and my training went well, and I'll tell you why. I went back to caffeine in a second.
Speaker 1:But I want to reassure you that if you're feeling this fear as well, it is totally normal, everybody feels it. This fear as well, it is totally normal, everybody feels it, and it's the only reason why people continue to drink. Why would somebody continue to put a poison in their body that does nothing for them? There's no nutritional value. It destroys pretty much every cell it comes into contact with. It's a known carcinogenic.
Speaker 1:Why would anybody continue to consume that when we know this? Well, it's this thing of fear. They're afraid of withdrawal. They think that life's going to be worse without it. So they do what I did with caffeine we put it off and we put it off and we put it off, and I wanted to let you know that it's okay to feel this way.
Speaker 1:But you have got nothing to fear, nothing to fear whatsoever. It's a trade-off right. You trade those few days of discomfort and you get your life back. You get your happiness back, your energy comes back, your clarity comes back within two to 14 days, whatever it takes, depending on the severity of your drinking, et cetera. The benefits that you gain are just so worth that two to 14 day period. And the great thing is with alcohol is, once you're through that period, once you've got through to the other side, provided that you've actually done the work right and you've changed your beliefs and done the work that I talk about on this channel, using first principles thinking, breaking the problem down into its component parts provided that you've done all this and made a true decision to stop drinking, then that's it. Now, if you want information on first principles thinking and reframing the way that you view alcohol, then definitely click one of the links in the description to access the free video training that shows you how to control your drinking quickly.
Speaker 1:But let me quickly tell you why I went back to caffeine. So I made it five weeks and physically I felt okay, but it was quite strange, like my motivation to create things, to get behind a screen, to write things, to give value to you for free on YouTube and stuff like that. My motivation to do that was pretty low. I made a couple of videos, but I just didn't really have the same drive. So for you, for viewers of this channel, I've sacrificed myself, I've gone back to drinking caffeine just so I can start being more productive.
Speaker 1:And hey, listen, maybe that's the addictive brain in my own head with caffeine. But the thing is with caffeine is that if I drink it, I'm not going to destroy my life With alcohol. If I drink that, then I am. And again, maybe that's just pure cope, but either way, I'll tell you one thing I'd built this up in my head. I should have done this experiment a year ago and gotten it out the way, done the five weeks and then said, okay, I'll drink coffee again, rather than just having it lingering in the back of my head day after day after day for months on end the exact same as stopping drinking. Thanks for checking out the Stop Drinking Podcast by Sober Clear. If you want to learn more about how we work with people to help them stop drinking effortlessly, then make sure to visit wwwsoberclearcom.