113. Expert Strategies for Mental Health and Mental Toughness with Colleen Ryan Hensley

Do you ever feel like you are trapped in an endless cycle of using mechanisms to cope from certain things that are also caused by other coping mechanisms? Have you ever found yourself on the way out of it, only to be enticed to come back to your old ways?

Being sober from escape mechanisms is one thing that many of us surely look forward to this year. That is why in our previous episode, I talked to you about alcohol; its short-term and long-term effects on you, and why you probably should take a pause from consuming it.

Colleen Ryan Hensley is a former Navy veteran and is a mental health advocate. She spent 15 years reinventing “mental toughness”, in the form of her program called #BingingSober which aims to help people take time away from the destructive escape mechanisms that they do.

In this episode, Colleen talks about mental toughness and the idea and importance of being connected with yourself as she relates it to the way we behave around escapism.

What you will learn from this episode:

• Learn about the concept of self-connection and its importance on your journey toward sobriety;
• Get a deeper understanding of the escapisms that we use to soothe and their short-term and long-term effects; and
• Get tips on how to retrain your mind not to think that you need to indulge in escapisms

“#BingingSober is about abstaining from one of your unhealthy habits. Be a part of a routine. A lot of these are unconscious, and since they're so socially acceptable, it's just a part of our everyday and we don't ever question it. So, it's a matter of being an active participant in our lives and stepping away from something for as little as 24 hours.” – Colleen Ryan Hensley 

Today’s Health Bite: It's okay to just be okay, be at that zero. That balance is the sober state that I believe we're all seeking.

Checkout the movement #BingingSober - An online educational resource to guide you through the practice of #BingingSober. Join the Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/bingingsober/


Ways to Connect with Colleen Ryan Hensley:

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Transcript

Expert Strategies for Mental Health and Mental Toughness,  Escapisms to Soothe Short-term and Long-term effects of  Depression, Alcohol Abuse, and Trauma with Colleen Ryan Hensley

Dr. Adrienne Youdim

Well, Colleen, I'm so excited to have you here. It's such an appropriate time, it's dry January. Welcome. 

Colleen Ryan Hensley

Thanks, Adrienne. Thank you for having me. 

HOW COLLEEN GOT INTERESTED IN PERFORMANCE PSYCHOLOGY, AND HOW SHE AIMS TO SPREAD ITS MESSAGE TO THE MASSES

Dr. Adrienne Youdim

Yes, it's my pleasure. I think my readers and podcast listeners know that alcohol has become an interesting subject for me personally. I write about it in the book “Hungry for More”, and talk about my personal realization, about my relationship with alcohol, and not having to have a negative relationship per se to question it. So, I'm curious. Tell me kind of how you got interested in this work. 

Colleen Ryan Hensley

Well, just a little bit about me. My background is in performance psychology. I spent 11 years in the elite. Super into the mental toughness aspect and the stoicism. I say that because it's a mission of mine to redefine mental toughness, to include going back to those feelings that a lot of times are wreaking havoc on our mental health and causing us to use these escape-isms to feel better, but they rarely ever make us feel better.

And so, performance psychology is really methods in peak performance. But I want to take that to the masses with a program that I created called #BingingSober. A lot of these performance tactics are really the underpinnings of this process that I've used myself for over 20 years, my time in the military and out to manage my mental health and to manage my unhealthy relationships with alcohol, with food, with all of these other escape-isms that have become even more accessible through the pandemic and even more socially acceptable.

And so, I really want to talk about what it means to control them instead of having them control us. 

Dr. Adrienne Youdim

So important, such important work and such an important language, because you're right, there's definitely been a movement and an understanding and awareness around – I would call it even emotional maturity – having the wherewithal to know or to tolerate your emotions. But I think underlying that is permission. And we were talking before we started recording how we're kind of the same generation. And certainly, when we were growing up, not only was there no permission, I think for that, but it was not deemed valuable or even wanted. You know, what was coveted was pull yourself up by your bootstraps. 

Colleen Ryan Hensley

Rub some dirt on it, and get back in the game. 

THE ROLE THAT ALCOHOL PLAYED IN COLLEEN’S JOURNEY TO HER CURRENT WORK

Dr. Adrienne Youdim

Yes. So, I want to talk about that. But I wanted to take a higher level of you first and ask you what in particular about alcohol brought you to this work? Was it a personal journey, and a few things. I would love to hear more about that. 

Colleen Ryan Hensley

Absolutely a personal journey. So, going back to our mid to late eighties, I was suffering with a lot of depression. But at that point I didn't know what it was. My parents didn't know what it was. No one knew what it was, and we weren't able to talk about those things. And that's when I started turning to alcohol to escape really early on. It was in my environment. My father has passed from liver cancer. And so, for my youth, it was just a part of what was around me. That was what he used, and what his business life looked like was a lot of partying and things. And so, that was available to me. And I snuck access and started using it to “feel better”. But we all know that that's not necessarily what happens. And so, when I did, fast forward to 21 years of age, that's when I really felt mentally and physically tough enough. There's that word again – “tough enough” – to join the military, which was always a dream of mine; to be in the Navy. And so, in that culture, the drunken sailor culture is very, very accurate. It was even more of this “Let's forget about all the discomfort and stress and all of that and let's just party, party, party”. And so, it wasn't until I started going out to sea, I was on destroyers – and I this is a very dramatic example – but I didn't have access to it anymore. I didn't have access to that main escapism that I was leaning on to try to feel better and try to avoid these feelings. So, what happened was I started to experience a sense of connection with myself that I hadn't ever had. You could argue because if I started drinking in my teens, now I'm in my twenties, almost mid-twenties, your awareness is growing anyways. So then, I'm connecting with myself without alcohol. And I wasn't consciously doing so, but in my time on land when I wasn't at sea, I was feeling this huge difference in quality of life, like just this massive shift. And so, that is really what inspired the process that has now become #BingingSober. It started with my relationship with alcohol. 

Dr. Adrienne Youdim

You were drinking on land, is what you're saying. 

Colleen Ryan Hensley

Yes, I was going right back into my old habits. Not so much when I was traveling, but when I was home. Thank goodness I wasn't wasting those opportunities away. But when I was home in San Diego, it was just a big, social happy hour, one big happy hour. And so, I would get right back into that same routine and realize that my depression, the symptoms were coming back. And it took me a while to put those two things together. 

HOW COLLEN DEFINES “BEING WITH YOURSELF” OR SELF-CONNECTION

Dr. Adrienne Youdim

Yeah. And I want to double down on two things that come up for me as I listen to you speak, Colleen.

The first is the acknowledgment that so much of our culture is built around alcohol. And I think it's insidious, it's sneaky, the way it gets in because we know that the person who opens up a bottle of wine during the day, or in the morning, or starts their morning with a can of beer like, “Oh, that's quote, ‘bad’”. And so, that may be a deterrent to doing that because we know on some level it's not socially acceptable. Part of the problem with alcohol is that it has become socially acceptable in so many of our circles, amongst sailors, amongst professionals in my own profession, the medical profession, which is surprising. A lawyer, I mean, in every “mommy and me” circles, child care. Every venue of our lives is now around alcohol. And I think it's important because it normalizes it. 

Colleen Ryan Hensley

Absolutely. 

Dr. Adrienne Youdim

But when you normalize something, it's an inverted or a reverse shame, because those people who find that they can't tolerate it or maybe they just don't want to, because in your story – and this was the second point I want to get to – I'm not hearing this catastrophic event. You had a DUI. You drunk yourself into oblivion. It was awareness that you wanted to pursue, that there was nothing change or dramatic that made you change.

And so, the first point is that I want to acknowledge that it's everywhere; and so, it makes it seem okay when it really might not be. And second, we don't need to wait until something catastrophic happens or something catastrophic may never happen. But we can still question our relationship. And for you, you realized that it was not allowing you to be with yourself.

So, I want you to get into that a little bit more in that realization. And what does that even mean? Being with yourself.

Colleen Ryan Hensley

What does that mean? Well, that's the seat of our self-regulation. It’s our connection with our self. This keen awareness of what's happening inside. Like “What is happening inside?” And since I was a part of this, all of us, you are a part of this tough culture that is excusing or ignoring this entire half of a spectrum of feelings because we're perceiving them as bad when really, they're a part of life that we need to move through and process in order to heal. Like, that's what it was about for me. It’s that I knew that I started using alcohol – overusing alcohol. Like you said, it's insidious. I mean, it could just start with a “happy hour”. For me, I was like, “Oh, I don't have a problem because I can go weeks without it”. Well, no, if I'm binge drinking in one night, that's just as horrible for our brains, and our bodies, and our minds, and etc.

So, it really, like I said, became like this light bulb that I was feeling things that I never felt. And really it was just normal, everyday feelings that once I started to move through in process, I realized I was healing parts that were causing me or triggering me or giving me a cue to go drink to avoid. 

HABITUAL ESCAPISM AND HOW COLLEEN’S #BingingSober MOVEMENT STARTED

Dr. Adrienne Youdim

Right. So, it allows you to have a level of awareness that you wouldn't have otherwise had because you were using – unbeknownst to you – in this case was the alcohol; for soothing an emotion. And this is so universal because in my work, I talk about the hunger and how we use food to suppress the hunger. But oftentimes, as we all know, when we find ourselves rummaging in the pantry, it's not physical hunger that drives us there. We're in the pantry and we're like, “Why the hell are we in the pantry? I just ate”. And so, the food is suppressing something else, and sometimes it's benign or simple, like, “Really, I'm just tired. It's 11:30, I’m watching Netflix and I should just be asleep”. And sometimes it's something deeper, like “It's 11:00 at night and I'm watching Netflix, but my husband's asleep and that makes me feel or reminds me that maybe we're disconnected or I'm lonely. And so, that it's soothing a spiritual or emotional hunger. Whether we're talking about alcohol or food or you said the “isms”- whether it's Amazon or that sex thing, or whatever it is, it's something that that we are doing mindlessly to soothe another emotion. 

Colleen Ryan Hensley

I call it habitual escapism. That's where a #BingingSober started. But what happened was I started working on my relationship with alcohol and abstaining, and then I noticed that there were other “isms” underneath. So then, it became about, “What is this like? What are all of these other things that I'm using and what else can I discover?” And so #BingingSober is about abstaining from one of your unhealthy habits. Be a part of a routine. A lot of these are unconscious, and since they're so socially acceptable, it's just a part of our everyday and we don't ever question it. So, it's a matter of being an active participant in our lives and stepping away from something for as little as 24 hours. I find that creates just enough space to then start questioning it. You know, even this giant, Sober, Curious movement. It’s like 40 million plus people questioning their relationship with alcohol and the sober and bingeing sober is about abstaining from intoxication in every sense of the term so that we can create that space and that self-connection and really explore what this sober mind is. Like, “What is this mental state that we're all looking for when we try to feel better, whether it be with food or alcohol or shopping or any of these things? We may not be thinking about it consciously, but there is a mental state that we are looking for, we're trying to get to.” None of that stuff works. What works is really plugging in to ourselves and to our real life that we're avoiding with these things. 

JOURNEY TOWARDS SELF-CONNECTION; MANAGING YOUR DISCOMFORTS INSTEAD OF ALLOWING IT TO CONTROL YOU

Dr. Adrienne Youdim

And I think we know that on a conscious level. I think if we think about it, it's like what our parents may have told us, it's what the gurus tell us. We recognize that being present is important. We recognize that all feelings are okay and that when you avoid all the “isms”, that you can really connect with yourself.

But can we be honest here for a minute? Because the reality is that, it feels like shit sometimes to feel those emotions, especially at the beginning. So, can you describe a little bit the before you got to this beautiful place where you are, connecting with yourself? 

Colleen Ryan Hensley

The rainbows and the butterflies? 

Dr. Adrienne Youdim

Yes. Can we back it up, and tell us a little bit about maybe the discomfort you experienced when you first started doing this and how you managed it? Because I think when we give people the false hope or expectation that it's always roses and butterflies, we really do people a disservice. Because then they think, “Oh, there's just something else wrong with me that I'm not getting to that place of Eureka and euphoria.” 

Colleen Ryan Hensley

I'm so glad you brought this up, because with the program, one of the things that I use is awareness, control, and balance of our escapism.

So, balance being imagine a scale from -10 to 0 then to positive 10. Exactly what you said; these rainbows and butterflies. We’re thinking, “Oh, I need to be like elated all the time and try and smile on my face and just glowing in health for us to be okay.” And what I'm saying is it's okay to just be okay, be at that zero. That balance is the sober state that I believe we're all seeking.

With that, I love earlier when we were talking about my not having a rock bottom. Something very interesting happened to me during my time in the military, at the height of my drinking, when I was 22 – at the height of my mental toughness, I experienced an assault. I took full responsibility because I had been drinking. I'd rub some dirt on it, got back in the game and repressed those, I faced the people involved. I told them to forget about it like I would, and I repressed it for 15 years. Didn't even think about it until it started haunting me.

Following the military, during all of this exploration of all of these things that I felt were impacting me, I actually revived or unburied that trauma. So, there was a lot of discomfort there. It is very scary and I would put my life behind it. Going back to the uncomfortable feelings is the tough part. That's what I'm talking about with redefining mental toughness and adding that other half that we're missing as a society. That is the tough part. The tough part is the discomfort. And I know that it's just not so easy to say. Depression doesn't go away, I manage it.

And this is the system that I found helpful in managing it. It is from a strength-based perspective. I understand that, but I don't want listeners or readers to think that I'm sitting here saying rainbows and butterflies all the time, because it's actually quite the opposite. It's a very tailored, very individual thing that we all experience. Like what is elation? What is bliss? What does it mean to have a bad day? I mean, they're so individual and we have our ideas of what that might be. But when we do take the time to connect with ourselves – I'll give you my example. When I'm having what I would consider the blues or lower day, and I'm allowing myself to just stay in my bed and zone out on TV, when I'm allowing myself to do that, it's a place of having the power over it that makes the difference. It's not just like this passive going along with life and never checking in. It's an understanding, an awareness of how these things impact me and in what amounts and what frequency. In what ways can I use them so that the judgment of myself doesn't follow it. It's like you're just taking control, you're taking the reins and you're managing it instead of allowing it to control you. 

Dr. Adrienne Youdim

What comes to mind as I hear you speak is something that I talk about a lot with my patients, which is getting out of autopilot. Because we absolutely we do these things unbeknownst to us, not thinking. And I think maybe alcohol doesn't fall into that realm, because you know that you're doing it or you're in a setting where you're seeing it.

But certainly, when it comes to food, how often do we grab something and we don't even remember having eaten it because we weren't present? I often tell patients when I tell somebody to write a food blog, it's not so much because I'm doing the calorie counting of the days long gone. It's more that I want them just to recognize, “Oh yeah, I did maybe grab a handful of almonds while I was passing the kitchen. Oh yeah, I did grab a handful of M&Ms from so-and-so's desk when I went in there to give them a document.” I don't know. And it's not so much about saying “Tsk tsk, why did you do that?” It's just that if we were so mindless that we didn't even dial in, chances are, we didn't even enjoy it. We didn't even feel it. So, it's just a matter of getting out of autopilot and dialing in.

But to go back to this issue of mental toughness being the ability to sit with difficult emotions, it really is distressing sometimes. And so, I do want to just point out that we don't need to do this alone. A therapist is a great person to help. Sometimes a coach, if it's not something severe like depression. Sometimes a coach or a life coach or something of that sort can help. But even practices and personal practices. So, I talk about actionable bites on Health Bite, this podcast. Actionable practices like exercise, journaling, writing, being in nature, these are scientific evidence-based practices that help us tolerate the distress that is normal in human. 

Colleen Ryan Hensley

Yes, exactly. And when I talk about escapisms, I'm talking about a spectrum from habitual escapism to purposeful escape. There are lots of things that are inherently toxic, right? Alcohol being the main, most accessible one that we experience an excess, that's inherently toxic. We know that at this point. Then there's this whole other spectrum that are potentially toxic; social media, TV, food, etc. These things that because we're using them in the amounts, the frequency that we're using them, because we're judging ourselves for using them in certain ways, that's when they impact us in unhealthy ways.

But then, the natural escapes, everything that you were just mentioning, there are natural escapes. They're also altering our mental state. We can argue to the place we're trying to get. So, it’s about being aware and just managing them. It's knowing exactly like you said, just simply paying attention. “Hey, I'm doing this. This is how it might be making me feel.” Like you said, if I'm just grabbing something to eat, I'm not even feeling anything. Maybe I'm not even paying attention at all. Knowing that is just creating that awareness around it. But then, understanding that with that time and that energy that you're getting back from not doing that thing, or if you do choose to do that thing, knowing exactly what you can do to reverse the impact.

And there's something that you said, “I'm a huge mental health advocate. If you said ‘I will give you $10 million right now, don't ever see your therapist again’, I would tell you absolutely not. Never, ever would I do that.” It has been the greatest adventure of my lifetime, just healing and using professional support like that. So, I did want to point that out. But yeah, there's a lot to uncover under all of these things that we've just made a normal part of our day that are really the biggest threat to our health and our mental health as a society. 

WORKING ON A LONGER, BIGGER GOAL IS MORE FULFILLING THAN AN “INSTANT” REWARD

Dr. Adrienne Youdim

I think it's worthwhile to point out – since we're talking about alcohol. But all of these things; the social media, highly palatable foods like yummy foods, so to speak, that these are all giving us a quick... […]

But it's worthwhile to point out that yes, these other things do give us that immediate reward. And I think there is this movement of, “Why not? Why are we depriving ourselves? Why shouldn't we enjoy that reward?” And this is not about being puritan, but it is worthwhile to say that the degree of quickness of the reward actually is associated with the degree of habitual behavior. 

Colleen Ryan Hensley

Yes. I'm so glad you brought that up. We actually get fuller amounts of neurochemicals happening when we have to work for something or when it's a bigger goal and it's not right there and we get to grab it. 

Dr. Adrienne Youdim

It's more durable, right? It's not as quick, but it is more sustained. 

Colleen Ryan Hensley

It's enduring.

Dr. Adrienne Youdim

And I think that's important to point out, because if you're going to take away my glass of wine and my cheeseboard, girl, you better give me something to hang on to. 

Colleen Ryan Hensley

If you tell me not to eat popcorn, all I'm going to think about is the popcorn. So, I'm not saying not to eat the popcorn. I'm saying, just put it off for a week or to next week. 

RETRAINING YOUR MIND: COLLEEN’S TIPS ON HOW TO STAY AWAY FROM ESCAPISMS WHEN IT IS ALL AROUND YOU

Dr. Adrienne Youdim [00:23:31]

Well, let's get back to, though, putting it off, because there is this big movement – especially at the beginning of the year, Dry January is a big one and there's a big sober, curious movement. And I've shared on Instagram with my patients or followers and that I was very much part of that wine culture. It started when I was actually a professional, not even when I was younger, but as an adult. And it was something very fit with my professional social scene. It was only when several months ago I decided to level up before I was doing my TEDx talk that I wanted to dispose the chemicals and substances in my life.

And so, I put away my glass of wine and as a result I realized, “Oh wow, I didn't have a ‘problem’, but I am sleeping better. My mood is more regulated.” All of these things, which then just made me consider continuing it. And so, I've continued it. Even though the TED talk was done several months ago.

But I did notice that multiple times per week, I was in a situation where everybody around me was drinking and I wasn't and I didn't have a problem per se. So, I wouldn't have these thoughts of like, “Well, why shouldn't I? I don't really have a problem. And my husband's drinking. And I'm at a party or I'm at a dinner event or I'm at a Halloween party for the kids.” I mean, so many times in the last several months where I was like, “Oh my God, something's wrong with me because I'm not doing what everybody else is doing.” Can you address that? And can you can you address what were the tools? Because, again, even if this is not forever, and even if you don't have a problem, if you are curious about putting away alcohol or one of these escapism for a short period of time, you're going to need a tool to manage the fact that everyone around you is doing it. So, can you talk about that a little bit and if you had any personal tips? 

Colleen Ryan Hensley

Yeah. Well, firstly, the fact that it's so accessible, the fact that we think we need to have a problem in order to back off, the fact that you're at a party and you feel like there's something wrong with you because you're not poisoning yourself. Look, it's just so bad. 

Dr. Adrienne Youdim

It's bizarro world. 

Colleen Ryan Hensley

It's bizarro world. I mean, obviously, as a society, we need to start reversing that. And we are, we're seeing that with the Sober Curious movement, with a giant market for mocktails, and all of these fun craft mocktails. All that stuff is fantastic. And it's also more accessible now, and it looks fancy, so you can actually feel like you're involved. And that's one of my tips is to feel like you're involved. You don't have to tell anybody that you're not drinking, you can look like you are. I do that. I'll order a soda with cranberry or something in it and I'll ask for a nice glass. Very simple tips, but we're retraining, so that's like more of a society. And then, our friend groups, we could question. But then, it comes down to us and like tips for myself.

Well, you've already talked about journaling, right? The reason why that's so important is because you're making – we talk about self-connection again – you're retraining pathways in your brain. And so, for me, I noticed that I would – because I was journaling and paying attention – and it doesn't have to be like pages upon pages of journaling. I've tried different things. I've used emojis, I've used numbers, I've used different things. Whatever works for someone or whatever works for you, record it in your phone, use a note in your phone, make it easy and accessible so that you can refer to it because you're going to want to.

So, you're retraining this pathway in your brain that thinks you need to drink to have fun or drink to be involved or all of those things. Eventually, I got to a place where it's like instead of A to B, like I need to drink in order to have fun, even one glass of wine messes with my sleep. I can't touch alcohol and have a good night's sleep. It doesn't matter. It just doesn't matter. And that's another thing; as a society, we think we're sober after it leaves our blood, our blood alcohol content or whatever. No, this stuff takes days to leave us. So, when you're paying attention like that, you realize how long that one glass of wine is going to impact you, you also realize exactly what you said: the clarity that you have and how good your feelings are. So, you're going to want to record all that and remember it for next time you think about having a drink. Because you're retraining a pathway to say, A, this glass of wine = B feeling like garbage. And so, it's just really making that a quick understanding or a quick pathway in your brain to make the decision not to act easier. 

THE NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF YOUR BINGING STAYS WITH YOU LONGER THAN YOU THINK

Dr. Adrienne Youdim

It's taking me to the thought of really aligning with your “why” or why it is your values. And I think we can take us back to food, too, which is my area of work, that we can't isolate the experience to just that moment. We can't isolate the rhetoric or the repercussion and make it negative. But we can't isolate just that moment that we had the glass of wine and we were like, “Oh, with our friends.” We can't just look at that moment that we may have binged on excessive amounts of sweets or binged on excessive amount of really heavy foods. In that moment, yes, it feels good. In that moment it feels good. What we have to take into consideration is the whole picture. What happens 30 minutes later? What happened 60, 90 minutes later, after that sugary binge? We crash, we feel lethargic, we feel irritable, we feel tired. And that is part of the experience, not just that 30 minutes. What happens long term? We know that eating these kinds of foods is associated with a higher risk of depression and anxiety. And the same is true with alcohol. So, part of what I hear you saying by the journaling and the awareness, again, it's not about becoming Nietzsche and having these profound existential thoughts. It's really about just noticing what happens, not just immediately, which is where we get hung up, but what is happening that night when you get disrupted sleep, right? 

Colleen Ryan Hensley

It's happening the next day; I'm leaning on caffeine to try to stay awake. What about the next day after that? Now we're on day three. I haven't slept well in two nights because I had alcohol, then I had caffeine. I mean, this is the downward spiral that you hear or you read about in stats on mental health and suicide all of the time. This is that downward spiral. Now, that's pretty dramatic, but it can be as basic as that. That can really increase somebody's symptoms, whether they're diagnosed or not with a mental health challenge. Is that that kind of stuff – it's additive, like you're saying. The energy I wake up with this morning, I started well, we can say my entire life ago. We create it day in and day out. 

Dr. Adrienne Youdim

And to reiterate the point that there doesn't have to necessarily be a problem, we're in the midst of January, even though the resolution culture is kind of dampened a little bit, we still think about ways that we can level up the year, right? It's a new fresh month, fresh year, and we think about how we can maybe do better for ourselves. And in that vein or in that light is how I want people to consider this conversation. Do you want to be more connected in your relationships? Do you want to be more present with your kids? Yell less, enjoy more, or, the workout that we all want to start come January 1st. Is the alcohol or is that habit preventing us from feeling awake and alert or even waking up earlier so we can get that time in for exercise? Which is then linked to so many health, mental health and productivity benefits in the day.

So, if we can see this as more of an experiment to write, to “level up” our current life, which is really how I think about these things. You know, I am always thinking about, “How could I do things a little bit better?” I get triggered by that word. 

Colleen Ryan Hensley

Oh, interesting. 

Dr. Adrienne Youdim

Well. 

Colleen Ryan Hensley

The reason why I said that is because I've been keeping data on myself for as long as I can remember. And when that word came out, I was like, “Oh”, because it just explained what I had been doing. So, what is it that triggers? 

Dr. Adrienne Youdim

Well, I'll tell you, I think sometimes it gives people this feeling that they have to do something really sexy and out of the ordinary. To achieve the benefit. I feel like these habits are so available to us. And you don't have to pay a guru, or put butter on your coffee. 

Colleen Ryan Hensley 

I don’t want butter in my coffee. 

Dr. Adrienne Youdim

Why would you ruin a perfect cup of coffee by putting coconut butter or oil in it? You can just do the simple things right? Which is move our bodies, get some sleep, remove an “ism” that has been plaguing us.

This has been wonderful. Colleen, I really appreciate this conversation and talking about alcohol in the in a broader scope of tools that we can employ to live better. I'm sure that I know you have offerings that I'm sure that our listeners would be interested in learning more about you. So how can they find you? And is there anything exciting that you're doing right now that you think our listeners would benefit from? 

Colleen Ryan Hensley

Well, #BingingSober is the process that I've been talking about that I use to manage my time, my energy, to gain awareness, control, and balance of these escapisms that we find ourselves leaning on and that you can find at bingingsober.com. That is my main focus. We've started with building a community on the 1st of January. In February, we launched the point system. So, it's really about taking all of the subjective stuff that we've been talking about in this hour and really making it objective like it's a way to create your own blueprint for what feels good for you and what maybe doesn't that you want to manage and avoid. So, I'm going to stay away from the term biohacking. It's like an intervention that I've used on my own, but also, it's fantastic as a supplement to other professional support. And true abstinence programs and true professional mental health therapy or whatever, I support all of that. But it's very easy and accessible. It's no cost right now at bingingsober.com. 

Dr. Adrienne Youdim

Amazing. And we will be certain to put those in the show notes so that people can refer to them and reach out to. I'm sure that people will want to do that. I really appreciate you calling, for being here. I appreciate our listeners for tuning in every week to Health Bite.

If you found this information valuable, I would love it if you would share it with one friend who would benefit. And I look forward to seeing you all here again next week on Health Bite. Bye now.