Alcohol...as an Escape - with Brendon Watt
Episode 188
My guest today is Brendon Watt who overcame his alcoholism to become a worldwide speaker, best-selling author and facilitator
In this episode:-
- Brendon grew up in Australia, within an unstable family and a lot of abuse.
- His father had a formula for what a man should be, emphasizing the importance of being tough and having a trade.
- Brendon tried to conform to these expectations by working in construction but by his late 20’s he was totally depressed.
- By trying to gain his fathers love and respect he lost himself and knew the life he was leading was not the right life for him
- By chance he discovered a technique called Access Consciousness and decided to give it a try
- Brendon booked a session and spent an hour and a half sobbing as he released his buried emotions
- He was so inspired by the Access Consciousness process that he trained to be a facilitator and began to make some positive changes in his life
- However he was still struggling with alcohol, which he saw as his “back door” – his escape
- This made me think of Glennon Doyle who talks about using alcohol as the “easy button” to avoid emotional discomfort
- Like so many of us Brendon spent years trying (and failing) to cut down on his drinking – trapped in an endless cycle of stopping and starting
- Brendon eventually hit rock bottom and decided to go to AA
- Although he was terrified of losing his back door escape he persevered
- He attended lots of AA meetings, and worked with a sponsor.
- He realised that he was going to have to go through some painful stuff, including stuff from his childhood that was very difficult to face…
- He realised that going through this pain would result in personal growth
- He did the work and gradually his life began to change
- We agreed that the journey to sobriety is a process that leads to freedom and a more authentic life.
- We also agreed that getting sober was just 10% of the journey but that it was the essential part – without sobriety we cannot tackle the rest of the work and learn to thrive
- When we quit drinking we need to take responsibility for our happiness – we can no longer rely on alcohol for those chemical highs