Episode Details

Tribe Sober - inspiring an alcohol-free life!

My guest this week is an inspiring young man - Liam is a Brit who is now living in Germany.  He began drinking at 13 and finds himself in early recovery in his 30's.

In this Episode

• Liam’s first experience of alcohol was at 13 when he downed half a litre of vodka and promptly passed out
• That experience would put many people off but in fact he was keen to do it again and carried on drinking heavily – keen to fit in with his skateboarding crowd.
• At 16 he left home to gain more freedom and that’s when drugs entered the mix.
• By the age of 24 he knew he had a problem on his hands and he did try to sober up now and again – problem was every time he did this his relapses would be serious – anything from a week to a month when he would be drinking from the moment he woke up – to the time he went to bed.
• Alcohol took Liam to a very dark place – he felt he had created a horrible life for himself and he just wanted to escape it.
• He had suicidal thoughts which were being fuelled by alcohol.
• In 2018 he started journaling - he would read back over the pages and see the pain in the words – he knew he had to do something or he would not survive.
• He chose an unusual method to get sober (one that is certainly not in our toolkit!) – he decided to move to a different country!
• Liam moved to Germany, where he re-invented himself as Sober Liam – he created an entirely new friend circle – anyone who didn’t accept his sobriety just didn’t fit in with his new life
• This approach reminds me of the “Pregnancy Principle” which Laura McKowan talks about in her book “We are the Luckiest”. She says treat your sobriety as a pregnancy – it has to be protected above anything else.  Anybody or anything that doesn’t fit in with your sobriety has to go!
• In spite of his resolve it was obviously not an easy path and a few months into sobriety Liam wanted to drink – "to have a bit of fun" as he puts it.
• He powered through this difficult patch and started writing – the writing really helped him. He was writing about sobriety and it gave him some accountability. 
• He was researching his articles and educating himself about the harm that alcohol does to us which also helped him to resist it.
• Liam is such a talented writer and I discovered him via his articles on Medium – his Soberversary is next month so I’m hoping he will write a "Goodbye to Alcohol" letter for our collection.
• If you haven’t discovered our "Goodbye to Alcohol" letters yet then please go to tribesober.com and hit Inspiration
• We talked about Liam's future – he has many happy and healthy years ahead of him which certainly wouldn’t have been the case had he still been drinking!

He even gave us a few tips…

1. Find a community of people on the same path – people who will understand you.  If you broadcast your sobriety to all your family and friends too early then you may find they are not all supportive.
2. Have your story ready - sound confident when you say you’re not drinking – people will be less likely to persist.
3. Accept the fact that you will never be able to drink and make it a priority for a while (back to the pregnancy principle)
4. Don’t wait until you hit rock bottom!
5. Spend time alone - search for activities which will bring you joy

• Here at Tribe Sober we start our annual 66 day challenge on 27 September - Sober Spring here in South Africa but can be a Sober Autumn as well!
• Membership also allows you to find your people as we welcome you into our supportive community - and this month new members will get a complimentary Sober