Why we need to Ditch the Drink in Mid-life - with Lori Massicot
Episode 72
Tribe Sober - inspiring an alcohol-free life!
This weeks podcast guest is the lovely Lori Massicot a midlife sobriety coach.
I discovered Lori when I found her podcast – it’s called “to 50 and beyond” – it’s a podcast aimed at women in mid-life where she highlights the beauty of aging and the freedom that comes along with alcohol free life.
She’s on a mission to raise awareness towards the life changing impact of sobriety as we age. She interviewed me for her podcast and you can hear that conversation on episode 182 of to 50 and beyond.
It’s called “Getting Sober Over 60” and you can access it here
In this Episode
- I’m always fascinated by the way peoples drinking evolves over the years – I’m the first person to admit that drinking can be a lot of fun – until it’s not – until you become dependent - check out our podcast on how we go from "liking to wanting to needing"
- Let’s remember that 20% of social drinkers WILL become dependent over the years – if we are in that 20% then that doesn’t make us bad people – or weak people – or diseased people. It just makes us people who have become addicted to an addictive drug! People who will have to do a bit of work to change their habits – and that’s where people like myself and Lori come in – we’ve been where you are and we can help you make the change.
- As you heard Lori did the fun bit in her teens and 20’s – partying as a teenager and then working in real estate, earning good money and drinking wine with friends and colleagues.
- Then it was the mommyjuice phase – in here 30’s Lori felt depressed, put on weight and found her high pressure job all a bit much. She was using wine at home to cope with her stress and felt trapped in a vicious cycle.
- She refers to her early 40’s as the “dark years, she lost her mom and could get through two bottles of wine at a time. She had a wake up call when a family member asked her if she was an alcoholic. That’s when she realised that alcohol had become the centre of everything in her life.
- Of course like many of us she tried “the rules” (drinking only on certain days, drinking red rather than white etc etc) which of course didn’t work.
- Of course she also tried to “moderate” but of course that didn’t work either - in fact we agreed that for many of us its only when we try to cut down that we realise the extent of our problem. We realise that we have crossed a line with our drinking and it’s going to take more than a bit of willpower to make a change.
- So if you are busy trying to “moderate” and using rules to control your drinking please save yourself a lot of heartache and take a complete break – no need to use the F (forever word) – just take a break
- Every drinker needs to take regular breaks to test their dependence. Tribe Sober has just opened their annual Dry January Fundraiser which offers community and online support for 30 days - more info here.
- “Playing the Movie Forward” is a very popular tool in our community. Lori found herself “playing the movie forward 20 years” and was horrified at what she saw. She knew her drinking would escalate over the years and decided that she was done. She poured her Chardonnay down the sink and got started on her life changing journey to sobriety.
- Lori used journaling as her key tool –there is so much evidence of the value of keeping a journal – and it helps us so much when we are on this path. We can use it to process our emotions, note our triggers and track our journey.
- We can read back to the early days and see how much easier its getting and realise how many benefits we are experiencing. A
Published on 4 years ago