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Health & Fitness

It’s Not About the Alcohol

Would you like to reduce your alcohol consumption by about 80 percent? Become the version of you who can just “take it or leave it” so that you can enjoy drinking socially without relying on alcohol to manage your stress, anxiety, loneliness and boredom when you’re by yourself?

Most high achieving women assume over-drinking is caused by a lack of willpower–or worse, the incurable disease of “alcoholism.” So they beat themselves up and avoid asking for help because they feel ashamed and out of control.

Whether you’re a daily drinker who can’t break the habit, or you’re still going to sobriety meetings even though you don’t drink anymore, the real problem is that you don’t trust yourself.

Which means it’s not about the alcohol. It’s about your relationship with yourself.

Colleen Freeland is a a mindful drinking coach helping professional women learn how drinking less (or not at all) is actually a superpower, even when the idea of giving up the only thing that helps them quiet their mind feels impossible.

The solution to alcohol use disorder is a FEELING. If you felt comfortable in your own skin and at ease in your life, you would drink like someone who is comfortable and at ease!

Join me each week for holistic, evidence-based strategies to fix your dopamine deficit, regulate your nervous system, cure imposter syndrome, manage sugar cravings, improve your sleep and reclaim your mental health so you no longer have the urge to escape your own body.

Get happy, not sober. Because happy people don’t drink themselves into a stupor.

Latest Episodes:

EP247 Minisode: Thinking About vs. Listening To Anxiety Aug 07, 2025

Show notes

In this episode, Colleen reframes one of the most misunderstood experiences in recovery: anxiety. Far from being just a diagnosis or a quirk of personality, anxiety is presented as a signal—an embodied alert system that points to the quality of your thoughts.

She breaks down the real reason alcohol feels impossible to control: not because you're broken, but because your brain, hijacked by stress, is obsessing over a problem it thinks it must fix. And when that problem is alcohol, you become trapped in a loop of overthinking, guilt, and trying harder—while your body begs for presence, stillness, and care.

She offers a radical shift: your anxiety isn't something to be solved. It's something to listen to. Not with your mind, but with your body. This isn't a mindset hack—it's nervous system healing. And it starts by learning how to stop listening to your brain's recycled stories, and start thinking on purpose.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

Anxiety is not a thinking problem—it's a body signal about the quality of your thoughts.
Overthinking is actually under-feeling. You're not healing; you're spinning.
You can't out-think a stress response—your nervous system needs present-moment care, not more promises.
Diagnoses can be helpful, but identifying as your anxiety or drinking problem keeps you stuck.
Feelings are the physical sensations of your thoughts. If it feels bad, question the thought—not the feeling.
True power is learning to think on purpose, not just listen to old programming.

If you are ready to get support from a community of women who are co-creating this change with intention and clarity— Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL.

Do you want help from Colleen with a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question for Colleen's NEW Q& A episodes. Your name will not be mentioned on air!

Find me on:

YouTube: @HangoverWhisperer

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer

X (Twitter) : @NotAboutTheAlc

EP246 HSPs and alcohol: why sensitive women are more likely to drink with Tina Marx Aug 05, 2025

Show notes

If you've ever been told you're "too sensitive," this episode is for you..

Today, I'm talking with podcast host Tina Marx to explore the deep connection between being a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) and the tendency to use alcohol to self-soothe. This isn't a conversation about addiction or willpower. It's about how sensitivity without emotional safety often leads high-achieving women to drink in secret—while still keeping everything else together on the outside.

We talk about why HSPs are more susceptible to overwhelm, anxiety, and perfectionism, and how alcohol becomes a temporary escape—not just from stress, but from the full-body experience of feeling too much.

If you've ever said, "I just need to turn my brain off," or "I wish I could stop overreacting," this episode will help you reframe what's really going on—without shame, without labels, and without needing to commit to permanent sobriety.

🔎 Inside This Episode:

What it really means to be an HSP (and how to know if you are one)
Why emotional suppression often leads to compulsive behaviors
The difference between coping and healing
How to reclaim your sensitivity as a superpower instead of a liability

Listen to Transparent with Tina on YouTube @TinaMarxTv

Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL if you're ready to fully commit to your personal growth and do the work to get emotionally sober. Side effects include an 80 percent reduction in drinking.

Want daily updates from me? TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer Twitter (X): @NotAboutTheAlc and YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@hangoverwhisperer

—Do you want coaching from Colleen on a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question. Your name will not be mentioned on air!

EP245 Minisode: You Don't Have To Think About That Aug 02, 2025

Show notes

In this episode, Colleen names the real culprit behind so many evening drinking spirals: not lack of willpower, but an overloaded nervous system weighed down by thought patterns we treat as facts. She challenges the idea that we need to "solve" our problems in order to feel better—and instead offers a radical invitation: what if the problems aren't the problem? What if it's our focus that's keeping us stuck?

Through candid stories from her own life, Colleen models what it looks like to let go of the drama we're not meant to carry. From ex-spouses to global politics, she demonstrates the power of conscious disengagement—choosing presence over rumination, joy over justification, clarity over control. This isn't emotional avoidance. It's sovereignty.

When we stop trying to manage what was never ours to fix, we finally free up the energy to create what we actually want.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

Focusing on what's wrong often keeps you in the same loop—regardless of your intentions.
Emotional dysregulation is often driven by what you're thinking about, not what's actually happening.
You can't solve stress by overanalyzing it—you have to stop feeding it.
Compassion isn't the same as carrying other people's chaos.
Most of your anxious thoughts are optional—and so is your suffering.
Power isn't control; it's choice. And you always have one.

If you are ready to get support from a community of women who are co-creating this change with intention and clarity— Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL.

Do you want help from Colleen with a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question for Colleen's NEW Q& A episodes. Your name will not be mentioned on air!

Find me on:

YouTube: @HangoverWhisperer

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer

X (Twitter) : @NotAboutTheAlc

EP244 Minisode: You Can't F*** This Up Jul 31, 2025

Show notes

In this episode, Colleen shares a game-changing reframe about why we actually get stuck—even when we have the motivation, the clarity, and the plan. Building on fresh neuroscience from Dr. Kira Babinet, she introduces us to the habenula, a lesser-known part of the brain that slams the brakes on our behavior when failure is perceived—whether it's already happened or we're just afraid it might.

Colleen unpacks how the brain's bias toward failure and loss doesn't just stall action—it can kill our momentum completely. But instead of forcing progress through pressure or willpower, she offers a gentler, radically effective solution: the iterative mindset. One that removes failure from the equation entirely, replacing it with curiosity, experimentation, and self-compassion. No more proving, no more perfection—just real change, one tiny tweak at a time.

This isn't about setting better goals. It's about learning how to stop punishing yourself with the gas pedal when your brain's already hitting the brakes.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

The habenula is the brain's brake pedal—it activates with perceived failure and kills motivation.
Anxiety is often the habenula's voice: a signal, not a flaw.
You don't need to "learn from failure"—you can shift into iteration instead.
The iterative mindset removes failure altogether: just test, tweak, repeat.
Performative SMART goals often create burnout, not progress.
Motivation flourishes when self-compassion replaces self-criticism.
You don't have to earn momentum—you just have to feel safe enough to move.

If you are ready to get support from a community of women who are co-creating this change with intention and clarity— Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL.

Do you want help from Colleen with a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question for Colleen's NEW Q& A episodes. Your name will not be mentioned on air!

Find me on:

YouTube: @HangoverWhisperer

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer

X (Twitter) : @NotAboutTheAlc

EP243 How to feel like the best version of you even when you make a mistake Jul 29, 2025

Show notes

If you've been trying to change so that you can feel ready, healed, better and in control, this episode will explain how it's possible to feel those things now–before you've figured everything out.

I'm going to explain how to access your higher self—not as a future fantasy, or as someone you'll be someday when you get everything right, but as a real-time frequency shift grounded in neuroscience, nervous system regulation, and the principles of manifestation..

You'll learn:

Why your higher self isn't someone you become—it's someone you tune into
How to use quantum physics to attract positive thoughts and feelings that alter your reality
The role your subconscious mind plays in your brainwave states and vibrational coherence between your heart and brain
A simple daily practice using breath, emotion, and intention to align your internal frequency

This episode blends science and soul. I'll show you how to reprogram your internal signal so that your reality reflects who you already are—not who you're still trying to become.

Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL if you're ready to fully commit to your personal growth and do the work to get emotionally sober. Side effects include an 80 percent reduction in drinking.

Want daily updates from me? TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer Twitter (X): @NotAboutTheAlc YouTube: @hangoverwhisperer

—Do you want coaching from Colleen on a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question. Your name will not be mentioned on air!

EP242 Minisode: The Process And Payoff Of Emotional Sobriety Jul 26, 2025

Show notes

In this episode, Colleen shares a quiet but powerful moment from one of her recent coaching calls—where a client celebrated a huge win, and Colleen noticed her own body signaling that something was off. What unfolded wasn't a rupture, but a subtle shift: a reminder that even seasoned leaders can bypass consent in moments of well-meaning reflex. And that noticing the signal doesn't mean spiraling—it means listening.

Through her own self-check-in, she unpacks what it looks like to be emotionally sober in the face of mild shame: not resisting it, not fixing it, just feeling it long enough to hear what it's pointing to. Rather than defending her role or projecting the discomfort outward, Colleen models the kind of internal pause that turns self-awareness into relational repair—and deeper self-trust.

This episode isn't about coaching techniques. It's about what happens when we make space to feel the moment before we justify it. Because sometimes, the most responsible thing we can do is let the feeling teach us—before we write the story.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

Your feelings about someone else's feelings are still your feelings—and they're worth examining.
Shame doesn't require a defense; it often just needs acknowledgment and space.
Coaching without consent—even gently—removes agency from the client.
Emotional sobriety invites curiosity before assumption.
Being wrong doesn't mean you've failed—it may mean you're still learning.

If you are ready to get support from a community of women who are co-creating this change with intention and clarity— Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL.

Do you want help from Colleen with a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question for Colleen's NEW Q& A episodes. Your name will not be mentioned on air!

Find me on:

YouTube: @HangoverWhisperer

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer

X (Twitter) : @NotAboutTheAlc

EP241 Minisode: The POINT Of Feeling Your Feelings Jul 24, 2025

Show notes

In today's episode, Colleen walks us through a deceptively simple question that came up on a recent coaching call: How do I actually feel my feelings? The answer isn't mindset. It isn't a technique. It's presence. She explores the difference between thinking about emotions and physically experiencing them—without adding a story, a solution, or a label.

With grounded metaphors and everyday honesty, she invites you to see emotions as temporary energy—not identity. You'll hear what happens when we resist that energy, and how easily it creates stagnation, self-protection, and shame loops that can shape entire patterns of behavior.

If you've been trying to "work on yourself" without shifting how you relate to your emotional state, this episode may open a quieter, more embodied door.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

Feeling your feelings means staying present with physical sensation—not interpreting it.
Resistance to emotion creates stagnation and keeps old stories alive.
Emotions aren't problems to fix; they're energy to allow.
Identity forms when we attach meaning to temporary emotional states.
You don't need to change your story—just stop holding onto it.

If you are ready to get support from a community of women who are co-creating this change with intention and clarity— Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL.

Do you want help from Colleen with a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question for Colleen's NEW Q& A episodes. Your name will not be mentioned on air!

Find me on:

YouTube: @HangoverWhisperer

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer

X (Twitter) : @NotAboutTheAlc

EP240: How naltrexone and the Sinclair Method helped me stop binge drinking with Thrive Recovery's Katie Lain Jul 22, 2025

Show notes

Click here to watch this episode on YouTube!

If you've ever wondered whether medication could help you drink less — or you've tried naltrexone and felt disappointed — this episode is for you.

I'm joined by Katie Lain, founder of Thrive Recovery and a fierce advocate for the Sinclair Method — a science-backed approach that uses naltrexone to reduce alcohol cravings over time. Katie shares her personal story of going from daily binge drinking to finding freedom without needing to get sober. She's also going to explain what most people get wrong about relying on medication alone to change their relationship with alcohol.

If you've been stuck in the "gray area" — drinking more than you want to, but not seeing yourself as an alcoholic — you'll love this conversation. You'll walk away with a big-picture understanding of what it takes to rewire the brain for lasting change, and how to move through the messy middle of behavior change without shame, guilt, or black-and-white thinking.

Katie Lain is the founder of Thrive Alcohol Recovery. You can find her @thrivealcoholrecovery on YouTube, Instagram, Linked-In and Facebook.

Want daily updates from me? TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer Twitter (X): @NotAboutTheAlc YouTube: @hangoverwhisperer

Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL if you're ready to fully commit to your personal growth and do the work to get emotionally sober. Side effects include an 80 percent reduction in drinking.

—Do you want coaching from Colleen on a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question. Your name will not be mentioned on air!

Email

EP239 Minisode: Somebody put a vape in my car Jul 19, 2025

Show notes

In today's episode, Colleen shares a personal and refreshingly honest story about her relationship with nicotine—and how emotional sobriety has shifted the way she responds to temporary imbalance. What starts as a candid reflection on sneaky vape relapses becomes a powerful reminder that healing isn't about perfection. It's about how we respond when we veer off course.

Colleen takes us through her own journey of regulating her nervous system, loosening old beliefs about addiction, and trusting that balance always returns—especially when we stop making a big deal out of being human. This isn't a story about failure; it's a blueprint for self-trust, grace, and gently coming home to yourself without shame.

If you've ever found yourself back in an old habit and wondered, "Did I just ruin everything?"—this episode offers a softer, smarter answer: No. You just forgot for a second how resilient you really are.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

Your comeback is always stronger when you respond to imbalance with curiosity, not panic.
Slipping into an old habit doesn't mean you've failed—it means you're human.
The belief that you must "hack" your body to be okay is a lie; balance comes from within.
There's equal evidence that you can self-correct—so feed that belief instead.
Emotional sobriety means trusting your body, your experience, and your ability to return to center.

If you are ready to get support from a community of women who are co-creating this change with intention and clarity— Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL.

Do you want help from Colleen with a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question for Colleen's NEW Q& A episodes. Your name will not be mentioned on air!

Find me on:

YouTube: @HangoverWhisperer

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer

X (Twitter) : @NotAboutTheAlc

EP238 Minisode: How To Get Unworried Jul 17, 2025

Show notes

In today's episode, Colleen lifts the veil on a common self-sabotage mechanism that often flies under the radar: worry. What begins as a moment of genuine joy and success quickly dissolves into anxiety—and not because something actually went wrong, but because her nervous system quietly panicked at how good it all felt.

Using a relatable personal story and the concept of the "upper limit problem," Colleen explores how we unconsciously block positive emotions the moment they start to expand. Whether it's a burst of pride, creative momentum, or a deep sense of peace, many of us unknowingly kink the hose of our own emotional flow—defaulting to worry as a way to shut it all down.

This episode offers a practical and empowering reframe: your worry isn't a warning—it's a signal that something good is trying to get in. If you're ready to stop letting anxiety pull the plug on your joy, this one's for you.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

Worrying is rarely helpful—it's often just your brain's way of shutting down positive feelings.
The moment you feel amazing is often the exact moment your brain tries to sabotage it.
Overthinking is usually under-feeling—go back to what you were feeling before the worry kicked in.
Blocking good feelings also blocks creative, aligned thoughts. Don't let your brain shut the door on new ideas.
Ask yourself: What positive emotion is this worry trying to block? That question can change everything.

If you are ready to get support from a community of women who are co-creating this change with intention and clarity— Click here to BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL.

Do you want help from Colleen with a situation you're struggling with? Click here to submit your question for Colleen's NEW Q& A episodes. Your name will not be mentioned on air!

Find me on:

YouTube: @HangoverWhisperer

TikTok: @hangoverwhisperer

Instagram: @thehangoverwhisperer

X (Twitter) : @NotAboutTheAlc

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