One for the Road: The Quit Drinking Podcast

Ceri Walker was four years old the first time she saw her mum's eyes change. She didn't have a word for what she was seeing, but she knew. By nine, she was the one who stole the keys out of her violent stepfather's pocket while he was passed out and ran with her mum to safety. By her teens, she was keeping the family secret at all costs.

Her mum died when Kerry was 21. She'd lived with her for 21 years. She's now lived without her for 20.

Ceri is an ambassador for NACOA (the National Association for Children of Alcoholics) and works at Oasis Project in Brighton supporting parents in recovery. She tells Dave about the inner-child work that changed her life, why she rejects the idea that addiction means there's no choice (because for the child there genuinely isn't one), and why "I couldn't save her" is something she's stopped trying to forgive herself for.

If you want to connect with me via Instagram, you can find me on the instahandle @Soberdave https://www.instagram.com/soberdave/

or via my website https://davidwilsoncoaching.com/

Provided below are links for services offering additional help and advice for Ceri.

https://www.instagram.com/ceri_walker_/

https://www.instagram.com/nacoauk/

https://www.instagram.com/oasisproject/

https://nacoa.org.uk/understanding-the-child-in-me-by-ceri-walker%EF%BF%BC/?slug=latest-news-events

www.drinkaware.co.uk/advice/alcohol-support-services

https://nacoa.org.uk/

Show producer- Daniella Attanasio-Martinez

Instagram - @TheDaniellaMartinez

https://www.instagram.com/thedaniellamartinez/ www.instagram.com/grownuphustle/

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@soberdaveonefortheroad

More information about Sober Dave's 1:1 Coaching: https://www.soberdave.co.uk/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sam Phillips shares his story of how drinking started young and slowly took over his life.

Growing up with anxiety, overthinking, and constant fear, alcohol felt like a solution at first. It gave him confidence, helped him fit in, and quieted everything going on in his head. But over time, that relief didn’t last.

What started as weekend drinking turned into daily drinking, isolation, and eventually losing everything — including his home, relationships, and sense of self.

In this conversation, Sam opens up about:

• using alcohol to cope with anxiety
• how drinking made his mental health worse
• blackouts, risky behavior, and losing control
• drinking alone and hitting rock bottom
• relapse after trying to quit on his own
• how community, meetings, and connection changed everything

Sam is now over 17 months sober and focused on helping others through sobriety, mental health awareness, and building real connection.

If you’re struggling with alcohol, anxiety, or feel stuck in the cycle, this episode will hit home.

If you want to connect with me via Instagram, you can find me on the instahandle @Soberdave https://www.instagram.com/soberdave/

or via my website https://davidwilsoncoaching.com/

My Guest Sam's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dare_to_dip/

Provided below are links for services offering additional help:

https://www.instagram.com/dare_to_dip/

www.drinkaware.co.uk/advice/alcohol-support-services

https://nacoa.org.uk/

Show producer- Daniella Attanasio-Martinez

Instagram - @TheDaniellaMartinez

https://www.instagram.com/thedaniellamartinez/

https://www.instagram.com/grownuphustle/

Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@soberdaveonefortheroad

More information about Sober Dave's 1:1 Coaching: https://www.soberdave.co.uk/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why do so many women in their 40s and 50s feel like they cant stop drinking wine? This week on One for the Road, mindset coach Janey Holliday sits down with Sober Dave for one of the most important conversations on the podcast yet.

Janey has coached women for over 20 years and her theory is that this generation has been programmed to drink — through decades of subliminal messaging, wine mom culture, Sex and the City, Bridget Jones, Hurrah for Gin, and the smartphone explosion that put alcohol marketing in front of women every hour of every day.

She and Dave unpack the full timeline. The 80s dieting era. The 90s ladette culture. The 2007 smoking ban that turned pubs into baby shower venues. Covid. The wine o'clock brigade. The secret drinking. The shame. The sandwich generation burnout. And why so many women now sit on what Janey calls the edge of an NHS crisis.

If you're sober curious, questioning your drinking, or trying to understand why quitting wine feels so impossible, this one is for you.

If you want to connect with me via Instagram, you can find me on the instahandle @Soberdave https://www.instagram.com/soberdave/

or via my website https://davidwilsoncoaching.com/

Provided below are links for services offering additional help and advice for Janey.

www.instagram.com/janeyhollidaycoaching

www.facebook.com/janeyhollidaycoaching 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/janey-holliday-1445b821/

www.drinkaware.co.uk/advice/alcohol-support-services

https://nacoa.org.uk/

Show producer- Daniella Attanasio-Martinez

Instagram - @TheDaniellaMartinez

https://www.instagram.com/thedaniellamartinez/ www.instagram.com/grownuphustle/

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@soberdaveonefortheroad

More information about Sober Dave's 1:1 Coaching: https://www.soberdave.co.uk/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A special bonus roundtable to close out the season. Dave is joined by Eric Zimmer (host of The One You Feed), Casey McGuire Davidson (host of Hello Someday) and Jill Teets (host of Sober Powered) for an honest conversation about how four very different people actually quit drinking for good.

Eric got sober first time as a homeless heroin addict in 1994, then again eight years later through a 12-step program. Casey is seven years sober after a bottle-of-wine-a-night habit and quit through online sober coaching. Jill is three years sober, white-knuckled it cold turkey, and added therapy at four months. Dave found community on Instagram and trained as a grey area drinking coach.

The four of them talk about the great obsession with moderation, how none of them remember their actual last drink, the hamster wheel of doom, why the pink cloud is real for some and a misery for others, and how the support you need keeps changing as you go.

This episode of One For The Road is sponsored by https://tweaklife.co.uk/ Further information and links attached below.

If you want to connect with me via Instagram, you can find me on the instahandle @Soberdave https://www.instagram.com/soberdave/

or via my website https://davidwilsoncoaching.com/

Provided below are links for services offering additional help and advice and for Casey, Eric and Gillian.

https://hellosomedaycoaching.com/podcast/

https://www.oneyoufeed.net/

https://www.soberpowered.com/membership

www.drinkaware.co.uk/advice/alcohol-support-services

https://nacoa.org.uk/

Show producer- Daniella Attanasio-Martinez

Instagram - @TheDaniellaMartinez

This season's podcast is sponsored by a great new start up called Tweak Life. They have built a well-being hub full of useful information and tweaks that can help you improve your mental and physical health and finances. There is a wide range of topics covered which includes mindfulness, eating well, exercise. managing addictions, improving finances, mortgages and even menopause.

This is free to use, just go to https://tweaklife.co.uk/ for more information.

https://www.instagram.com/tweaklifeuk

https://www.facebook.com/tweaklifeuk

https://www.linkedin.com/company/tweaklifeuk/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@soberdaveonefortheroad

More information about Sober Dave's 1:1 Coaching: https://www.soberdave.co.uk/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

She was the girl from Hearsay. Then she was the mum on the bathroom floor most mornings, wondering how she ended up here again.

Suzanne Shaw spent years drinking to fit in. Through the bullying at school, the late nights in theatre, the relationship with an addict, the early grief of losing her dad. A bottle of wine became "coping." Two bottles became a problem. The dark thoughts became regular.

On Boxing Day 2019, she got on a cruise ship to perform. By January 4th 2020, she was done.

This week on One for the Road, Suzanne shares the whole story. Hearsay. Becoming a young mum. The grey-area drinking that crept up on her. The two false starts before sobriety stuck. The moment she said "I am bored of my own story." And the three years since: ultramarathons for the Samaritans, the Happy Health Club she now runs, and a life she actually wants to wake up in.

A warm, honest conversation about why owning your decision is the whole game.

This episode of One For The Road is sponsored by https://tweaklife.co.uk/ Further information and links attached below.

If you want to connect with me via Instagram, you can find me on the instahandle @Soberdave https://www.instagram.com/soberdave/

or via my website https://davidwilsoncoaching.com/

Provided below are links for services offering additional help and advice and for Suzanne.

www.thehappyhealthclub.com

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/dare-to-be-happy/id1623259764?i=1000567087110

www.drinkaware.co.uk/advice/alcohol-support-services

https://nacoa.org.uk/

Show producer- Daniella Attanasio-Martinez

Instagram - @TheDaniellaMartinez

This season's podcast is sponsored by a great new start up called Tweak Life. They have built a well-being hub full of useful information and tweaks that can help you improve your mental and physical health and finances. There is a wide range of topics covered which includes mindfulness, eating well, exercise. managing addictions, improving finances, mortgages and even menopause.

This is free to use, just go to https://tweaklife.co.uk/ for more information.

https://www.instagram.com/tweaklifeuk

https://www.facebook.com/tweaklifeuk

https://www.linkedin.com/company/tweaklifeuk/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@soberdaveonefortheroad

More information about Sober Dave's 1:1 Coaching: https://www.soberdave.co.uk/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ash got drunk for the first time at twelve, at a Christmas party full of A-list celebrities. By eighteen she was pawning her saxophone to pay back a drug dealer. By twenty-eight, she was a daily drinker.

This is Ashley Butters's recovery story, told to Sober Dave. The host of Behind the Smile podcast sits down to share what happens when you grow up in an alcoholic home, marry a man two weeks after his brother takes his own life, and finally hit your rock bottom in your own mother's hallway.

You'll hear about: getting drunk at twelve and never having an off switch; the wedding she had two weeks after the funeral; finding rehab the day COVID hit Australia; the somatic therapy that rewired her life; emotional sobriety and the "God-shaped hole" in her soul; and how to actually get through dry January.

If you're starting dry January, this one's for you.

This episode of One For The Road is sponsored by https://tweaklife.co.uk/ Further information and links attached below.

If you want to connect with me via Instagram, you can find me on the instahandle @Soberdave https://www.instagram.com/soberdave/

or via my website https://davidwilsoncoaching.com/

Provided below are links for services offering additional help and advice and for Ashleigh.

https://www.instagram.com/ashbutterss/

https://www.ashbutterss.com/

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/behind-the-smile-with-ash-butterss/id1638627215

https://www.facebook.com/groups/692940225582144

www.drinkaware.co.uk/advice/alcohol-support-services

https://nacoa.org.uk/

Show producer- Daniella Attanasio-Martinez

Instagram - @TheDaniellaMartinez

This season's podcast is sponsored by a great new start up called Tweak Life. They have built a well-being hub full of useful information and tweaks that can help you improve your mental and physical health and finances. There is a wide range of topics covered which includes mindfulness, eating well, exercise. managing addictions, improving finances, mortgages and even menopause.

This is free to use, just go to https://tweaklife.co.uk/ for more information.

https://www.instagram.com/tweaklifeuk

https://www.facebook.com/tweaklifeuk

https://www.linkedin.com/company/tweaklifeuk/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@soberdaveonefortheroad

More information about Sober Dave's 1:1 Coaching: https://www.soberdave.co.uk/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Shaa Wasmund tried to stop her father at eight years old to protect her mother. By nine, she was homeless in California. She has never had a single drink of alcohol in her life.

This is the story of a daughter of an alcoholic who broke the cycle. Shaa tells Sober Dave about growing up with a Stanford-educated lawyer father who was a violent cocaine and alcohol addict, watching her family swing between millionaire wealth and absolute poverty, and the night a man with a shotgun broke in looking for the drug dealer next door.

You'll hear about: the one sip of whiskey that taught her she'd never drink again; what it means to be a child of an alcoholic; channelling an addictive personality into entrepreneurship; becoming the only licensed female boxing manager in the world; raising a teenage son when you've never drunk; and her bestseller Stop Talking, Start Doing.

If you grew up around alcohol, this one's for you.

This episode of One For The Road is sponsored by https://tweaklife.co.uk/ Further information and links attached below.

If you want to connect with me via Instagram, you can find me on the instahandle @Soberdave https://www.instagram.com/soberdave/

or via my website https://davidwilsoncoaching.com/

Provided below are links for services offering additional help and advice and for Shaa.

https://twitter.com/shaawasmund

https://www.instagram.com/shaawasmund/

https://www.shaa.com/

www.drinkaware.co.uk/advice/alcohol-support-services

https://nacoa.org.uk/

Show producer- Daniella Attanasio-Martinez

Instagram - @TheDaniellaMartinez

This season's podcast is sponsored by a great new start up called Tweak Life. They have built a well-being hub full of useful information and tweaks that can help you improve your mental and physical health and finances. There is a wide range of topics covered which includes mindfulness, eating well, exercise. managing addictions, improving finances, mortgages and even menopause.

This is free to use, just go to https://tweaklife.co.uk/ for more information.

https://www.instagram.com/tweaklifeuk

https://www.facebook.com/tweaklifeuk

https://www.linkedin.com/company/tweaklifeuk/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@soberdaveonefortheroad

More information about Sober Dave's 1:1 Coaching: https://www.soberdave.co.uk/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Emma had to leave her two small children alone in a cinema watching Frozen so she could be sick in the loos. She had only had three glasses of wine the night before. That was the moment she knew her drinking had to change. It still took her another year to quit drinking.

This is the recovery story of an award-winning alcohol-free drinks mixologist. Emma tells Sober Dave about being given white port at ten and Babysham at nine, the media industry years of caning shots and white wine spritzers, getting gout at twenty-four, the small town anxiety of being a mum where you can't be anonymous anymore, and the moment she realised wine was poison.

You'll hear about: how mum wine culture sneaks up on working mothers; perimenopause and alcohol; the Halloween death mask night that turned everything around; her seven years sober; and how she now creates beautiful alcohol-free drinks for a living.

If you've ever been sick after only three glasses of wine, this one's for you.

This episode of One For The Road is sponsored by https://tweaklife.co.uk/ Further information and links attached below.

If you want to connect with me via Instagram, you can find me on the instahandle @Soberdave https://www.instagram.com/soberdave/

or via my website https://davidwilsoncoaching.com/

Provided below are links for services offering additional help and advice and for Emma.

Living life sober and sharing alcohol free drinks recipes (@emma_sobersonic) • Instagram photos and videos

www.drinkaware.co.uk/advice/alcohol-support-services

https://nacoa.org.uk/

Show producer- Daniella Attanasio-Martinez

Instagram - @TheDaniellaMartinez

This season's podcast is sponsored by a great new start up called Tweak Life. They have built a well-being hub full of useful information and tweaks that can help you improve your mental and physical health and finances. There is a wide range of topics covered which includes mindfulness, eating well, exercise. managing addictions, improving finances, mortgages and even menopause.

This is free to use, just go to https://tweaklife.co.uk/ for more information.

https://www.instagram.com/tweaklifeuk

https://www.facebook.com/tweaklifeuk

https://www.linkedin.com/company/tweaklifeuk/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@soberdaveonefortheroad

More information about Sober Dave's 1:1 Coaching: https://www.soberdave.co.uk/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

John Taylor is a qualified addictions and family counsellor, the author of the bestselling book Alcohol Stole My Mum, and 19 years sober. He joins Sober Dave on One for the Road for a quietly devastating conversation about what it actually feels like to grow up loving an alcoholic.

John was the special one. The clever boy who sang Leo Sayer to his mum at bedtime. By eight he was trying to sober her up before his dad got home. By ten he was writing his dad a letter begging to be rescued from a Scottish house with three drinking adults. By his 30s he was in rehab himself, refusing to say the word alcoholic because he didn't want to be like his mum.

Inside: the inciting incident at eight, three generations of alcoholism, watching his mum drink herself to death, and the moment he chose his daughters.

Quitting drinking, child of an alcoholic, NACOA, family recovery, generational addiction.

This episode of One For The Road is sponsored by https://tweaklife.co.uk/ Further information and links attached below.

If you want to connect with me via Instagram, you can find me on the instahandle @Soberdave https://www.instagram.com/soberdave/

or via my website https://davidwilsoncoaching.com/

Provided below are links for services offering additional help and advice and for John.

https://alcoholstolemymum.co.uk/

https://www.instagram.com/alcoholstolemymum/

www.drinkaware.co.uk/advice/alcohol-support-services

https://nacoa.org.uk/

Show producer- Daniella Attanasio-Martinez

Instagram - @TheDaniellaMartinez

This season's podcast is sponsored by a great new start up called Tweak Life. They have built a well-being hub full of useful information and tweaks that can help you improve your mental and physical health and finances. There is a wide range of topics covered which includes mindfulness, eating well, exercise. managing addictions, improving finances, mortgages and even menopause.

This is free to use, just go to https://tweaklife.co.uk/ for more information.

https://www.instagram.com/tweaklifeuk

https://www.facebook.com/tweaklifeuk

https://www.linkedin.com/company/tweaklifeuk/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@soberdaveonefortheroad

More information about Sober Dave's 1:1 Coaching: https://www.soberdave.co.uk/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lou Hamilton was twenty-three when she watched the Lockerbie air disaster fall from the sky onto the village where she had just moved. She did not lose anyone. She was not injured. So she told herself she did not have the right to feel traumatized, and she got on with it for two decades.

This is the recovery story of an artist, author and podcast host who finally quit drinking at fifty, after half a bottle of wine a night had been masking her unprocessed PTSD for years. Lou tells Sober Dave about Lockerbie, the buried trauma she only recognized while making a documentary about war veterans, and the New Year's Day she just decided to stop.

You'll hear about: the night Lockerbie came out of the sky; how alcohol numbs trauma without you knowing; gray area drinking and why it is harder to quit than you think; menopause and alcohol; and the creative life that opened up on the other side.

If you have ever wondered whether your drinking is masking something, this one's for you.

This episode of One For The Road is sponsored by https://tweaklife.co.uk/ Further information and links attached below.

If you want to connect with me via Instagram, you can find me on the instahandle @Soberdave https://www.instagram.com/soberdave/

or via my website https://davidwilsoncoaching.com/

Provided below are links for services offering additional help and advice and for Lou.

www.bravenewgirlmedia.com

https://www.instagram.com/brave_newgirl/

https://amzn.eu/d/0TYaHdI

www.drinkaware.co.uk/advice/alcohol-support-services

https://nacoa.org.uk/

Show producer- Daniella Attanasio-Martinez

Instagram - @TheDaniellaMartinez

This season's podcast is sponsored by a great new start up called Tweak Life. They have built a well-being hub full of useful information and tweaks that can help you improve your mental and physical health and finances. There is a wide range of topics covered which includes mindfulness, eating well, exercise. managing addictions, improving finances, mortgages and even menopause.

This is free to use, just go to https://tweaklife.co.uk/ for more information.

https://www.instagram.com/tweaklifeuk

https://www.facebook.com/tweaklifeuk

https://www.linkedin.com/company/tweaklifeuk/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@soberdaveonefortheroad

More information about Sober Dave's 1:1 Coaching: https://www.soberdave.co.uk/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.