One for the Road: The Quit Drinking Podcast

Dean McCullough was drinking a litre of vodka in a weekend during lockdown. He was hosting a breakfast show, presenting Manchester Pride on TV, and falling apart on the inside. A year later, he was sober and behind the desk at BBC Radio 1.

This is the recovery story of a Belfast boy who got the Radio 1 job he had wanted his entire life, but had to quit drinking first. Dean tells Sober Dave about lockdown despair, the entertainment industry drinking culture, the dark thoughts that crept in during the pandemic, and the visit from his late mum that he believes guided him into sobriety.

You'll hear about: the pandemic breakfast show that nearly broke him; drinking through grief and pressure as a young presenter; the night he opened a bottle of vodka and knew he was in trouble; one year sober at 29; and what your soul really wants from you.

If you're sober curious, this one's for you.

If you enjoy One For The Road, then click follow to be notified of the release of our next episode.

You can also access further content and shows on my Patreon account by clicking the link below.

https://www.patreon.com/user?u=62824759&fan_landing=true

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 links for Dean.

https://www.instagram.com/thedeanlife/

https://www.wearewithyou.org.uk/

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

https://nacoa.org.uk/

https://alcoholchange.org.uk/

Show producer- Daniella Attanasio-Martinez

https://www.grownuphustle.com/

Instagram - @GrownupHustle

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.

Millie Gooch is the founder of Sober Girl Society, author of The Sober Girl Society Handbook, and one of the loudest voices in the UK sober community for women in their twenties.

But four years ago she was a blackout drinker.

She didn't drink at all until 18, then went to uni, took three bar jobs, got paid in alcohol, and came out the other side a four-or-five-night-a-week binge drinker. PR and journalism after that. Free Bar Fridays. Ending up in Dover at 4am because she'd fallen asleep on the train. Three weeks in Thailand spent almost entirely drunk or hungover. A six-year relationship breakup at 24 that sent her head-first into another year of going out and getting hammered.

She read a Stylist magazine interview with Catherine Gray on the tube one hungover morning. Took a photo of the article. Did nothing about it. Then in February 2018, after a night she couldn't remember at all, she downloaded the audiobook and listened to it for eight straight hours on the worst hangover of her life.

That was her last drink.

In this episode she walks through how Sober Girl Society started by accident, the trap of becoming "the sober person" instead of just a person, and what changes between year one and year four.

If you enjoy One For The Road, then click follow to be notified of the release of our next episode.

You can also access further content and shows on my Patreon account by clicking the link below.

https://www.patreon.com/user?u=62824759&fan_landing=true

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 links for Millie.

Instagram.com/sobergirlsociety

Instagram.com/milliegooch

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sober-Girl-Society-Handbook-empowering/dp/1787634124/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1636881084&sr=8-1

https://www.wearewithyou.org.uk/

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

https://nacoa.org.uk/

https://alcoholchange.org.uk/

Show producer- Daniella Attanasio-Martinez

https://www.grownuphustle.com/

Instagram - @GrownupHustle

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.

Jenny Valentish is a British-Australian journalist and author. Her book Women of Substances is an addiction memoir that uses her own story as a case study to explore the gendered way women experience trauma, mental health, eating disorders, and addiction. She's also a board director of SMART Recovery in Australia and has written four books in total, the most recent on people who push their bodies to extremes.

She started drinking at 13 the day her grandmother died. Got a key cut for her dad's drinks cabinet. Filled a Body Shop shampoo bottle with mixed spirits and got the train into London at 14 to drink her way through Camden, Kensington and Portobello markets on her own. The drinking masked sexual abuse she'd experienced as a child, something she wasn't allowed to get help for because her mum didn't want people knowing.

She stopped at 34 after one final blackout where she woke up with nothing on the paper and nothing in her head. She stayed sober for eight years. Four years ago, in London with friends, she had a cocktail and chose to moderate rather than spiral into shame.

This conversation gets into territory most sobriety podcasts avoid: harm reduction, the biopsychosocial theory of addiction, and why "Choose Your Own Adventure" might be a more honest framework than abstinence-or-bust.

If you enjoy One For The Road, then click follow to be notified of the release of our next episode.

You can also access further content and shows on my Patreon account by clicking the link below.

https://www.patreon.com/user?u=62824759&fan_landing=true

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 links for Jenny.

Everything Harder Than Everyone Else

Woman of Substances

Jenny's writing coaching 

Jenny on Instagram

https://www.wearewithyou.org.uk/

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

https://nacoa.org.uk/

https://alcoholchange.org.uk/

Show producer- Daniella Attanasio-Martinez

https://www.grownuphustle.com/

Instagram - @GrownupHustle

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.

Charlie Owen was twenty-three when his seven-year relationship ended, his Asia trip got cut short by COVID, and he found himself stranded in Brisbane with no idea who he was sober. He started drinking five beers before every date just to feel good enough.

This is the recovery story of a Welsh farmer's son who quit drinking at twenty-five. Charlie tells Sober Dave about growing up in a 2,000-person town in North Wales, escaping to Australia when borders closed, the breakup that broke him open, and how he used alcohol as a crutch for confidence on dates and nights out.

You'll hear about: drinking through a breakup; using alcohol to fake confidence; the moment meditation actually worked; what real connection looks like without drinks; instant gratification, social media and young men; and why his Instagram page Lads Search for Meaning is hitting a nerve.

If you're a young man wondering if you can quit drinking and still have a life, this one's for you.

If you enjoy One For The Road, then click follow to be notified of the release of our next episode.

You can also access further content and shows on my Patreon account by clicking the link below.

https://www.patreon.com/user?u=62824759&fan_landing=true

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 links for Charlie.

https://www.instagram.com/ladssearchformeaning/

https://www.wearewithyou.org.uk/

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

https://nacoa.org.uk/

https://alcoholchange.org.uk/

Show producer- Daniella Attanasio-Martinez

https://www.grownuphustle.com/

Instagram - @GrownupHustle

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.

Courtney Carver, author of Soulful Simplicity and Project 333, spent decades quietly managing her relationship with alcohol before she stopped on a hungover morning in January 2019. Nearly 1000 days later, she joins Sober Dave on One for the Road to talk about quitting drinking the simplest way she knows how.

Courtney was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2006 and started stripping stress out of her life. She paid off debt, decluttered her home, built a minimalist fashion challenge, and changed careers. The thing that simplified her life most, she says, was finally letting go of wine. Inside, she shares why she never labelled herself, how transcendental meditation killed the craving, and the line that's become her sober mantra: alcohol removed her, so she removed it.

Quitting drinking, minimalism and sobriety, gray area drinking, transcendental meditation, Project 333, simplifying your life, sober journey at 1000 days.

If you enjoy One For The Road, then click follow to be notified of the release of our next episode.

You can also access further content and shows on my Patreon account by clicking the link below.

https://www.patreon.com/user?u=62824759&fan_landing=true

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 links for Courtney.

https://www.instagram.com/bemorewithless/

https://bemorewithless.com/books-and-courses/

https://bemorewithless.com/project-333/

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/soul-and-wit/id1489742667

https://www.wearewithyou.org.uk/

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

https://nacoa.org.uk/

https://alcoholchange.org.uk/

Show producer- Dani Attanasio

https://www.grownuphustle.com/

Instagram - @GrownupHustle

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.

Catherine Gray woke up in a Brixton police cell at 27 years old. When the officers handed back her belongings, the only thing she had on her was a tiny pink glittery hairbrush that wasn't hers. No phone. No keys. No purse. Just a child's hairbrush she'd picked up off a dirty floor at some point during the night.

You'd think that would be the moment she stopped. She drank for six more years.

Catherine is the bestselling author of The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober and Sunshine Warm Sober. She's almost eight years alcohol-free, and she's one of the most clear-eyed voices on what nobody tells you about long-term sobriety. The slumps. The advertising propaganda. The boundary work. The friends who don't remember your soberversary. The corruption inside the alcohol industry.

You'll hear about: the failed moderation experiments that ate six years of her life; the litre of vodka a night Dave was drinking; what AA gave her even though it wasn't her path; and why year six of sobriety nearly broke her.

If you've ever told yourself you'll just have one more, this one's for you.

Her first book The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober was published by Aster Books on the 28th of December 2017. A tri-brid of a read, it mixes up memoir details of how Catherine quit alcohol in 2013, along with Buzzfeed-style listicles, illuminating interviews with top experts, and over-arching cultural comment. She hopes her book will help reinvent how Britain thinks about being alcohol-free.

Her latest new book Sunshine Warm Sober is out now- Link below.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/sunshine-warm-sober/catherine-gray/9781783253395

If you enjoy One For The Road, then click follow to be notified of the release of our next episode.

You can also access further content and shows on my Patreon account by clicking the link below.

https://www.patreon.com/user?u=62824759&fan_landing=true

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.

https://www.wearewithyou.org.uk/

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

https://nacoa.org.uk/

https://alcoholchange.org.uk/

Show producer- Dani Attanasio

https://www.grownuphustle.com/

Instagram - @GrownupHustle

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.

Cherry Healy was drinking a bottle of wine a night by the time lockdown lifted. She had a brilliant career as a BBC presenter, a partner who barely drank, two kids she adored, and "wine o'clock" creeping into every evening.

This is the story of a woman who caught herself in the gray area before it got worse. Cherry tells Sober Dave about being raised by an alcoholic father, watching her drinking escalate through her thirties, the lockdown bottle of wine that became normal, and the Christmas her dad got pancreatic cancer and she finally said enough.

You'll hear about: drinking at home as a working mum; the danger zone between five and eight pm; what three months sober actually does to you; how she handled her hypersensitivity without alcohol; the mum wine culture problem; and what gray area drinking really looks like up close.

If you've been wondering whether you're drinking too much at home, this one's for you.

You can also access further content and shows on my Patreon account by clicking the link below.

https://www.patreon.com/user?u=62824759&fan_landing=true

If you want to connect 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 also contacts for Cherry Healey.

https://www.instagram.com/cherryhealey/

https://twitter.com/cherryhealey?lang=en

https://www.facebook.com/CherryHealeyOfficial/

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/manifest-that-shit-tickets-175421609757

https://www.wearewithyou.org.uk/

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

https://nacoa.org.uk/

https://alcoholchange.org.uk/

Show producer- Dani Attanasio

https://www.grownuphustle.com/

Instagram - @GrownupHustle

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.

When Liam Fox was 12, he started taping his dad. He'd plug in a little radio cassette recorder, hit play and record, and capture his dad coming home drunk and talking through his backside. The next morning he'd play it back. His dad would be mortified. He'd swear he was never drinking again. A few months later, the cycle would start over.

That cycle lasted 40 years. Liam's mum finally kicked his dad out in 1995, when scaffolding went up the back of the house, a window got opened, and a £2000 video camera went missing. By the end, his dad was drinking two litres of vodka a day, losing three stone in a fortnight, and waking up with stab marks in his hands.

Liam's dad died in February. Two weeks before, he'd promised his son this was the last time.

You'll hear about: growing up with an alcoholic dad; why his school work collapsed and he blamed the teachers; the morning his mum had finally had enough; what really sat underneath his dad's drinking; what it feels like when the parent you've fought for finally goes.

It has been another incredible season, and thank you so much for all of your ongoing and continued support.

If you are not already, then be sure to click subscribe to be first in line for the drop of the first show for Season 3;

You can also connect with me via Instagram @Soberdave https://www.instagram.com/soberdave/

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

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

https://www.wearewithyou.org.uk/

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

https://nacoa.org.uk/

https://alcoholchange.org.uk/

Show producer- Dani Attanasio

https://www.grownuphustle.com/

Instagram - @GrownupHustle

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.

Taner Hassan was 19 when 12 million people watched him audition on Pop Stars. He made the final 14 but didn't get the job. What followed was cocaine, nightclub work, and a slow collapse. By 24 he had drug-induced psychosis. His parents said: get help or get out.

Taner grew up in Southend, oldest of three, chasing a music career through reality TV and boy bands. Rejection and fame without the job behind it sent him into five dark years in the nightclub industry, masking everything with drugs and alcohol. When his parents drew the line, he got sober. That was 15 years ago.

Today he's a psychotherapist and head of NHS mental health in Suffolk. His wife and daughter have never seen him drink.

You'll hear about: reality TV fame and rejection at 19; cocaine and alcohol in the nightclub industry; drug-induced psychosis at 24; rebuilding a career from scratch in recovery; the stranger whose life he saved without knowing it.

If you think your past disqualifies you from a meaningful future, this one says otherwise.

If you enjoy One For The Road, then click follow to be notified of the release of our next episode.

You can also connect with me via Instagram @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 also contacts for Taner.

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/tanertherapy/

https://www.wearewithyou.org.uk/

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

https://nacoa.org.uk/

https://alcoholchange.org.uk/

Show producer- Dani Attanasio

https://www.grownuphustle.com/

Instagram - @GrownupHustle

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.

Kate Rohan spent 25 years drinking, starting at 14 when alcohol gave her a way out of the bullying and eating disorders that marked her teens. By her late 20s she was a daily 5pm drinker who could never stop at one, finishing a bottle of rosé after running a half marathon in 1:35 and throwing up on her own shoes on a ski season in Verbier without slowing down.

As perimenopause hit, alcohol made everything worse: sleep, anxiety, recovery, all of it. She tried quitting on her own multiple times, making it 21 days, then 28, then relapsing every time. A light bulb moment at the end of December led her to Dry January through Sober Dave's community, and she hasn't looked back. Six months alcohol-free, she competed in a turf games fitness competition and says her body and mind have transformed.

You'll hear about: wine mom culture and the 5pm habit; menopause and alcohol; eating disorders as a gateway to drinking; the "suitcase in the loft" metaphor for putting alcohol away; fitness after sobriety; and why she couldn't stop at one glass for 25 years.

If you're a woman questioning what alcohol is really doing to your body, especially through perimenopause, this one's for you.

If you enjoy One For The Road, then click follow to be notified of the release of our next episode.

You can also connect with me via Instagram @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 also contacts for Kate.

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/katerh_fitness

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/groups/392640002016219/

https://www.wearewithyou.org.uk/

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

https://nacoa.org.uk/

https://alcoholchange.org.uk/

Show producer- Dani Attanasio

https://www.grownuphustle.com/

Instagram - @GrownupHustle

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.