One for the Road: The Quit Drinking Podcast

Dan was 27, 29 stone, and paralytic drunk at his dad's 50th when he hit the kitchen tiles the next morning. His lips went blue. He stopped breathing. His mum called an ambulance. Lying on the A&E stretcher, he made her a promise he'd heard people break a thousand times. He meant it.

Dan has epilepsy. He'd been told at 18 not to drink on his medication. He'd been skipping doses for years so the tablets wouldn't kill his nights out. The seizures were getting worse, the hospital trips more frequent, and still the party Dan persona kept him chasing the next round of pints with the darts lads.

In this conversation, Dan opens up about the Manchester United FA Cup final that ended on a hospital floor, the friends who ghosted him the minute he stopped drinking, dropping ten stone in eighteen months and realising he'd just traded one addiction for another, and the gambling addiction that quietly cost him fifty thousand pounds and nearly his relationship with his mum before she passed away last year.

Nine years alcohol free. Two years gamble free. Now hosting his own podcast Be the Best Version of Yourself and campaigning with Gamban to change how the UK talks about gambling harm.

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/share/168UqswvBw/?mibextid=wwXIfr 

X - https://x.com/bethebestvy?s=21 

TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@dan_batemannn?_t=ZN-8zTXi8d4NGA&_r=1

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.

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

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.

Justin T-Bone is 10 years sober after 25 years of drinking that started the week he walked away from being a top-three sprinter in the country. In this recovery story, he walks through how he quit drinking — from running bars, nightclubs and award-winning restaurants as a functioning alcoholic, to four months alone in a rented garage getting sober.

Justin opens up about Suffolk's 100m county record he's held since 1986, the daily scotch at 6am because his hands shook too badly to enter his PIN, the shoplifting moment that was his rock bottom, and the morning at the gym when he knew he would never drink again. Ten years on, four stone lighter, and still living one day at a time.

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.

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

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.

Four children in every UK classroom are growing up in hygiene poverty. They share toothbrushes, wash their hair in soap, and skip PE because they have nothing to clean themselves with afterwards. Many of them carry that shame straight into addiction.

This is a special bonus episode of One for the Road. Sober Dave sits down with Mike Kidney, CEO of the charity In Kind Direct, and Darren Langdon, managing director of Mirius Hygiene. Darren grew up in inner-city Coventry, watched his parents work multiple jobs, and later became a quietly heavy drinker before quitting alcohol. Mike runs the charity that gets essential products to over 7,000 frontline community groups across the UK.

You'll hear about: how poverty and addiction feed off each other; the stigma both carry; how a working-class drinking culture passes down the generations; what hygiene poverty really looks like; and how anyone listening can help.

If you have ever felt judged for either, this one's 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.

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

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.

Nina was on holiday with her family when her ten year old son put his arm around his little sister and said, "Don't worry, she'll just order five more bottles of rose and then she'll say yes."

That was the moment that broke.

She grew up in Hong Kong, watched her mum drink herself into hospital at 14, and learned young how to mask things with booze. By her twenties she was drinking alone in her London flat, two bottles a night, buying from different tills at Sainsbury's so no one clocked it. Then came marriage, babies, a miscarriage she drank through, and lockdown. Then perimenopause, anxiety she called "the gauntlet," and waking up at 2 a.m. not knowing who she was.

Eight months ago, she poured her last glass.

This is Nina's story of mommy wine culture, the quiet shame of drinking behind closed doors, and the holiday moment that finally stuck.

https://www.instagram.com/wonderfullysober/

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.

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

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.

For years, Annie Knowles was sure her husband was the one with the drinking problem. He was in AA. She was just a normal wine mum, two-bottles-in-the-fridge kind of drinker. Three and a half years sober, she knows now that was never true.

Annie is the only adopted child in a family of seven, a working NHS sonographer, and one half of a marriage where both people eventually got sober through completely different routes. Her husband through AA and the twelve steps. Her through Annie Grace, William Porter, This Naked Mind, and the sober online community.

In this conversation she opens up about the abandonment wound underneath her drinking, gray area drinking that escalated through Covid lockdowns, the guilt of once telling her sober husband she wished he'd just drink again, their son's autism diagnosis, and the adoption trauma she only began to face once she stopped numbing it.

She's now an NHS alcohol champion and runs a free blue light recovery group for emergency services staff. This is a recovery story about two different paths to sobriety, inner child healing, and why the real question isn't how much you drink, it's consequences and control.

Subscribe and share it with someone who needs it tonight.

Instagram: @af_rainbowrider

Email: [email protected]

Reclaim Balance - Life Coaching with Annie Knowles

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.

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

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 people quit drinking, they expect relief. Instead, many feel grief. That's what Dave sits down to explore with Julia Samuel MBE, psychotherapist of 30+ years and best-selling author of Grief Works.

This conversation goes places most sobriety podcasts don't. Why unresolved grief fuels addiction. Why 70% of mental health struggles trace back to grief we've never let ourselves feel. Why Gabor Maté's question, "why the pain" not "why the addiction," matters so much. And why so many people get sober only to realise they're grieving the loss of alcohol itself, their oldest coping mechanism.

Dave opens up about his mum dying in 2018, his 40 years of drinking, and the grief he had to sit with when he finally put the bottle down. Julia reframes addiction as a survival strategy, not a moral failing. She talks about living losses, complex grief, estrangement, and why it is never too late to grieve.

If you're quitting drinking, grieving a parent, or navigating a living loss, this one's 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.

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

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.

Niall Harbison nearly drank himself to death in Thailand at 41. Four days in ICU. A six-week bender of three bottles of wine, Valium, and whiskey, three times a day. He quit smoking, drinking, and pills in one go.

He grew up in Belgium, an only child. His mum left when he was 13. He watched her get beaten by the man she left for, and he froze in the hallway. The drinking started at 14. The escape never really stopped.

Now Niall is four years and four months sober. He feeds 1,200 stray dogs in Koh Samui every day. He runs a sanctuary and a hospital. His new book, Tina, is out next week.

He says the dogs are part of why he's still here.

This is a story about trauma, the pub culture that nearly killed him, and finding a reason to turn up.

His second book, Tina: The Dog Who Changed the World, became an instant Sunday Times and New York Times Bestseller. 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wearehappydoggo/

Niall's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/niall.harbison/

Donate to Happy Doggo: https://www.happydoggo.com/donate 

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

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

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

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

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 Annetts sounds like she's been drinking. She hasn't touched a drop in two years.

At 22, she started slurring, falling, spilling drinks. GPs told her some people are just a bit wobbly. Seven years later she got a diagnosis: Friedreich's ataxia, a rare progressive condition. No cure. No mental health support. Just a letter and a goodbye.

So she drank. A bottle of wine a night in bed in a Brighton shared house. Two if the day was "stressful." Buying from different shops so no one clocked it. Watching EastEnders, holding the glass like the women on telly did. Convincing herself she deserved it.

Then lockdown. Then a best friend died. Then one pride weekend in 2023, hungover in a park watching Steps, something cracked open.

This is Kate's story of being disbelieved, drinking through a diagnosis, the moderation trap, and the quiet epiphany that finally stuck.

https://www.instagram.com/yourwobblyfriend/

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.

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

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.

On this weeks episode of One For The Road I am joined by Sarah Chamberlain who is the founder of UnashamED, an organisation dedicated to tackling shame across education, personal development, and sober living. A former teacher, coach, and consultant, Sarah brings deep expertise in psychology and education to her mission of creating spaces where people feel seen, supported, and unashamed. While UnashamED began by supporting young people and educators, Sarah’s work has expanded to focus strongly on the alcohol-free community. As someone who lives alcohol-free herself, she specialises in helping individuals explore and untangle the often-hidden shame connected to drinking culture, sobriety, and identity. Through coaching and training, she opens up vital conversations that empower people to thrive without alcohol.Sarah holds an MSc in Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology, with research centred on the lack of shame-awareness in education systems. Her work is rooted in the belief that shame resilience is a foundational skill—not just for students and teachers, but for anyone navigating life, especially those choosing to live alcohol-free. Based in the UK, Sarah champions compassionate, shame-free education and transformation in schools, workplaces, and everyday lives.

https://www.instagram.com/unashamedcoach/

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.

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

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.

Dave is 18 months sober after nearly 40 years of social drinking, including a university run that hit 100 pints in a week. In this recovery story, the Showaddywaddy saxophonist walks through how he quit drinking — from his first pint with his dad at 15, to the solo holiday in Fuerteventura where he decided he didn't want to be that version of himself anymore.

Dave opens up about the drinking culture he landed in at the Royal Northern College of Music, losing his middle brother and his dad in the same week in 2008, a serendipitous phone call from Dave Bartram asking him to join Showaddywaddy, losing his youngest brother in July 2020, and the six-month internal battle in sobriety where his own head kept asking "when are you going to start again?"

He also talks about the loaded word "alcoholic," why moderation was never going to work for him, and how making it non-negotiable finally quietened the voice. Eighteen months alcohol free, three stone lighter, and still out on tour with the band.

Follow Dave on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/davegrahamsax/

Catch Dave on tour with Showaddywaddy 

www.showaddywaddy.net/gigs

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.

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

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.