One for the Road: The Quit Drinking Podcast

Matt Busbridge has been a male model agent in London for 12 years. He spent most of those years quietly in the grip of alcohol and cocaine, drinking at lunchtime, racking up lines after work, and hiding it from everyone including his own parents. He joins Sober Dave on One for the Road to talk about quitting drinking cold turkey on his 33rd birthday and what year one of sobriety in the fashion industry actually looks like.

Matt grew up the chubby kid in Kent. Alcohol at 17 gave him confidence for the first time. Cocaine at 22 took him the rest of the way. By his 30s he was missing flights, hiding bags of gear, and labelling lunchtime pints as normal. After his fiancée wrote him a list of six occasions he'd messed up, he stopped completely.

Inside: low self-esteem, the cheat code that skipped his development, lockdown spiral, going sober without AA, and his new podcast High Sobriety.

Quitting drinking, fashion industry, gray area drinking, cocaine recovery, sober journey.

https://www.instagram.com/highsobrietypodcast_?igsh=bGs0NDUzbDc0c3Zr&utm_source=qr

https://anchor.fm/highsobrietypodcast

https://youtu.be/CfAyZfbdWBs?si=-3i2kcCamFK-2cSb

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.

Emily Horwood grew up in the noughties carnage of Camden Town and the Primrose Hill set, where she says you were either selling drugs or taking them. Most of her old crowd are now either sober or no longer here. She joins Sober Dave on One for the Road to talk about quitting drinking after 30 years, and the 15-month slip that taught her what real sobriety actually means.

Emily's drinking moved from teenage bus-stop cider to a decade of what she calls the "gray-out years" — two and sometimes three bottles of wine a night, alone on the sofa, single-parenting two small children. She got sober at 42 in lockdown, slipped over a man at 15 months, and came back in December last year ready to do it properly.

Inside: the hole in the soul, emotional sobriety, AA plus online community, and why moderation never worked.

Quitting drinking, mum wine culture, gray area drinking, AA, sober journey.

http://www.emilyhorwood.com/

http://www.womensaid.org.uk/

http://www.thespeedomickfoundation.org/

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.

Tonya Bardsley starred in The Real Housewives of Cheshire for almost a decade. From the outside it looked like champagne, glamour and laughs. From the inside, she was self-medicating undiagnosed ADHD with alcohol, taking diazepam to sleep, on antidepressants she didn't need, and crying on her sofa on Christmas Day 2022 thinking her family would be better off without her.

She joins Sober Dave on One for the Road to talk about quitting drinking, four weeks of rehab in Thailand, and what life looks like one year on.

Tonya was painfully shy as a kid, bullied so badly at 13 she tried to take her own life, and used alcohol from her teens as a confidence drug. Add ADHD, perimenopause, and a TV career soaked in champagne, and the spiral was inevitable.

Inside: the breakdown, rehab, why she came off all the medications, and how her four kids are thriving.

Quitting drinking, ADHD, perimenopause, sober journey.

https://www.instagram.com/tanyabardsley7/

https://transformwithtanyabardsley.com

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.

Kim Ballas, founder of Sober Is The New Cool, joins Sober Dave on One for the Road to celebrate 11 years alcohol-free and tell the story of the moment that changed everything.

Kim grew up in Montreal with a Slovak father she adored and a culture of wine at lunch, wine at dinner, and brandy after. She drank her way through her teens, her twenties, a cancelled wedding, two miscarriages and a marriage. Then her 13-year-old son Matthew was diagnosed with epilepsy. The day she stood in her kitchen with a large glass of red wine in her hand, telling him nobody needs alcohol to have fun, she felt a lightning bolt hit her. She put it down for three months for him. She hasn't picked it up since.

Inside: the social anxiety that drove her drinking, the hypocrite moment, why she loved her son more than herself, and how a kitchen-table Facebook page became a global movement.

Quitting drinking, sobriety for your kids, 50s sober journey.

Only by giving can we receive more than we already have.

https://www.instagram.com/sober.is.the.new.cool/

https://www.facebook.com/soberisthenewcool.org/

https://twitter.com/i/flow/login?redirect_after_login=%2FSoberitnc

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_tmHjBMjRmRj-HECQ3_Feg

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.instagram.com/lucy_norfolk_/

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.

Scott Thomas, Love Island star, founder of one of the UK's most high-profile PR agencies and host of the Learning As I Go podcast, joins Sober Dave on One for the Road for an unusually honest conversation about quitting drinking, identity, and the cost of being the life of the party.

Scott was the golden child academically, the smart one in a family where both his brothers became famous at 16. He drank quarter-litres of vodka and Fanta on the streets at 13. By his 20s he was throwing parties for a living, getting chucked out of his own nights, and earning the nickname Scotty Special. Then a Mayfair Hotel chairman's luncheon nearly cost him his biggest client and his business partner.

Inside: living up to a reputation, trying moderation and finding it empty, ADHD and fight or flight, and why he's still figuring out what sobriety means.

Quitting drinking, Love Island, sober journey, ambition, sober entrepreneur.

https://www.instagram.com/scott.thomas/?hl=en

https://www.f4t.com/

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.

Susannah, known to many in the sober community as Sue's Sober, joins Sober Dave on One for the Road for one of the most quietly powerful conversations on the show.

Susannah lost her mum suddenly at 23. Three months later, on Boxing Day 2004, she was on Koh Phi Phi when the tsunami hit. She helped triage survivors, made impossible decisions, and came home to a London life of late nights, drink spiking, and assault on the tube — and a 20-year freeze response nobody named until she was diagnosed with complex PTSD in 2021.

Her drinking became a problem in her 30s after two traumatic births. Her GP didn't ask about it. Her therapist told her everyone has wine at night.

Inside: grief, freeze response, mum wine culture, the help she couldn't get, and how AA quietly saved her.

Quitting drinking, complex PTSD, grief, sober mum, sober journey.

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.

He was drinking 20 pints a day and brushing his teeth with alcohol when he picked up the payphone to say goodbye to his mum.

From the outside, Harrison Ward had it sorted. Hotel manager. Relationship. The badge of honour for being the bloke who could put it all away. Behind the mask, he was self-medicating clinical depression he'd carried since he was 13, weighing over 22 stone, blacking out nightly, and quietly working out how to stop existing.

Then one morning, after losing the relationship that meant everything to him, four words came out at work: "I don't drink anymore, John."

This week on One for the Road, Harrison tells the full story. How he walked away from 12 years of drinking overnight, came clean to his family for the first time, lost 7 stone, ran his first marathon 11 months later, and built a whole new life as The Fell Foodie cooking restaurant-quality meals on a camp stove in the Lake District.

His debut cook book, ‘Cook Out’ has been published by Vertebrate Publishing in 2023.

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

Website – https://www.fellfoodie.co.uk

Book - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cook-Out-Foodies-gourmet-outdoors/dp/1839811986/ref=zg_bs_g_279450_sccl_19/261-0854685-2334816?psc=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.

https://www.instagram.com/lucy_norfolk_/

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.

Welcome to my bonus episode Of One For The Road with Sophie B Hawkins. The GRAMMY® Award-nominated, RIAA Platinum-certified singer-songwriter has announced her first UK headline performance in almost two decades, set for Sunday, November 26 at London’s The Forge (3-7 Delancey Street, Camden Town, NW1 7NL) For more than three decades, Sophie B. Hawkins has been a chart-topping, award-winning superstar. The New York-based artist dropped “Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover” upon an unsuspecting world in the summer of 1992, earning instant attention for its raw energy and unforgettable confession of lust and longing. The groundbreaking track struck a chord around the world, reaching the top 5 on Billboard’s “Hot 100,” the top 15 on the UK’s Official Singles Chart, and the top 10 in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Greece, New Zealand, and Norway. Indeed, “Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover” remains a classic rock ballad more than 30 years after its initial release, featured on countless film and TV soundtracks as well as a multiformat radio staple around the globe. On todays bonus episode Sophie B Hawkins shares with us the journey through her childhood that made her decide at the age of 14 after reaching her rock bottom to choose a life of abstinence to both alcohol and drugs.

Links to her show at the Forge Sunday 26th November 

https://theforge.seetickets.com/event/sophie-b-hawkins/the-forge-camden/2805177

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.

She was the smiliest mum at the school gates, lovely four-bed detached house, two children, a husband who worked away. From the outside, she had it sorted. Behind closed doors she was sitting on the bathroom floor each morning trying not to have a panic attack, self-harming, and drinking a bottle of wine every night just to fall asleep.

Caroline Strawson is an award-winning trauma therapist and narcissistic abuse survivor, and the link between the two is the conversation Sober Dave has been waiting to have.

This week Caroline shares the whole story. Marrying a covert narcissist in her late 20s. Finding out he was having an affair while she was six months pregnant. Four miscarriages. The house repossessed at 40. Wine o'clock with the school mum friendship group that turned into a bottle a night to numb the gaslighting, the financial abuse, the silent treatment. And then how she got out, broke the trauma bond, healed her nervous system, walked away from alcohol, and built the life and work she has now.

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://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-narcissistic-abuse-trauma-recovery-podcast/id1527479270

https://www.facebook.com/carolinestrawson

https://instagram.com/carolinestrawson?igshid=NGVhN2U2NjQ0Yg%3D%3D&utm_source=qr

https://www.facebook.com/groups/thetraumainformedcoachingcollective/?ref=share_group_link

https://instagram.com/carolinestrawson?igshid=NGVhN2U2NjQ0Yg%3D%3D&utm_source=qr

https://schooloftraumainformedpositivepsychology.com/elevate-your-earning/

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.

Laurie Haynes had three father figures before he was ten years old. He left school at 14 with no GCSEs after setting the art corridor on fire. He spent most of his twenties partying, working hard, ordering a rope off Amazon one night, and walking away from a relationship with his own mum.

Laurie is a NACOA ambassador, entrepreneur, and mental health advocate building a wellbeing platform called Shara. He grew up a child of alcoholism in Portsmouth, name-changed more than once, watching his mum cycle through partners while social services circled the family.

This week on One for the Road, Laurie opens up about it all. The chaos at home. The teachers who quietly kept him in their offices because home was worse. The press story that broke him at his lowest. The therapy that rebuilt him. The decision to cut his parents out so he could break the cycle for his own kids.

A raw conversation about what childhood does to a man, and what it takes to refuse to pass it on.

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.