The Big Drink Rethink

By Anna Donaghey

The Big Drink Rethink is a podcast for anyone questioning their relationship with alcohol - whether you want to quit, drink less, take a break, or just explore the role alcohol plays in your life.

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How many episodes does The Big Drink Rethink have?

The podcast currently has 143 episodes available.

Best of The Big Drink Rethink

The most played episodes among Podcast App listeners.

Number 1: Ep 140: The Craving Isn't The Enemy | Rethinking Alcohol |
What if the craving you feel for a drink is actually a craving for relief, regulation, or connection, and there’s another, more healing way to get it? In this episode, your host Anna Donaghey is joined by breathwork practitioner Jon Paul Crimi, whose powerful personal story weaves together addiction, grief, emotional numbness, and a breathwork experience that profoundly shifted his life. They discuss why most people reach for alcohol (it isn’t what you think), how drinking becomes our “solution” for regulating uncomfortable emotions, and the striking similarities between addiction and the universal longing for a shift in state. Jon Paul breaks down what breathwork really is (spoiler: it’s not just box breathing!) and shares how circular, connected breathwork specifically offers a physiological and emotional “reboot” making space for release, self-connection, and even joy. Anna shares her first-hand experience with his class, highlighting how breathwork can offer real, lasting relief that alcohol promises but can’t deliver. Whether you’re sober-curious, in recovery, or just looking to break free from unhelpful patterns and cravings, this conversation points to practical, science-backed ways to rethink your drinking. Highlights: 00:00 Welcome & intro to breathwork 01:01 Jon Paul’s story: addiction, loss, and seeking relief 04:13 When drinking goes from fun to just problems 07:29 The emotional “arrest” that comes from early drinking 08:25 Grief, trauma, and the search for tools 11:05 Why our brains equate alcohol with relief 14:15 What finally made sobriety stick 19:26 How breathwork entered Jon Paul’s life 12 years into sobriety 22:44 The first breathwork class: from scepticism to transformation 28:01 How breathwork helps regulate cravings, states, and emotions 30:17 Craving isn’t the enemy, it’s information 34:10 Breathwork vs. psychedelics: power inside YOU 35:48 What actually happens in a circular breathwork class 39:00 “Turning off your brain” and moving into your heart 46:08 Using breathwork for current and past pain, grief, and shame 52:16 Cravings, choices, and living an extraordinary life. Anna’s book "What Are You Thirsty For? Rethinking Alcohol and The Life You Want", is now out in the world for you to buy! Order your copy, access her free tools and explore her coaching programmes at: https://thebigdrinkrethink.com/ The Thirsty For More Mindset Lab is Anna’s ‘inner circle’ - a calm, thoughtful space where conversations continue, patterns are explored, and things begin to make sense. Find out more at: https://thirstyformore.substack.com/ If you appreciate the podcast and would like to show a bit of love, you can donate the cost of a coffee here. It helps support the time and care that goes into making the show: https://buymeacoffee.com/bigdrinkrethink About the host Anna: Anna is a certified Alcohol Mindset Coach, trained by Annie Grace of This Naked Mind. Drawing on her own journey out of alcohol addiction, she now helps others explore and control their drinking. With a career spanning 25 years as a Strategist in the Advertising industry, she combines her own lived experiences, with great insight into what makes us tick and what influences us to behave the way we do. Connect with Anna: Website: thebigdrinkrethink.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/annadonaghey Instagram: instagram.com/bigdrinkrethink Produced by winteraudio.co.uk About Jon Paul Crimi: Jon Paul Crimi is a world-renowned breathwork facilitator, teacher trainer, and recovery advocate - known for a zero-filter, East Coast approach that strips breathwork of its "New Agey" reputation and replaces it with something practical and results-driven enough to win over sceptics, CEOs, and everyday people alike. He started out as an actor, celebrity fitness trainer, and sober coach in Los Angeles, carrying his own struggles with alcoholism, addiction, and low self-worth long before he found a way through them. Almost by accident, around 15 years ago, he wandered into a breathwork class and had a transformation so profound in that first session that it reshaped the entire direction of his life. He's now 26 years sober, and that lived experience - not theory - is what sits underneath everything he teaches. His method is trauma-informed at its core, built around somatic release, nervous system regulation, and processing the emotional weight people carry without always knowing it. It's also gone mainstream in a way few breathwork practices have. He runs weekly live classes, digital workshops, and his Emotional Detox course. You can find him, and all of it, at: https://breathewithjp.com/
September 10, 202655min
Number 2: Ep 139: Toolkit 101 – How To Identify Your Drinking Beliefs | Alcohol Coaching |
What if your drinking is driven less by choice and more by invisible beliefs running beneath the surface? In this solo episode, Anna Donaghey breaks down how beliefs act as our “operating system,” quietly driving our thoughts and behaviours, especially around alcohol. Anna reveals why it’s so difficult to spot the beliefs shaping our drinking, how to distinguish between a thought and a belief, and why simply changing behaviour rarely works unless you dig deeper. With practical examples and the “reverse chain” technique (starting with your behaviour and working backwards), Anna offers clear tools, including the powerful “downward arrow” method to help you uncover the beliefs at the root of your drinking habits and gently rethink your relationship with alcohol. Highlights: 00:00 Welcome & intro 00:41 Recap: The belief “pyramid” and last solo episode 01:20 Why beliefs matter more than thoughts or behaviours 03:10 The difference between a thought and a belief 05:07 Real-world examples: how beliefs quietly shape our actions 12:18 “Alcohol, please help me...”, the jobs we hand to booze 13:38 How habits and beliefs wire together neurologically 14:44 Aaron Beck’s model: core beliefs vs. automatic thoughts 15:35 Why starting with your behaviour is the key to spotting beliefs 16:14 Step-by-step: working backwards from behaviour to belief 24:23 Free guide to run this process anytime 25:30 New episodes: breaking down the most common alcohol beliefs 26:14 Where to find helpful resources. For the worksheet referred to in the episode, visit the toolkit full of free resources on Anna’s website thebigdrinkrethink.com, and download ‘How to Identify Your Drinking Beliefs’ Listen to Episode 137: The Beliefs Driving Your Drinking | Rethinking Alcohol, where Anna shares about the “Pyramid of Belief" and how deeply rooted feelings of “not enough” shape much of our behaviour, including our drinking habits. Anna’s book "What Are You Thirsty For? Rethinking Alcohol and The Life You Want", is now out in the world for you to buy! Order your copy, access her free tools and explore her coaching programmes at: https://thebigdrinkrethink.com/ The Thirsty For More Mindset Lab is Anna’s ‘inner circle’ - a calm, thoughtful space where conversations continue, patterns are explored, and things begin to make sense. Find out more at: https://thirstyformore.substack.com/ If you appreciate the podcast and would like to show a bit of love, you can donate the cost of a coffee here. It helps support the time and care that goes into making the show: https://buymeacoffee.com/bigdrinkrethink About the host Anna: Anna is a certified Alcohol Mindset Coach, trained by Annie Grace of This Naked Mind. Drawing on her own journey out of alcohol addiction, she now helps others explore and control their drinking. With a career spanning 25 years as a Strategist in the Advertising industry, she combines her own lived experiences, with great insight into what makes us tick and what influences us to behave the way we do. Connect with Anna: Website: thebigdrinkrethink.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/annadonaghey Instagram: instagram.com/bigdrinkrethink Produced by winteraudio.co.uk
September 03, 202627min
Number 3: Ep 138: Pain Pushes Until Vision Pulls | Rethinking Alcohol |
What if the life you’re chasing, and the drinking that comes with it, are both keeping you from the life you really want? In this honest conversation, Anna Donaghey welcomes recovery and transition coach Alina Roselli, who shares her journey from living “outside-in” - seeking validation, people-pleasing and pushing through burnout, to soul-led sobriety and deep self-acceptance. Together, they explore why we can lose ourselves trying to meet other people’s expectations, how burnout and exhaustion can force us to question the life we’re living, and why transformation isn’t simply about giving up alcohol, it's about discovering who you are without it. They also explore self-worth, radical honesty, the trap of external validation and practical ways to start living more “inside-out”. For anyone questioning their relationship with alcohol, their sense of purpose, or whether there could be more to life, this episode offers an invitation to stop chasing approval and start coming home to yourself. Highlights: 00:00 Welcome & introduction to Alina Roselli 00:40 Alina’s unraveling, burnout, alcohol and not knowing herself 02:46 The culture of drinking and starting at 15 05:55 Seeking belonging and landing in “image-driven” circles 10:07 What is “outside-in” living and how it shaped Alina’s self worth 12:28 When alcohol shifts from fun to medicine 15:46 How self-image creates our lives (and can keep us lost) 16:43 Burnout as a wake-up call 17:40 Trying everything (yoga, therapy, self-help) but not getting better 23:27 Filling the “God-shaped hole” - how misaligned living leaves us empty 26:04 Making hard changes and letting go of old identities 28:46 Why inside-out living is terrifying and ultimately liberating 30:10 “Pain pushes until the vision pulls”: learning to listen to your soul 32:43 Finding calm, silence, and the right conditions to truly meet yourself 34:19 Discovering introversion, the need for solitude, and creative renewal 36:29 How the small actions revealed a bigger self and a life worth keeping 39:32 How to reconnect with your needs and stop abandoning yourself 41:36 The courage in honesty and the gifts waiting in the unknown 43:42 Acceptance, creativity, and the joy of simply feeling okay 46:35 Becoming yourself changes the world around you 49:33 People have no idea how amazing they are 50:19 How to join The Big Drink Rethink community. Anna’s book "What Are You Thirsty For? Rethinking Alcohol and The Life You Want", is now out in the world for you to buy! Order your copy, access her free tools and explore her coaching programmes at: https://thebigdrinkrethink.com/ The Thirsty For More Mindset Lab is Anna’s ‘inner circle’ - a calm, thoughtful space where conversations continue, patterns are explored, and things begin to make sense. Find out more at: https://thirstyformore.substack.com/ If you appreciate the podcast and would like to show a bit of love, you can donate the cost of a coffee here. It helps support the time and care that goes into making the show: https://buymeacoffee.com/bigdrinkrethink About the host Anna: Anna is a certified Alcohol Mindset Coach, trained by Annie Grace of This Naked Mind. Drawing on her own journey out of alcohol addiction, she now helps others explore and control their drinking. With a career spanning 25 years as a Strategist in the Advertising industry, she combines her own lived experiences, with great insight into what makes us tick and what influences us to behave the way we do. Connect with Anna: Website: thebigdrinkrethink.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/annadonaghey Instagram: instagram.com/bigdrinkrethink Produced by winteraudio.co.uk About Alina Roselli: Alina is a recovery and transition coach who believes we are in an epidemic of not knowing who we truly are. Through her recovery and coaching work, she is witnessing firsthand how most people are living as smaller versions of themselves without knowing it. She's developed Soul Coordinates, a portrait that bypasses the mind entirely and reveals who you actually are underneath the survival strategies. Her online community and course, The Naked Soul Path on Skool, is an accessible way to come home to yourself in community. Her own journey through burnout, addiction recovery and self loss is the source of everything she offers Connect with Alina: https://www.alinaroselli.com/
August 27, 202651min
Number 4: Ep 135: What Have You Got To Be Unhappy About? | Rethinking Alcohol |
Why do high-flying CEOs, investors, and ultra-successful leaders, people with every resource at their fingertips, still end up stuck, lonely, and reaching for a drink? In this episode, Anna Donaghey is joined by Lindsey Frances, a leadership psychologist. Together they unpack the universal experience of feeling trapped by drink, the myth that outer success delivers inner fulfilment, and why human suffering pays no attention to your bank balance. Is the pull to drink really about stress, status, or socialising, or is it something deeper: unmet needs for purpose, connection, and calm? As Lindsey and Anna discover, real change starts with a single question: what are you truly thirsty for? Highlights: 00:00 Intro: High achievers & high-functioning alcohol use 02:03 What boardrooms and AA rooms have in common 05:15 The trap: shame, disconnection, and feeling unworthy 06:09 Why suffering feels the same in £1000 shoes or 99p flip-flops 09:36 Success as an external “cage”; failing on the inside 12:14 Coping at the top: alcohol and other numbing strategies 13:32 Addiction is disconnection, so what comes first? 15:13 Alcohol as a (false) shortcut to connection and significance 17:06 What are people really thirsty for? Purpose, enough-ness, & joy 22:30 Why high achievers can’t just “stop” 26:12 Sophrology and imagining a life beyond work (and drinking) 30:27 What does constant “fight or flight” feel like? 36:31 Why you can’t biohack your way out of pain 40:08 Universal issues, whether you run hedge funds or trim hedges 45:08 Simple, accessible tools for regulating your nervous system 48:01 “Simple, but not easy”: choosing your hard 49:20 Lindsey’s own journey - making sense of emotions after quitting 54:09 Andrew Lloyd Webber’s story: why sobriety trumps career success 54:55 Serving others, and the real sources of flourishing 55:23 Where to find Lindsey Frances and resources for sophrology Anna’s book "What Are You Thirsty For? Rethinking Alcohol and The Life You Want", is now out in the world for you to buy! Order your copy, access her free tools and explore her coaching programmes at: https://thebigdrinkrethink.com/ The Thirsty For More Mindset Lab is Anna’s ‘inner circle’ - a calm, thoughtful space where conversations continue, patterns are explored, and things begin to make sense. Find out more at: https://thirstyformore.substack.com/ If you appreciate the podcast and would like to show a bit of love, you can donate the cost of a coffee here. It helps support the time and care that goes into making the show: https://buymeacoffee.com/bigdrinkrethink About the host Anna: Anna is a certified Alcohol Mindset Coach, trained by Annie Grace of This Naked Mind. Drawing on her own journey out of alcohol addiction, she now helps others explore and control their drinking. With a career spanning 25 years as a Strategist in the Advertising industry, she combines her own lived experiences, with great insight into what makes us tick and what influences us to behave the way we do. Connect with Anna: Website: thebigdrinkrethink.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/annadonaghey Instagram: instagram.com/bigdrinkrethink Produced by winteraudio.co.uk About Lindsey Frances: Lindsey Frances is a clinical sophrologist, legacy and wealth psychologist, preventative health expert and data-led performance coach, helping high performers, CEOs and investors master financial and emotional stress, sleep and self-regulation through a unique blend of sophrology, biometrics and behaviour change psychology. In 2021, she opened a private sophrology cabinet on the Alpine French-Swiss border, where she has since guided clients ranging from cross-border executives and athletes to burnout recoverers towards calmer nervous systems and more sustainable performance. Connect with Lindsey: Website: https://www.lindseyfrances.co.uk/
August 06, 202657min
Number 5: Ep 02: Exploring our Love Affair with Alcohol with Professor David Nutt
In this episode, we dive deep into our society's enduring and complex relationship with alcohol. Host Anna Donaghey and guest Professor David Nutt, a renowned expert in neuropsychopharmacology, engage in a thought-provoking discussion about the glamorisation of alcohol in media, the impact of advertising on drinking habits, and the influence of the drinks industry on policies and public perception. They explore the historical and societal roots of alcohol's prevalence and shed light on the surprising realities of alcohol's effects on health and mental well-being. Together they reflect on the signs of a shift in alcohol culture and offer practical tips for mindful drinking. Here are the highlights:01:25 Alcohol's persistence due to historical and social factors.05:49 European drinking habits, influenced by history, differ.07:10 The point in UK history when alcohol consumption really grew.09:21 Why alcohol is our social drug of choice.15:03 The social benefits of alcohol. 20:25 The power of the drinks industry in government policy. 27:11 Obsession with wine and its health impacts.30:18 Alcohol: impacts on healthcare, taxes, and consumption.38:38 Fear of social isolation in drinking cessation.42:14 Years of investment led to a successful drink.43:50 Creating sociability through affordable alcohol alternatives.49:50 Awareness of drinking habits leads to consciousness.51:42 Drinking for stress relief can be concerning. 🔗 Get all the free resources from the series at: Toolkit Optin Anna’s group coaching community ‘Unstuck!’ helps identify your alcohol ‘stories’ and beliefs, breaking the cycle of alcohol and all the shame that goes with it. For more information and to find out how to join, please follow this link: Unstuck! community information To further explore your relationship with alcohol, check out Anna’s self-guided programme, The Big Drink Rethink Experiment: https://www.thebeliefscoach.com/the-big-drink-rethink-experiment And apply the code POD99 to purchase for just £99 as a podcast listener If you’re loving the podcast and would like to give Anna a warm, fuzzy feeling of appreciation, then you can buy her a coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/bigdrinkrethink About Professor David Nutt: David Nutt is currently the Edmond J. Safra Professor of Neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London. He is also the Chair of DrugScience (formally the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs (ISCD) and President of the European Brain Council. David’s Book: ‘Drink? The New Science of Alcohol And Your Health’: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Drink-Science-Alcohol-Your-Health/dp/152939323X Find out more about the Gaba-based drink Sentia: https://sentiaspirits.com/ Find out more about David’s research and work into drugs: https://www.drugscience.org.uk/ About the host, Anna: Anna is a certified Alcohol Mindset Coach, trained by Annie Grace of This Naked Mind. Drawing on her own journey out of alcohol addiction, she now helps others explore and control their drinking. With a career spanning 25 years as a Strategist in the Advertising industry, she combines her own lived experiences, with great insight into what makes us tick and what influences us to behave the way we do. Connect with Anna: Website: thebeliefscoach.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/annadonaghey Facebook: facebook.com/thebeliefscoach Instagram: instagram.com/bigdrinkrethink Produced by winteraudio.co.uk
February 01, 202454min