Hint: Willpower won’t work. Do you relate to my story? I had lots of rules about drinking. Only drink wine. Never have wine in the house. Follow each glass of wine with a glass of water. Drink more juice. Avoid brown liquor. Drink on a full stomach. Only have 3. …

Truthfully, some of these are neither quick nor easy. But they work. And without them, your chances of staying sober decrease. — I felt like a raw nerve end when I gave up drinking. I was super sensitive, wildly anxious and super uncomfortable. And I’m still sober 22 years later. None of that stuff killed me. And I made it through. You can, too. Here are 10 ways — some quick and…

Some things to consider if your relationship with alcohol is exhausting. If you’re questioning your relationship with alcohol, see if you experience any of these five things. If so, you might benefit from quitting. 1. When you start, your off switch disappears (what off switch?), and you experience an insane desire for more. I felt like I was under a spell. My drinking was outside of my control once…

The ache in my solar plexus is as familiar to me as the back of my hand. In Boulder, where I live, we believe that’s where our 3rd chakra lives. You know, the energy center in the body where our sense of personal power lies. When I imagined what that…

Instead of tossing a second job into our juggling act, the universe has thrown us an anvil labeled Covid-19. Our current alcohol epidemic shares two of the three causes and conditions of other drug epidemics identified by Carl Erik Fisher, author of “The Urge: Our History of Addiction”: a novel…

My family went to church multiple times every week. Sunday morning. Sunday evening. And Wednesdays, too, for good measure. I went to the church’s elementary school where I got gold stars (literally!) for memorizing Bible verses and the books of the Bible in order. The brand of Christianity my parents…

I pretended. I pretended so hard it was exhausting. Professionally, I looked successful (SVP of a global ad agency). I dressed well. And my kids were in the Gifted & Talented program. I bragged about whatever I thought would impress you and hid what was really going on behind that…

“Drinking blurs the boundaries of the inner world.” Carl Jung. I went to the kegger with an upperclassman. I was a freshman, and I was flattered that this older guy — with a driver’s license!- had asked me out. I remember a few things from that night. The first beer in a red plastic cup. How cute the guitar player…

Women drink primarily to change our inner world. To drown out the voice inside that tells us we aren’t good enough. Not thin enough. Not smart enough. Not young enough. Not fill-in-the-blank enough. Any type of quit lit or treatment program that doesn’t address this underlying issue doesn’t work long…