My Battle with the Booze - a Doctor’s Story

Tribe Sober - inspiring an alcohol-free life! My guest this week is Dr Stephan Neff - a German who is living in New Zealand Stephan began to drink heavily at university and carried on into his twenties and thirties The medical profession was demanding and he used alcohol to cope with stress   In this Episode At the age of 35 Stephan realised that his drinking was becoming problematic but pushed it to the back of his mind Alcohol was numbing the pain and giving him a temporary respite from the stress His wife also drank a lot - they were both A type personalities - striving to succeed - using alcohol to relax Stephan's wife managed to stop drinking and then began to urge him to make a change but with no success He was getting worse and worse - not enough alcohol to numb the pain Stephan hit rock bottom one night and was found crying in his garage - his wife arranged for him to go to rehab two days later She issued him an ultimatum - he would lose his family if he didn't go to rehab - he felt relieved but also full of shame Not everybody has to hit "rock bottom" before they make a change - get some help and join tribe sober Rehab was life changing for Stephan - in the bubble of rehab for 4 weeks - everything changed  The staff were great - many of the staff were ex-addicts who were clean and thriving - they inspired him Stephan felt that he was being "listened to" and could "speak his truth" finally We offer a complimentary recovery coaching session to our members so they can experience the power of being listened to As part of his treatment he wrote a letter which was full of grievances - to help him deal with his resentment and anger Coming out of rehab was a bit of an anti-climax - nobody was that interested - he had to "walk the talk" to show he had changed Stephan has learned to avoid HALT - being Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired - which is could trigger him  He talked about the difference between a "lapse" and a full blown "relapse"- after a lapse we need to "get curious" Our annual trackers help our members to get stay on track after a lapse - if you'd like an annual tracker - [email protected] In his book "Steps to Sobriety" he goes into details about relapses and what causes them - often a lack of self care Stephan has a podcast called "Into the Light" and a You Tube channel Treat a craving as a wave in the ocean - surf it rather than let it drown you! More info Subscription membership for Tribe Sober join up HERE To access our website click HERE If you would like a free copy of our"Annual Tracker" please email [email protected] If you would like to come to our Saturday afternoon Zoom Cafe as a guest and meet our community just email [email protected] Episode Sponsor           This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program.  If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then            sign up today.            Read more about our 7-step program and subscribe HERE           Book a Discovery Call with me to find out if our membership would help you            Help us to spread the word! We made this podcast so that we can reach more people who need our help.  Please subscribe and share. We release a podcast episode every Saturday morning. You can follow Tribe Sober on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and join our Tribe Sober Club on Clubhouse - we are on Clubhouse every Sunday afternoon at 5pm SA time so come join the conversation. You can catch our FB live on Saturday mornings (11am SAST) and you can join our private Facebook group HERE Thank you for listening!  Till Next Week Janet x