Podcast
Addiction Unlimited Podcast
Hosted by Angela Pugh · EN
Are you ready to ditch daily drinking, reclaim your confidence, and create a life of freedom? Each week, Angela combines no-nonsense advice, personal stories, and science-backed strategies to tackle the challenges of sobriety. Angela Pugh is a globally-ranked Life Coach and podcast host, a professional Interventionist, and entrepreneur with more than 18 years of personal sobriety, helping people rebuild their lives since 2008. From navigating relationships to managing triggers, you’ll discover practical tools, empowering insights, and real-world solutions to thrive in sobriety. It’s time to stop feeling stuck and start feeling unlimited. Listen now for the inspiration, tools, and support you need to live a sober, confident, and happy life.
36episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Why You Felt So Confident…Then Started Drinking Again
1w ago00:19:54Tap to summarizeIf you can quit drinking but always seem to end up back at Day One, this episode will help you understand why—and what needs to happen next.
Transcribe →The Real Reason You Drank
2w ago00:21:34Tap to summarizeWhy did you really drink? Most people think alcohol is the problem. But what if alcohol was actually the solution your brain found for anxiety, insecurity, loneliness, trauma, or the constant feeling that you weren't enough?
Transcribe →The Truth About “Taking a Break” From Alcohol
3w ago00:14:34Tap to summarizeYou've done Dry July. You've done Sober October. You've had a hundred Day Ones. So why does nothing ever actually stick? Taking a break from alcohol isn't the same as deciding to quit. Learn why temporary breaks often lead back to drinking—and what creates lasting sobriety.
Transcribe →What Happens to Your Body (and Brain) When You Stop Drinking
4w ago00:38:53Tap to summarizeIf you’ve ever wondered whether alcohol permanently damaged your body—or you’ve quit drinking and found yourself asking, Why am I so anxious? Why can’t I sleep? Why do I still have brain fog?—this episode is for you. Today I’m walking you through what actually happens inside your body after you stop drinking. Not the social media myths. Not the gimmicks. The real biology. You’ll learn how alcohol changes your brain chemistry, why early sobriety can feel so intense, and what your body is doing behind the scenes to restore balance. We talk about the science behind sleep disruption, why your liver is one of the most remarkable organs in your body, how alcohol affects your gut, heart, immune system, and hormones, and why so many people begin feeling physically better long before they feel emotionally healed. One of the biggest messages I want you to take away is this: feeling worse after you quit drinking doesn’t mean alcohol was helping you. It means your body is recalibrating after years of adapting to alcohol. But we also have an important conversation about what sobriety doesn’t magically fix. Trauma, stress, anxiety, menopause, low testosterone, nervous system dysregulation, and emotional healing don’t disappear simply because you stopped drinking. Recovery is bigger than removing alcohol—it’s learning how to build a life you don’t want to escape from. In this episode, you’ll learn: 01:25 Your brain: GABA, glutamate & early sobriety 05:56 Alcohol and sleep: why you wake up at 3 AM 13:38 Your liver’s incredible ability to heal 19:07 Gut health, nutrient absorption & inflammation 24:22 Your heart, immune system & hormones after alcohol 36:26 Physical healing vs. emotional recovery If you’ve been wondering whether your body can recover after years of drinking, I hope this episode gives you something so many people desperately need in early sobriety: hope. Your body isn’t working against you. It’s been fighting for you all along.   Links mentioned in this episode: Book A Call with Angela: addictionunlimited.com/call Join Sober Society: addictionunlimited.com/society Related Episode: Worried About Your Health in Sobriety? Here’s How Your Body Heals After Drinking Instagram: @addictionunlimited Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/addictionunlimited     Prefer to read instead of listen? Here’s the full transcript of this episode. Angela (00:11.96) Hello, my friend. Welcome back to Addiction Unlimited Podcast. I’m your coach, Angela Pugh. If you’ve ever wondered whether alcohol permanently damaged your body, or you’ve quit drinking and found yourself asking, like, is this normal? Why am I so tired? Why am I anxious? Why can’t I sleep? Why do I still have brain fog after a month? Then this episode is for you. Because here’s what I want you to know right from the beginning. Your body wants to heal. In fact, healing begins within hours of your last drink. And while every person’s recovery looks a little different depending on how long they drank, how much they drank, age, genetics, nutrition, overall health, the human body is remarkably resilient. Today we’re going to walk through what alcohol actually does to different systems in your body, what happens when you remove it, what kind of timeline you can realistically expect. And why some parts of recovery happen on a calendar while other parts happen because of the work you choose to do. Angela (01:24.884) Here’s the thing about alcohol that almost nobody explains right. It’s not a substance your brain tolerates, it’s a substance your brain adapts to. Every single time you drink, your brain has to do damage control. And alcohol is a depressant. And before we go any further, I want to clear up one of the biggest misconceptions about that concept. When we say alcohol is a depressant, We don’t mean it makes you depressed or sad. We mean it depresses or slows down the activity of your central nervous system. Think of your central nervous system as the command center for everything your body does. It’s your brain and spinal cord communicating with every other system in your body. It controls your thoughts, your reaction time, your breathing and heart rate. Your coordination, your judgment, memory, emotions, everything. Alcohol comes in and starts turning the volume down on that entire system. Your thoughts and reflexes slow down, your reaction time slows down, your coordination gets worse, speech changes, your judgment becomes impaired. That’s what a depressant does. It slows the activity of your nervous system. But here’s where it gets really interesting. Your brain is obsessed with one thing, keeping you alive. And more specifically, it wants balance. Scientists call this homeostasis. Your brain wants everything operating within a pretty narrow range. So when alcohol keeps slamming on the brakes, Angela (03:13.194) Your brain wants everything operating within a pretty narrow range. So when alcohol keeps slamming on the brakes, your brain doesn’t just sit there and accept it, right? It adapts. It starts pressing the gas pedal to compensate. It ramps up excitatory chemicals, mainly glutamate. And over time it becomes less responsive to the calming effects of GABA because alcohol. Has been providing that calming effect artificially. Angela (03:47.384) Think of GABA as your brain’s brake pedal and glutamate as the gas pedal. As alcohol continues slowing everything down, your brain pushes harder on the gas just to keep you functioning normally. That’s why many people who drink heavily don’t necessarily look intoxicated because they’ve developed tolerance because their brain has adapted. But then one day you stop drinking. Suddenly the artificial breaks disappear. But your brain is still pressing on the gas. That’s why early sobriety can feel so physically and emotionally intense. Anxiety, restlessness, racing thoughts, irritabilities, shaky hands, trouble sleeping, feeling like your skin is crawling. Those aren’t signs something is wrong. They’re signs that your brain is trying to find its balance again. And every day you stay alcohol-free. Your brain begins adjusting in the opposite direction. It gradually turns the glutamate back down, restores its normal response to GABA, and it starts regulating itself without alcohol. That process doesn’t happen overnight, right? But it does happen. One of the biggest mistakes people make is believing that because they feel worse after they quit drinking, like alcohol must have been helping them. But that’s not what’s happening. You’re experiencing life without alcohol. You’re not experiencing life without alcohol. You’re experiencing a brain that’s recalibrating after alcohol. Those are two very different things. Angela (05:56.344) So we talked about the brain. Let’s talk about sleep. One of the biggest lies alcohol tells us is that it helps us sleep. I cannot tell you how many people say to me, Angela, I have to have a few drinks or I’ll never fall asleep. And I get it, I was exactly the same way. It certainly feels that way. Alcohol can absolutely make you fall asleep faster, but falling asleep and getting quality sleep are two completely different things. Think about it this way: if someone put you under anesthesia, Would you call that a great night’s sleep? Of course not. You were unconscious, but your brain wasn’t cycling through the normal stages of restorative sleep that your body needs. Alcohol works in a similar way. It seda...
Transcribe →Why Dry July Is the Perfect Time to Make a Real Decision
Jul 100:20:22Tap to summarizeDry July isn't about proving you can quit. It's about gathering the evidence that leads to acceptance—the moment real recovery begins.
Transcribe →Why Coping Skills Matter More Than Willpower in Recovery
Jun 2400:21:33Tap to summarizeThink sobriety is about willpower? Think again. Learn why coping skills—not motivation—are the key to managing triggers, regulating emotions, and staying sober long term.
Transcribe →What Does Life Without Alcohol Really Look Like? | Addiction Unlimited Podcast
Jun 1701:03:42Tap to summarizeWhat does sober life actually look like? If you're thinking about quitting drinking, one of the biggest fears is the unknown. What will you do for fun? Will you still be yourself? Will your relationships change? Will life ever feel normal again? In this episode, Angela sits down with Casey Davidson from the Hello Someday Podcast for a candid conversation about what happens after alcohol is no longer part of your life. They talk about the fears they had before quitting, what surprised them most about sobriety, why moderation kept them stuck, how friendships changed, and why life often becomes much bigger than you imagined once alcohol is no longer running the show. If you're struggling to picture your future without alcohol, this conversation will help you stop focusing on forever and start focusing on what's possible.
Transcribe →How to Handle Relationships When You’re Getting Sober
Jun 1000:35:32Tap to summarizeGetting sober doesn’t just change your relationship with alcohol — it changes your relationships with people. In this episode, I’m talking about what really happens when you quit drinking and the people around you are still operating from the old version of you. We’ll talk about partners who still drink, friends who are still in the party lifestyle, and relationships that feel weird, awkward, or strained because you’re changing. You’ll learn why protecting your peace in early sobriety is not selfish, why some friendships can adjust while others fade, and how to communicate what you need without trying to control everyone around you. If your relationships feel confusing right now, this episode will help you breathe, slow down, and understand what’s actually happening. Book a call with me: addictionunlimited.com/call
Transcribe →Should I Go? How to Make Smart Decisions in Early Sobriety
Jun 300:36:00Tap to summarizeI’ll walk you through five simple questions to ask before you go into any social situation. One of the most common questions people ask in early sobriety is, “Should I go?” Should I go to the birthday party? The barbecue? The wedding? The vacation? The girls’ weekend? The dinner where everyone else will be drinking? And I get it. The world doesn’t stop drinking just because you did. People still invite you places. Life keeps moving. And you don’t want sobriety to feel like a punishment where you hide in your house forever and say no to everything. But here’s the truth: in early sobriety, your job is not to prove how strong you are. Your job is to stay sober. In this episode, I’m helping you stop asking, “Am I allowed to go?” and start asking the question that actually matters: “Can I trust myself to follow my plan when the pressure hits?” Because you can make the most beautiful little sober plan in the world. You can drive yourself, hold your mocktail, stay for 45 minutes, rehearse your exit line, and know exactly what you’ll say if someone offers you a drink. But none of that matters if you abandon yourself in the moment it counts. That moment when someone puts a shot in your face. That moment when your friend says, “Come on, just one.” That moment when everyone else is laughing and loose and you suddenly feel awkward, exposed, and outside the circle. That is where sobriety is decided. We’re also talking about why early sobriety is not the time to test yourself for sport. You are not auditioning for the role of Most Impressive Sober Person. You are learning how to protect something that is still new, still growing, and still becoming solid. I’ll walk you through five simple questions to ask before you go into any social situation. This episode is your permission slip to stop making sobriety harder than it has to be. Sometimes the smartest, strongest, most sober decision is: not yet. Not this weekend. Not with that group. Not at that place. Not while I’m shaky. Not until I trust myself more. That doesn’t mean never. It means you’re honest about where you are right now. And honesty is how you build sobriety that lasts. Your sobriety is worth more than any party, any wedding toast, any awkward conversation, or anyone’s opinion about whether you’re fun. It deserves your attention. It deserves your protection. And so do you.   Links mentioned in this episode: Book A Call Here: addictionunlimited.com/call Related Episode: The Small Daily Decisions that Make or Break Your Sobriety Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/addictionunlimited/ Join Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/addictionunlimited   Prefer to read instead of listen? Here’s the full transcript of this episode. 438 Transcript Angela (00:10.68) Hello, my friend. Welcome back to Addiction Unlimited. I’m your coach, Angela Pugh. Today we’re talking about one of the most common questions people ask in early sobriety. Should I go? Should I go to the birthday party? Should I go to dinner with my friends when everyone else is drinking? Should I go on the vacation to the barbecue, to the concert? Should I go to the pool party, the girls’ weekend, the neighborhood happy hour? And I get it because the world doesn’t stop drinking. Just because you did. Life keeps lifing. People keep inviting you places, birthdays keep happening, vacations still show up on the calendar, and your friends are still your friends. And in early sobriety, all of that can feel really confusing. Mm-hmm. Angela (01:06.412) Because on one hand, you don’t want to isolate. You don’t want to hide from your house. You don’t want to hide in your house forever. You don’t want sobriety to feel like a punishment. You don’t want to become someone who says no to everything and has no life and no fun and no connection. But on the other hand, you also don’t want to put yourself in a situation where you end up drinking and wake up the next morning feeling embarrassed, ashamed, and right back at day one. So people say to me all the time, I’m not sure if I should go. And to be clear, if you’re asking the question or wondering, you already know the answer. If your brain is questioning it and whether it’s a good idea or whether or not it’s sobriety safe, you already know the answer is no. No, you shouldn’t go. You’re questioning it for a reason. Because when you’re in early sobriety, Your whole focus, your entire job right now is not drinking. That’s it. That’s the job. And every decision you make, including whether or not you go somewhere, gets filtered through that one lens. Angela (02:29.866) Mm. Angela (02:36.482) Not whether your friends will think it’s weird, not whether you’ll miss out, not whether you can handle it in theory. The question is: can you stay sober if you go? And more specifically, can you trust yourself in the moment that actually matters? And here’s what I mean by that. You can make the most airtight plan in the world. Drive yourself, only stay a little while, have your mocktail in hand. So you’re never standing there empty-handed. Text a safe person, know exactly what you’re gonna say if someone offers you a drink, have your exit ready. That’s a solid plan. Love it. But here’s the reality: none of that matters if you abandon yourself in the one moment it counts. That plan only matters if you’ll actually follow it when the pressure hits. And that moment is. Tiny. It’s a split second. Someone walks up to you ready with a shot, or they order your favorite drink without asking. Or they say, come on, just one. It’s my birthday. Don’t be like that. Or suddenly everyone’s doing a toast and you’re the only one with a water glass instead of a cocktail glass. And you feel the heat start to rise up in your chest. That’s the moment right there. That’s the split second. Your plan either holds or it doesn’t. And the question you need to answer before you ever leave your house is Do I trust myself in that moment? Can you trust yourself when everyone else is laughing and loose and you feel awkward and exposed and like you’re standing outside the circle looking in? Can you trust yourself when your friend says, my God, come on, just have one. It’s my birthday. Can you trust yourself when your brain starts whispering, this is stupid, you’re fine, you can have one, you’ve been doing so well. Because that moment is where sobriety is decided. Not in theory, not sitting in your car in the driveway, rehearsing what you’ll say, but in that moment with that pressure, with that person, with those feelings. Angela (04:59.062) If the answer is yes, you trust yourself 100% yes, then you have your answer about whether you go. But if there is any hesitation, if any part of you is like, well, I think so, I hope so, probably, then you have your answer too. If you don’t trust yourself with 100% certainty in that moment to be able to say, no, I’m not drinking, then you don’t go. Period. And that’s what we’re talking about today. Because early sobriety is not about proving you can handle every situation. It’s about learning how to protect your sobriety while you build enough trust in yourself to follow through when it matters. And listen, I know people don’t always love hearing that because we want freedom. We want confidence. We want to be able to say, I can go anywhere, I can be around any...
Transcribe →The Most Dangerous Phase of Early Sobriety
May 2700:25:20Tap to summarizeYou survived the first 5 or 7 days of sobriety and you’re finally starting to feel better. The anxiety is calming down. You’re sleeping again. Your face looks better. The shame isn’t screaming quite as loud anymore. And this is exactly where things start getting dangerous. Because once the crisis fades, your brain starts doing what it was trained to do: convincing you that maybe things weren’t really that bad. Maybe you overreacted. Maybe you can handle it differently this time. In this episode, I’m breaking down one of the biggest relapse traps in early sobriety: the moment when fear and consequences stop doing the heavy lifting and recovery becomes a conscious daily decision. I call this phase the plateau. This is the phase where many people start feeling confused because they thought quitting drinking was supposed to fix the problem. They finally feel a little better physically, but now they don’t know what they’re actually supposed to do next. The crisis is over. The urgency fades. And without a real plan for recovery, the thoughts and second-guessing start getting louder. Because most people don’t actually have tools for handling stress, anxiety, boredom, overwhelm, triggers, or emotional discomfort without alcohol yet. So when life starts feeling hard again, they slowly drift back toward the one solution that always felt certain and familiar: drinking. Not because they consciously decided to give up on recovery, but because they were never prepared for what comes after the initial relief. We’re talking about why this happens, why it catches so many high-functioning people off guard, and what you need to do to stay sober long enough to actually build a life you don’t want to escape from.     Links mentioned in this episode: Book A Call Here: addictionunlimited.com/call Recovery Starter Kit: addictionunlimited.com/kit Related Episode: 10 Life-Changing Habits You Can Start Today Instagram: @addictionunlimited Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/addictionunlimited Prefer to read instead of listen? Here’s the full transcript of this episode. Angela (00:15.128) Hello, my friend. Welcome back to Addiction Unlimited. This podcast is about what it really takes to stay sober. And I’m your coach, Angela Pugh. Thank you for hanging out with me today and listening to the pod. Today I want to talk about a trap. And this trap almost always happens in super early sobriety, like somewhere in day 15 to 30, usually. But it can also happen farther down the road in your recovery. But when you first stop drinking, fear and consequences do all the heavy lifting. The panic keeps you sober. The raw embarrassment keeps you sober. But that crisis energy has an expiration date, and it usually hits well before you even cross the 30-day mark. Whether it takes two weeks for the dust to settle or a full month because you had a massive wreckage to clear, a moment is coming where things just feel okay. The shame spiral stalls out, you’re finally sleeping, you look in the mirror and you don’t hate who’s looking back at you. It feels like a victory. The physical misery stops, the anxiety lifts, and your life starts looking manageable again. And right there in that quiet moment, your brain is gonna whisper, look at that, you’re fine, you figured it out. Your brain is gonna try to use that temporary comfort to negotiate you right back to a drink. Today we’re exposing that trap. We’re talking about why feeling better is not the same as being better. We’re gonna talk about what’s actually happening in this phase, why it catches so many people off guard, and what you need to do when you hit it, because you will hit it. And when you do, I want you to be ready. So let’s start at the beginning because I wanna give credit where credit’s due. Those first few days of sobriety are brutal. I mean that. We’re talking about waking up in the middle of the night in a full panic, heart pounding, mind racing. Angela (02:39.028) Anxiety, so intense it feels like you’re gonna come out of your skin, shaking, sweating. Every sound feels too loud, and every feeling feels too big. And your body is just in full revolt because it doesn’t know what to do without alcohol in it. And then there’s the emotional side of it, the shame spiral, replaying every decision, every embarrassing moment, every consequence you’re now staring down. The fear about what people think, the fear about what comes next, the fear that you’ve already done too much damage to fix anything. And you go through that. You stay sober through that. That’s not a small thing. And then somewhere around day five, maybe day seven, you start to notice something shifting. The anxiety starts to lift. You sleep through the night. You look in the mirror and your face looks different, less puffy, less red or gray. Your energy starts coming back. You make it through a whole day without white knuckling every hour. And for the first time in a long time, life starts to feel manageable. Your body’s healing. Your mind is starting to clear. And that feeling of things getting better is legit. And here is what I also need you to understand about that phase. Angela (04:04.876) What powered you through those first few days wasn’t willpower. It wasn’t discipline. It wasn’t a sudden shift in your mindset or a new level of commitment you’ve never had before. It was crisis energy. Fear, shame, consequences you couldn’t ignore, a hangover so bad you swore you’d never do it again, a conversation with your kid or your boss or your spouse that you can’t undo. A moment where you looked at yourself and you could no longer deny the truth. That’s powerful fuel. And it will absolutely get you sober, but it has an expiration date. Crisis energy burns hot and it burns fast. And when it starts to fade, when the consequences feel less immediate, when the shame starts to dull and the physical misery is behind you, that fuel runs out. And if you don’t have something to replace it with, that’s when things get dangerous. Because here’s the thing about crisis energy: it makes the decision for you. When you’re in the middle of it, you don’t have to talk yourself into sobriety. The pain does that. But when the pain fades, sobriety becomes a choice you have to make consciously every day without the crisis pushing you. And a lot of people aren’t prepared for that. This is the phase I want to name today because I don’t think it gets talked about enough. I call it the plateau. You know what a plateau feels like. If you’ve ever tried to lose weight or get in shape, you’re doing the work, you’re showing up, and then one day it’s like nothing’s happening, right? The scale isn’t moving, you don’t feel like you’re making progress. And that plateau is exactly where most people quit. Not because the work stopped working, but because the momentum stopped feeling obvious. For us, we need that reinforcement. We need to see it’s working one way or another. Well, recovery has its own version of this, and it’s sneakier because the recovery plateau doesn’t feel like stalled progress. It actually feels like success. The pain is gone, the chaos has settled. Angela (06:28.696) From the outside and even from the inside, things look good. And that’s exactly when sobriety starts to feel confusing. Because in those super early days, the path was clear. Don’t drink. Get through the day. T...
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