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PODCAST

Sober Powered: The Neuroscience of Being Sober

Gillian Tietz, MS, CPRC

Why do some people stay sober and others relapse back and forth? Getting sober isn’t about restriction, it’s about rewiring your brain to function without intensity, chaos, dopamine spikes, and avoidance. Hosted by Gill Tietz, a former biochemist turned sober coach, this show dives into the neuroscience of long-term sobriety — why some people relapse, why others stay free, and how to build the kind of brain that can handle life without alcohol. Each episode blends science, psychology, and real

health & fitness mental health

All Episodes

20:16

E312: Ambivalence in Early and Long Term Sobriety

Sober Powered: The Neuroscience of Being Sober ·

2026/03/06

You can know alcohol is hurting you. You can want to quit. You can be exhausted by the consequences. And then still drink. In this episode, we’re talking about ambivalence: what it actually is in the brain, why negative consequences don’t always make us change, and how drinking shifts decision-making from intentional to automatic. I’ll also discuss how ambivalence can creep back in long after you’ve made the decision and result in the slow drift back to drinking.What to listen to next: E269:

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28:41

Cravings Increase After Quitting Drinking and Peak...

Sober Powered: The Neuroscience of Being Sober ·

2026/02/27

You probably expect that the more sober time you have, the less you crave alcohol. That’s true for some people, but others experience an effect called incubation of craving. This is where cravings build up over time and peak around 60 days, then again around 6 months sober. In this episode, I’ll explain the research on incubation of craving, what you might experience, why this happens, and what you can do to stay sober.Work with me: Community & Meetings: Living a Sober Powered Life

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16:04

E311: Sugar Cravings in Sobriety: When Comfort...

Sober Powered: The Neuroscience of Being Sober ·

2026/02/20

Sugar cravings in early sobriety make sense. What many of us don’t expect is still needing something sweet months or even years later. In this episode, we’re going to unpack why that happens, what sugar is really doing for your nervous system, and why this phase has less to do with food and more to do with healing. Work with me: Community & Meetings: Living a Sober Powered Life https://www.soberpowered.com/membership Sober coaching

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23:32

E310: Emotional Sobriety: Why Quitting Drinking Isn’t...

Sober Powered: The Neuroscience of Being Sober ·

2026/02/13

When I quit drinking, I didn’t realize how emotionally immature I was, or how much alcohol had been doing for me behind the scenes. In this episode, I talk about why removing alcohol can make emotions feel (more) unbearable at first, how years of emotional avoidance catch up to us in sobriety, and why this phase puts people at risk for relapse. We’ll also talk about what emotional sobriety actually means, and why learning to tolerate discomfort is what makes sobriety sustainable.Work with me:

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20:11

E309: Early Sobriety Fatigue: What’s Actually...

Sober Powered: The Neuroscience of Being Sober ·

2026/02/06

If you’re sober but still exhausted, foggy, or struggling to think clearly, it’s not random. Early sobriety fatigue has very real causes, from changes in brain energy utilization to sleep disruption and structural recovery. In this episode, I explain what the research actually shows about how the brain heals after alcohol, why recovery happens in layers, and what that means for how you feel right now. Understanding this can change how you experience early sobriety.Work with me: Community &

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19:43

E308: Does Dry January Actually Change People’s...

Sober Powered: The Neuroscience of Being Sober ·

2026/01/30

A lot of people do Dry January hoping it will reset their relationship with alcohol, and then feel confused or discouraged when it doesn’t. Dry January works, just not in the way most people think it does. If you’ve ever taken a 30, 90, or even year-long break from drinking, felt better, and then slowly slid back into the same patterns, this episode will explain why. We’ll talk about why willpower works during the challenge but fails afterward, why the brain treats breaks as an exception instead of

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16:06

How the Brain Recovers After Quitting Drinking From 1...

Sober Powered: The Neuroscience of Being Sober ·

2026/01/23

Did we blast our brains beyond repair with all of our drinking? What if you drank heavily for decades? Are you doomed? In this episode I’m explaining a ton of different studies on brain recovery in sobriety. You’ll learn what to expect as you get more sober time, if our brains make a full recovery, how long it takes to see improvement, how drinking less impacts your brain, and more about how alcohol damages the brain.Work with me: Community & Meetings: Living a Sober Powered Life

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18:02

The Witching Hour Without Booze: What’s Happening in...

Sober Powered: The Neuroscience of Being Sober ·

2026/01/16

The witching hour, or usually hours for most of us, are the time of day where you typically drink and want to drink the most when you’re sober. This could be morning for some people, it could be 4-7pm, 6-8pm, it varies. This time block is when your biology, habits, and old reward wiring collide: cortisol is dropping, your prefrontal cortex has less decision bandwidth, and your brain is scanning for the routine that used to deliver relief. The evening cue your brain fires isn’t proof you need

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19:28

Health Benefits of Dry January: What to Expect

Sober Powered: The Neuroscience of Being Sober ·

2026/01/09

A 30-day break from alcohol changes multiple systems at once: metabolic, cardiovascular, neurological, and behavioral. In this episode, I’m summarizing what the research says about the benefits people commonly experience, including sleep, energy, liver fat, and drink-refusal self-efficacy. I’ll explain what improves early, what takes longer, and what predicts real behavior change beyond the month. What to listen to next: E231: everything you need to know about withdrawal E205: kindling in

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43:36

How to do Dry January Differently This Year With...

Sober Powered: The Neuroscience of Being Sober ·

2026/01/08

Stop doing the hardest part over and over again. In this episode, Casey, Suzanne and I discuss our advice for making sobriety stick and the mistakes we've observed people making over the years. Connect with Casey: https://hellosomedaycoaching.com/ Connect with Suzanne: https://thesobermomlife.com/ Work with me: Community & Meetings: Living a Sober Powered Life https://www.soberpowered.com/membership Sober coaching https://www.soberpowered.com/sober-coaching Weekly

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17:10

E307: 4 Biggest Challenges People Struggle With...

Sober Powered: The Neuroscience of Being Sober ·

2026/01/02

It’s Dry January and whether you’re participating for the first time, the 3rd time, or you’re working towards long term sobriety, then there are some things that most people struggle with. You may not struggle with all of these things, but it’s good to be prepared just in case. In this episode we’ll review 4 different challenges you may face and I’ll help you come up with a plan to deal with each one.Work with me: Community & Meetings: Living a Sober Powered Life

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20:41

E306: The Sobriety Audit: What Changed This Year (And...

Sober Powered: The Neuroscience of Being Sober ·

2025/12/26

It’s almost New Year, New Me time and before you make plans and goals for 2026, I’d love to walk you through a sobriety audit to evaluate how far you’ve come over the past year. In this episode I’ll guide you through an audit of your identity shift to becoming a person who doesn’t drink, you’re emotional growth and skill development, and help you recognize any signs of drifting backwards to relief and comfort seeking.What to listen to next: E267: resources vs support: how to set yourself up for

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18:49

6 Ways to Protect Your Energy During the Holidays

Sober Powered: The Neuroscience of Being Sober ·

2025/12/19

Holiday overwhelm isn’t about being weak, it’s about carrying more emotional weight with fewer internal resources. In this episode, I walk you through simple ways to stay regulated when the pressure builds. You’ll learn how to reduce emotional overload, recover faster from overstimulation, and navigate challenging environments and people.Work with me: Community & Meetings: Living a Sober Powered Life https://www.soberpowered.com/membership Sober coaching

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10:34

E305: Why the Holidays Create Tons of Stress & One...

Sober Powered: The Neuroscience of Being Sober ·

2025/12/12

The holidays create the perfect storm for stress and emotional reactivity in sobriety. Your reward system may still be healing, your stress circuitry is more sensitive, your routine is disrupted, and old family roles and comparisons drain your patience fast. Most importantly, I teach you how to regulate before the stress hits so you’re not constantly trying to recover from emotional overload. This is the foundation of real stress resilience in sobriety.Work with me: Community & Meetings:

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16:15

E304: Family Dynamics, the Relapse Mindset, and 7...

Sober Powered: The Neuroscience of Being Sober ·

2025/12/05

Family interactions can trigger the relapse mindset long before cravings show up. You’ll learn how old emotional roles, deep shame pathways, and the brain’s threat-prediction system pull you back into survival mode and why alcohol becomes the remembered shortcut for relief. I break down seven internal permission slips that fuel relapse thinking and the emotional chain reaction behind them. This episode teaches you how to interrupt the pattern early, before the thought of drinking even enters the

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20:45

E303: “I Should Be Further Along By Now”

Sober Powered: The Neuroscience of Being Sober ·

2025/11/28

This fear hits so many people between 6–18 months sober. In this episode, we’ll look at the deeper roots of this thought: identity lag, internalized criticism, perfectionism, shame, and the brain’s inability to feel progress early on. I break down why everything feels slow, and why “being behind” is almost never about sobriety itself. This episode helps you understand what’s really going on underneath that pressure and how to interpret it without spiraling or beating yourself up.E270: Cravings

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15:31

Non-Alcoholic Drinks: The Pros and Cons (Rebroadcast)

Sober Powered: The Neuroscience of Being Sober ·

2025/11/21

Non-alcoholic drinks and mocktails are very popular, but are they good for your sobriety? In this episode I’ll explain both sides of the argument- how they can be helpful for your sobriety and how they can be triggering, cause cravings, or hold you back. You’ll learn if 0.5% non-alcoholic drinks are okay to drink and why you may get the feeling of a fake buzz when you consume alcohol-free drinks.Work with me: Community & Meetings: Living a Sober Powered Life

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17:59

E302: Feeling Like a Normal Person Again After 8-10...

Sober Powered: The Neuroscience of Being Sober ·

2025/11/14

A lot of clients will tell me that they feel like a normal person again. This isn’t a random occurrence, there are 4 very real changes that are happening to the brain during the healing process that allow you to feel normal eventually. In this episode I’ll describe this milestone and 4 changes that make it possible.If you enjoy learning about timelines, then there is a detailed timeline of healing and what to expect inside my community or as a client resource. What to listen to next: E300: how

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20:54

E301: The Self-Worth Ceiling: How Low Self-Esteem...

Sober Powered: The Neuroscience of Being Sober ·

2025/11/07

If you think you’re a loser and a failure, then you’re going to behave in ways that confirm these beliefs. We all have beliefs about our inherent worth and what we deserve, and when life starts getting too good, we’ll self-sabotage to bring ourselves back down. In this episode, I’ll explain the self-worth ceiling and where this comes from so you can get some insight on your own motivations behind your behavior.What to listen to next: E269: autopilot Work with me: Community & Meetings:

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26:59

E300: How Problem Drinking Develops and Escalates

Sober Powered: The Neuroscience of Being Sober ·

2025/10/31

How do you know if you’re someone who needs to get sober for good or if you’re just going through a phase? In this episode, I’ll share about how my drinking progressed over the years and a lot of research about how drinking motives differ in problem drinkers vs take it or leave it drinkers, how being sober curious progresses problematic drinking, and how putting your brain through multiple cycles of withdrawal makes it more difficult to get out of the cycle. What to listen to next: E267:

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