Welcome to the Stop Drinking Podcast , where we help you make stopping drinking a simple , logical and easy decision . We help you with tips , tools and strategies to start living your best life when alcohol-free . If you want to learn more about stop drinking coaching , then head over to wwwsoberclearcom .
Alcohol is the only drug on the planet where you need an excuse to not drink it . If you've had an addiction to opioid painkillers for the past 20 years and you're three weeks without a painkiller , nobody's going to say it's a good idea to have a painkiller again .
If you've had an addiction to sleeping pills , nobody's going to hand you a sleeping pill after coming off it , saying why don't you just have one ? But alcohol is in a totally different category . You could have spent 30 years of your life drinking every single day . You could be a month off alcohol .
You could go and see an old friend sit in a bar , tell them that you're not drinking and they're still going to offer you a drink . It is mass , mass insanity , because it's still a drug that does more damage than all the other illegal drugs . So why is it okay to offer somebody that's not drinking alcohol a drink ?
Yet if we saw somebody doing that with any other drug , we'd think that they are evil , manipulative , ruthless people . See , alcohol is one of the most manipulative , pervasive drugs that we have in the world , and the crazy thing is that the drug is actually playing tricks on you and you don't even know about it .
And today , in this video , I'm going to show you exactly how alcohol is silently ripping your life apart , and you don't even know it .
But , most importantly , by the end of this video , you're going to know exactly what to do about this , to change your relationship with alcohol , so you can take it or leave it , the same way that you can take or leave a sandwich or a glass of milk . By the end of this video , I want to get you into a state of mind where alcohol is an afterthought .
Now , very quickly , why should you listen to me ? Well , my name is Leon Sylvester . I spent about 10 years trying to stop drinking alcohol with AA , with going to church , with doing it on my own , reading books . I tried pretty much everything out there , but for the past six years , I've not touched a drop of alcohol .
I have a coaching company called SoberClearcom , where we've worked with hundreds of professionals and business owners . People from NASA , from Forbes , medical doctors have hired us and , in short , not only do I have experience with this problem myself , but I have helped hundreds upon hundreds of people fix it in their own life .
If you want more details on how I actually work with people , you can just go over to SoberClearcom to learn more about the program and the method and how it all works . But now let's break down how alcohol is silently manipulating you . So we've just had a friend that came and stayed with us . He stayed for a week . He was in Dubai , where we live .
He was coming here . He said I'm going to get a hotel . I'm like listen , we've got spare rooms , just come and crash with us , and this is somebody that I trust . I have no issues with him being in the house , I don't mind leaving my wallet around , I don't mind going out when he's in the house and it's totally fine .
So imagine for a second that you invite a friend that you love . It's somebody that you think will improve your life , somebody that will enhance your life and add value . Some of you might know where I'm going with this now . I said that . But so imagine the friend is staying at your house . But imagine things just slowly start disappearing .
First , just one key from your key ring disappears , then one card from your wallet . You lose it . You can't find it anywhere . Before you know it , a book disappears and then bigger things start disappearing . A wheel from your car disappears and you start to realise that it's actually this friend of yours that's stealing these items from you .
And by the time you actually say , do you know what ? Something's not right here . I'm going to stand up to this friend , I'm going to confront them . By the time you actually get the courage to do this , half of your house is missing . And listen , if this sounds familiar to you , it's the exact same thing that alcohol does to people .
It all starts off as a friend , a crutch , somebody that's there for you , somebody that's going to help you relax . We see alcohol as a way to socialize , as a way to just enjoy life a little bit more , and we build a relationship with this drug where we do see it as kind of like a friend . You know , I've heard people in the Sober Clear program .
In fact , one of the coaches in the program called Joe . He said this to me Leon , I'm not going to lie when I gave up alcohol , it was like saying goodbye to a long lost friend . It was quite a strange feeling . Yet look what's happening behind the scenes .
Alcohol starts off as something positive , but then you start to realize you've put on a bit of weight . You start to realize that it's taking away precious time that you used to spend doing hobbies , doing things that you love .
You realise you're skipping a few workouts , you're not eating the same kind of food anymore and this so-called friend of yours just slowly chips away your entire life . And I'm not saying that you might be at rock bottom or anything like that , but if you really reflect on your life , has alcohol really added anything to it ?
And this is the insidious nature of alcohol it's quiet , it's subtle and most people don't even realise that they're even addicted to a drug . It keeps taking things away , but we keep rationalising and justifying our choice to drink alcohol . It makes no sense .
You would have no issues confronting a friend that was stealing from you If they were staying in your house and you could see that things were disappearing . You would be right at their room saying yo , get the heck out , pack your bags . You're out , son . You wouldn't mind doing that .
Yet if we open our cupboards , there's something right there that's doing the exact same thing . It's taking and taking , and taking . When I was growing up , when I was , you know , 14 , 15 , 16 , I started smoking cigarettes . And I remember I actually remember I got hooked on cigarettes really , really quickly . I remember like intense cravings .
I remember before my exams , when I was 16 years of age , I'd smoke like three cigarettes . In the morning I'd do my exam and as soon as I was out the exam I'd smoke a cigarette . And it was me and my best friend at the time . We started smoking together and he always said to me ah , I'm not even addicted to smoking and I would smoke every single day .
And he would sometimes go two days without smoking and he's like it's great man , I can just stop whenever I want . And I couldn't , like I didn't get am . And he still smokes to this day . I quit smoking years ago .
But this is the crazy thing Nobody actually realizes that they're becoming addicted to anything , and the only time they realize that they're actually addicted is the day that they decide to try and stop drinking alcohol or stop whatever drug it is , and they can't stop doing it . They struggle and struggle , and struggle . So what are we doing here ?
Are we just waiting ? Are we putting this off until it's too late ? But just ask yourself for a second . Are you experiencing an increased tolerance ? Do you need to drink more than you used to ? Are you always looking forward to that drink at the end of the day ? Are you drinking alone more often ? Are you craving alcohol more ?
Are you starting to hide your drinking from loved ones or your neighbours ? See for a second . Just get real with yourself . Do you not see how alcohol is sneaking into your life in different ways and you're not even doing anything about it ? Just look at the drinking situation . Have you been drinking less over time ?
Probably not , but right now , just visualize the path that you are on If you were drinking too much alcohol , or if you've stopped drinking alcohol recently . Go back in time a little bit , but just visualize that path that you were on . Do you see it getting better ? Do you see yourself drinking less ? Do you see it stealing less things from you over time ?
Well , if you don't see that , I'm sorry to say it , but you're probably lying to yourself . And if you do see it and you're not doing anything about it , then listen . That is just irresponsible . It's not looking good and the world is starting to wake up .
People are starting to question their beliefs around this drug , people are starting to change their relationship with it and people are starting to see through the lights .