How Alcohol Is Ruining Your Brain (Warning)

Now alcohol is absolutely frying your brain and you probably don't even know that this is happening , and it's something that most people get wrong when it comes to stopping drinking . But today , in this video , I'm going to show you how a trip to a war-torn country skiing in Japan and going to an old English colony made me realize a secret to stopping drinking .

So to save you , a trip to the other side of the world . Let me break it down for you in this video today , because by the end of it I'm actually going to show you how to rewire your brain to make stopping drinking easy . So let's get into it . What basically happened in January of this year ?

Me and my girlfriend , we went through a little bit of a yearly plan , so we sat down together . We wrote down you know all the great things that have happened over the past few years where we found a lot of fulfillment in the past , and what we want to do more of in 2024 . And very shortly after that plan , we decided that we wanted to travel .

We wanted to make the most of traveling because , you know , back during COVID , we had a plan to travel . That was our plan , and then we'd booked this flight to Bali and then , boom , the borders had closed and ever since then we didn't really travel .

We've been a few places , but we wanted to do a bigger trip and , god bless , my work is remote , I have a YouTube channel , my business is online , and this was my dream when I wanted to stop drinking was to be able to do this kind of stuff and , god bless , I'm in a fortunate enough position to do it .

So we decided at the beginning of the year let's get it done , and we just booked a flight . So we just went quickly . We didn't wait around . We just said , right , let's get this going . And basically we were living out of a suitcase .

Right , we'd already left our apartment in Dubai , we'd left the villa that we were in in Koh Samui and all we had were our suitcases . We were literally living out of a suitcase . We'd stored our belongings in a car in an airport in Thailand and just set off . I've met a few friends that live their life this way .

I've got a friend with a family that does it . I've got a few single friends that do it and when I was looking at it I thought looks like a great time , let's just give it a go . We were fortunate enough to go skiing in Japan . We went to Tokyo , we went to Seoul in Korea . We spent some time in Malaysia . We went back to Thailand .

We were traveling around having a great time and , funnily enough , all of this reminded me of drinking alcohol . I know it's weird , I and it was almost like we were seeking pleasure all the time . We'd wake up , we'd go for breakfast in this place .

Then , you know , when we were skiing , we're going skiing , Then we're coming back and then we're looking for some nice food to eat , some nice place to sit down . No-transcript , that had to get done and I was just like the pain of doing the work right now was so severe . Let's close the laptop .

I did make some videos whilst we were traveling , but I remember the feeling of like , oh , I've got to make this video , because making videos is hard . It takes a lot of energy , it takes a lot of thought to come up with ideas and pull out the camera and then get it set up . I mean , you can't really see , but this is like on a tripod .

And then I had to set this up . It takes a lot of energy and I remember thinking about doing the video and whilst I got it done , I just remembered coffee somewhere . I could be seeing this building , that building . But what happened whilst traveling is it was a very hedonistic lifestyle and , don't get me wrong , I'd do it all again .

It's not like you know , it's not like I was drinking alcohol , but I remember when I drank alcohol my mind worked a very similar way the thought of reading a book , taking a course , doing something that would better my life when I could have drank alcohol . How am I going to do that thing when I could just go out and have some drinks ?

And the funny thing is is I actually tried to make a YouTube channel for years before I started the Stop Drinking content and I would have these periods of my life where I'd make videos and I was sober and it was like these two months where I might make three videos and listen , you can't see these videos .

These are very old , they're unlisted now , too embarrassing to post , but anyway . So I'd make three videos and then I'd drink for three months and then there'd be a three month gap of no videos . And it's because I'd get back into that state of mind of seeking pleasure , seeking dopamine . Where am I going to get this cocktail ?

Where am I going to get this bottle of wine ? Don't get me wrong , I'm not trying to put travel and drinking alcohol in the same category . It just gave me a glimpse back into how things work , because I still got work done . I still did a few things .

It wasn't like my life went to complete like it did when I was drinking , but the whole traveling experience was short-term gratification . I got hooked back on short-term gratification . So , anyway , after moving around for a while , it just came to a point where we were in Malaysia . At this point we were in Kuala Lumpur and we'd had enough .

We're like do you know what ? This isn't the lifestyle for us . We know we've got friends that do it , but I don't know if I can keep doing it this way . And then also , when I was in KL , all the work that I'd accumulated from not doing the work and living a fun life which , by the way , I'd do it again .

But I got quite stressed and I was like , nah , this isn't the life for me . Now the great thing is is that , unlike when I was drinking , it was very easy just to say okay , we'll pause on this for a while and we'll move back and get a home . And then it made me remember when I was drinking alcohol . I might have had that feeling a hundred times .

I might have felt like I have had enough of this lifestyle , I don't want to live my life this way anymore . And then the next day I drink again , and that might last eight months . Right , I might have this eight month binge that just went on and on , and on , and on and on .

It's not like I could have just said to myself right , I'm stopping because I would want to , but it would just keep going . And this cycle of this short-term gratification whilst drinking just never seemed to end and it fried my brain .

It became so difficult to focus on the hard things that actually better your life , the long-term things that you can do today , like eating right , like going to a gym , like reading a book . These are things that you do today that you might not see a benefit for for six months .

You might read a book today that's hard to read , but then six months later you're like oh , I remember that thing from that book . Boom , you're able to handle this situation , that situation , much better . But when you're drinking it's always like I just want it now . I just want the dopamine now . Give me it , give me it , give me it .

But anyway , we're now back in Dubai . We came back to Dubai , we're in this villa and now we're into this really good routine . We're going straight to the gym , we're eating home food , we're not going to restaurants anymore . I feel like I'm on top of things now . There's just less chaos in my life , I'm less stressed and I feel a lot more peaceful .

And now what I'm doing is I'm spending my time doing things that will benefit me in the long term , like , for example , this video I'm making right now . We might not publish it for three weeks , but I'm doing things today that the future me will thank me for . But I find it , interestingly , so much easier to make this video than when I was traveling .

I find it so much easier to open my laptop and do something really difficult and taxing than when I was traveling , and that's why I wanted to make this video for you today . There is no way that somebody can drink alcohol and become the best version of themselves .

It is impossible , because the pain of doing the things that are important to you long-term becomes so much greater when you know that there's an easy way out , when you know that there's a way to escape through a bottle . Why would you do the hard thing today , when you can take the easy path , the path of least resistance , the path of drug addiction ?

Listen , it's not clever to sit around and consume a drug , the traveling stuff , yeah , listen . Ok , maybe it wasn't the best use of time , but in a flick of a switch I'm out . I , okay , maybe it wasn't the best use of time , but in a flick of a switch I'm out , I'm back , I'm back into my routine . But when you're drinking it's not that simple .

Those binges , those drinking periods can last a person's entire life . But when you're always seeking the dopamine of now , of the high , now the hit , now , how can you really be performing at 100% ? Well , the answer is is you can't . Nobody can .

And I don't care how successful you are , I don't care if you've got millions in the bank , an amazing business , you're a professor , a doctor ,

it doesn't matter . There is no way that you will be in the best version of yourself whilst you are drinking that drug . It's a cheap , dopamine-seeking , neanderthal way to live , but you're better than that If you actually think about it .

The only reason why you're alive today is because you've got a series of ancestors that have continually been strong enough to reproduce , so you're literally the accumulation of some of the strongest species in mankind , and you think that drinking alcohol is normal and okay .

The only reason why you're alive today is because you are a strong person , and you're a powerful person that doesn't need to put a drug in their body . You're not designed that way . There's no need for it whatsoever .

And I promise you one thing when you get rid of alcohol , you will get addicted to long-term gratification , and that's when , in a year from now , you will become unrecognizable . Thanks for checking out the Stop Drinking Podcast by Sober Clear .

If you want to learn more about how we work with people to help them stop drinking effortlessly , then make sure to visit wwwsoberclearcom .