Trigger warning: alcoholism, addiction

Welcome to Episode 102 – Grey Area Drinking with Sarah Rusbatch

So many of us struggle with alcohol, but we refrain from admitting it through fear of being labelled an alcoholic. We don’t fit the image of a stereotypical “alcoholic” – the guy who has lost everything to his drinking, needs to drink to function, and is sitting on a park bench taking a swig from a bottle in a brown paper bag.

This was the case for me; I didn’t fit the stereotype. But when I did drink, I didn’t have a STOP button. And drinking went from fun to self-medication.

But throughout 2023, I’ve found courage in hearing more and more people embrace a sober life. And then I heard of Grey Area Drinking: the grey area between being able to have the occasional drink and full blown alcoholism. It’s the spectrum between being ok with a couple of drinks, to creating rules to justify our drinking, to getting drunk way too often.

Helping us unpack this topic is Grey Area Drinking coach Sarah Rusbatch. Sarah is an ex-Grey Area Drinker, and shares her story to inspire others out there to quit the booze and live their best life.

In this episode, Sarah shares:

What grey area drinking is
Social pressures to drink and how this impacts getting sober
Why a lot of people resist the term alcoholic and how that influences their drinking decisions
Her story of grey area drinking and how it became a problem for her
The rules she put in place to justify her drinking
The process she went through to redesign her social circles
What her husband did when she stopped drinking
Her opinion on replacing alcohol with other options
The difference between grey area drinking coaching and alcoholics anonymous
The strategies and tools she offers her clients