Molly Watts: Change How You Think, Change How You Drink — Rewiring Your Alcohol Habits | Episode 31

This is a conversation with Molly Watts (host of The Alcohol Minimalist podcast) about alcohol and the brain. We discuss the harms and benefits of the substance, what it does to the brain, how we can start drinking less, and how we can change any harmful habit. Some of the questions we ponder include:

- What happens in the brain when we drink alcohol? How does it impact neurotransmitters like glutamate and GABA?
- What are some paths to overcoming alcohol addiction, aside from AA and abstinence programs?
- What are some misunderstandings we have about alcohol, and why do we have them?
- What is "gray area" drinking?
- How can you determine whether your habit of drinking alcohol is serving you?
- Is alcohol actually relaxing you and reducing your anxiety, or is it making things worse?
- How can education about the neuroscience of alcohol help you recover from your overuse of it and find better alternatives to feeling better?
- What happens after your blood alcohol concentration is past 0.005%?
- Are there any therapeutic benefits to alcohol?
- How does alcohol give us happy neurochemicals? How long does that last?
- How do our thoughts drive us to drink, or help us stop drinking?
- How do we change our habits (of thought and behavior)?
- How can we strengthen (and stop weakening) our prefrontal cortex?
- What are some basic things you can do to help curb your addictive cravings toward things like alcohol?
- Do we desire alcohol more when we are lacking certain things in life (e.g. neurochemicals, resources, relationships, etc.)?
- What role does dopamine play in all of this? How does it drive our behavior?
- How can we take more conscious control over the unconscious processes in our brain?
- How can changing your thoughts change your desires?
- What's the process of habit change? How long does it take?
- What can you do to calm yourself down in moments of craving? How do you resist the urge to drink or keep drinking?
- What are some things we can substitute alcohol with? What can we do or drink instead?
- Are all humans addicted? Is society making us more addicted?
- What is Molly's history with alcohol, and how did she overcome her negative drinking habits?

RESOURCES
Connect with Molly / learn more: www.mollywatts.com
Alcohol Minimalist Podcast: www.mollywatts.com/podcast
Alcohol Minimalist Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/alcoholminimalists