The Next Round: Victoria Regained Her Sundays

The Club Soda podcast

Victoria Vanstone is best known for the Sober Awkward Podcast. A candid and humorous podcast co-hosted with Hamish Adams-Cairns. The duo dives into the ups and downs of living an alcohol-free life, sharing personal stories, practical advice, and the awkward moments that come with sobriety. It won Best Wellbeing Podcast award at the British Podcast Awards, cementing its place as a valuable resource and support for the sober-curious community.

Victoria has been a mate of Club Soda for a long time. You can read and hear her prevous contribution to our Online Mindful Drinking Festival held in lockdown in 2020. She recently visited the Club Soda tasting Room with her co-host Hamis, and we had a chance to catch up and disucss her book – A Thousand Wasted Sundays.

In this chat, Victoria shares how she transformed her life by quitting drinking, reclaiming her Sundays, and finding joy in the simple things. Her story is both inspiring and relatable, as she talks about the ups and downs of ditching alcohol and how she’s building a life she loves, one sober day at a time. Here’s how she did it and why it mattered so much.

Breaking the Binge-Drinking Cycle: “I Knew I Needed Help”

Victoria’s journey started with the familiar cycle of binge drinking on weekends and the inevitable anxiety-filled Sundays. Despite trying countless ways to cut back, she found herself stuck in the same pattern.

“I tried every trick in the book—water between wines, everything—but nothing ever worked.”

The turning point came after the birth of her second child. She woke up with what she called the “anxiety monster” at the foot of her bed. This moment of clarity made her realise she needed a different approach.

“I remember walking out and seeing my husband, and I said, ‘I think I need help. I need someone else to intervene because what I’m doing isn’t working.”

That realisation led her to seek therapy, and it changed everything. She learned that the root of her drinking went much deeper than she thought.

“It’s About Finding Out Who You Were Before Alcohol”

For Victoria, quitting drinking wasn’t just about giving up booze; it was about rediscovering who she truly was. Therapy helped her connect the dots between her past and her drinking habits, including childhood experiences of rejection that shaped her into a “people pleaser” and the life of the party.

“I was always the mad one, the entertainer, because I wanted to keep people close. It all stems back to childhood stuff,”
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