Kate's Blog

How To Stay Sober When Politics Is Messy And Triggering

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll know there’s a big election happening tomorrow.

Maybe you’re wondering how you’ll cope with the disappointment of a result you don’t want… Or perhaps your family doesn’t share your political views and you’re already stressing about your next get together.

Let’s talk about how to stay sober when you’re feeling triggered (without getting into the politics itself)…

Key points:

It might seem obvious, but it’s worth stating: drinking won’t alter the election results or resolve any conflict around them. The only guaranteed outcome of drinking is a hangover – and combining disappointment with a hangover is a particularly painful combination. 

When I was drinking, I’d often romanticise alcohol’s ability to help me “switch off” from my problems. The truth? Alcohol doesn’t provide any real respite from difficult feelings. And you know this. Just think back to times when you’ve had a drink after a bad day – were you really able to forget your troubles? Or did you find yourself dwelling on them… and maybe even sending an ill-advised text message too? 

Take time to consider what you might want or need in different scenarios. If you’re worried about the election results, plan soothing activities in advance. If you’re anticipating celebration, decide on alcohol-free ways to mark the occasion. For family gatherings, establish clear boundaries and strategies. You can always request that conversations are kept politics-free!

Here are a couple of great questions to ask yourself: “What do I want to think of me? How do I want to handle myself if other people just cannot resist bringing politics up at the dinner table?” When I was drinking, even just a small amount of alcohol would change how I heard others, how quick I was to respond and what I thought was an appropriate thing to say.

How are you planning to handle the political stress without reaching for a drink? I’d love to hear your strategies in the comments… (Just remember – no political opinions, please!) We’re all in this together, focusing on what really matters: our freedom from alcohol.

PS – If you’re worried about navigating both politics AND party season in the months ahead, keep an eye out for my upcoming training. I think you’re going to love what I have planned.

Hi, I'm Kate

I founded The Sober School to show you there’s another way out of your shame that doesn’t involve AA or rehab. 

Comments

14 responses

  1. Hi Kate,
    I’m not going to lie – it’s been an ongoing battle with the wine witch. Finally, a diagnosis of a fatty liver has strengthened my resolve to choose health and prioritize me. We cannot control the economy, the political turmoil or the global environment, but we can make ourselves feel better by practicing self care through some mindful preparations: making healthy snacks;
    preparing tea and mocktails; and laying out the yoga mat to stretch and connect mind, body and spirit while the results of this election unfold.

    1. Agreed Gretchen, focus on managing what’s within your control, like your health and well-being and let events take their natural course. 🙂

  2. Thank you Kate, for asking people to keep politics to themselves. I feel like we’re all drowning in them.
    I plan to keep the tv off for the next few days. I will walk my dog every day. Read books while the tv is off, or if I have a hard time concentrating because of the worry this is causing me I will just look at my magazines. Then at bedtime I won’t be all riled up from watching the media.
    Thank you for the tips and your pep talk Kate!
    Barb

  3. Hi Kate, if there’s one thing I’ve learned, its, “If you cannot change your circumstances, you must change your viewpoint.” It’s a simple statement but it’s very true. We as the general populace are daily faced with issues around us that we simply can’t control externally. But we can control our internal environment and choose not to act on an impulse such as not to drink to self-medicate our way out of or around something that is quite simply out of our hands.
    As I’ve mentioned in a previous post a while back, I’ve been looking at alcohol in a whole different light since learning how it physiologically affects our entire bodies. It is a toxic poison in pretty packaging that is mass marketed for the manufacturers bottom line just like big tobacco. 100 years ago, doctors prescribed smoking to calm nerves and to even curb appetite for weight loss. Doctors themselves would advertise on TV and magazines which brands they preferred! Through science and education, we now know without a doubt how toxic and dangerous to our health smoking is. Fast forward to our current time and the evidence is now a fact from The World Health Organization and teams of scientific studies around the globe on how toxic alcohol, namely ethyl alcohol is to our bodies.
    There should be warning labels on alcohol packaging just as there is on cigarette packaging (It’s mandatory here in Canada). The labels should say something like, “Warning, human consumption of this product converts ethyl alcohol to Acetyl-aldehyde in the human body, deemed a Class 1 carcinogen according to the World Health Organization. Consume at your own risk.”
    Acetal aldehyde is the first product generated during the metabolism of alcohol-chemically known as ethanol. Acetal aldehyde is a known human carcinogen capable of permeating every cell in the human body. Do the research yourself. Dr Andrew Huberman is a neuroscientist and an associate professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford University School of Medicine. He has some excellent podcasts on YouTube that gives one enough information to make a properly informed decision as to why one should reconsider drinking alcohol in any form.
    What really gets my goat so to speak is that the alcohol industry knows full well like big tobacco, how destructive their products are. The less people drink and stop consuming their products, the more aggressive and creative their advertising.
    Being armed with enough information about this drug, has helped me to not turn to punishing my body with this poison no matter how stressed I get.
    We can’t predict what the outcome of the US election is tomorrow, but we can fully predict how we will react if we don’t turn to a toxic substance for emotional support.
    If it doesn’t turn out how you hoped, call a friend and chat over a cup of tea or coffee instead. You’ll be glad you did.:)

    1. Thank you very much for your comprehensive and informative post Rosie. I really appreciate you taking the time to share so much valuable insight. I do recommend Dr Andrew Huberman’s podcast on alcohol to the women I work with, because it is a science backed episode of truth and facts and well worth a listen.

      For the reasons mentioned, populations worldwide are being misled by the alcohol industry. These and numerous other realities are revealed through the objective approach of my Getting Unstuck coaching programme, which helps women to quit drinking.: https://thesoberschool.com/course/

      1. Acetaldehyde is used primarily as a chemical intermediate in the production of such products as herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, pharmaceuticals, flavors, fragrances, dyes, plastics, and synthetic rubber (IARC 1985). Small quantities are used as a food additive.
        It’s pretty disconcerting when you think about the raw material, being alcohol, that we put in our bodies. It’s no wonder how alcohol can wreak havoc on our entire physiology.
        Once one can wrap their head around how much of a toxic substance it is, it becomes much easier to replace willpower with abject disdain for alcohol.

  4. I plan on going low tech by reading, walking, praying and meditating. No television or social media. I will be at my volunteer job of helping take care of cats and dogs for the SPCA. I will focus on my 8 weeks of sobriety. I will continue on my sober journey. Thanks Kate for the talk and tips!

    1. Animals are excellent for shifting focus as they live in the present constantly. They relish life in the moment, neither dwelling on the past nor fretting about the future. We could learn from their example! Continue to build on your solid eight weeks of sobriety; the days ahead will become increasingly clear and bright. 🙂

  5. Kate this was great. So good that you crystalized how drinking triggers us in such a relevant and global topic but
    in essence applies to the little and big dramas we have in our life and one thing is absolutely for sure, alcohol does not make them better, none of them but by God does a fine job in making things worse.. My huge and resounding takeaway from you said here was how alcohol changes the way your ‘hear’ things. This I have never heard anyone say before but actually is the BIGGEST and most destructive thing it does. It twists what people say you to you, probably in all innocence and warps it in to something you don’t like and then the mood slides, we all know what I mean by this. Thank you so much and whatever happens tomorrow, all we can actually do is make sure that we ourselves are the best we can be to ourselves and those around us. Sober. Thank you Kate

    1. I’m delighted to know that my words struck a chord with you. Occasionally, we reach a point where certain insights crystallise, making sense and spurring action where previously there was none. 🙂

  6. Approaching it from a Bigger Picture perspective, the idea of comparing alcohol and politicians in general to each other holds a bit of appeal for me
    There’s a stereotype – common everywhere by the sounds of it – of the politician who makes promises they know they won’t keep just to get elected.. It strike me that alcohol is very similar: Promises to be all things to you, with no intention of delivering on said promises, just to keep you hanging on! Perhaps keeping a sceptical attitude towards the promises of both politicians and booze is the wisest thing to do?!

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