
E267: Drinking Felt Like It Fixed Me—Until It Didn’t
From Sober Friends by Matt J
March 17, 2026 · 34 min · Episode 237
About this episode
Matt discusses the deceptive comfort of alcohol as a solution to social anxiety and the costs associated with it.
Send us Fan Mail That's the part nobody wants to say out loud. Alcohol wasn't just a bad habit — for a lot of us, it was a solution. It fixed the social anxiety. It fixed the noise. It fixed the feeling of not fitting in. The problem wasn't that it didn't work. The problem was everything it cost. Matt shares a moment from a recent trip to Boston — walking past the warm lights of a hotel bar, depleted and exhausted, and feeling the whisper. He wasn't in danger. But he heard it. And that's exac...
People in this episode
Host: Matt
Topics covered
- alcohol
- social anxiety
- mental health
- addiction
- personal experience
Keywords
- alcohol
- social anxiety
- mental health
- addiction
- personal story
- Boston
- depression
Mentioned in this episode
Places: Boston
More episodes of Sober Friends
- Most of My Anxiety Lived in the Future · June 9, 2026 · 31 min
- The Disease Model Doesn’t Let Me Off the Hook · June 2, 2026 · 36 min
- The Voice Didn’t Go Away When I Got Sober · May 26, 2026 · 31 min
- Learn to Sit With Yourself · May 19, 2026 · 34 min
- Stop Arguing With Reality for One Day · May 10, 2026 · 31 min
- Sober Twelve Years. Still Avoiding the Phone · May 5, 2026 · 33 min
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Sober Friends podcast page.