Questioning Your Drinking? One Simple Shift That Helped Amy Jo Johnson Live Sober

In this episode of Believe in People Extra, Amy Jo Johnson shares why she chose to stop drinking - not because her life had fallen apart, but because alcohol was making her anxiety louder and everyday life harder to manage.

She shares the simple mindset shift that helped her most: giving herself permission to drink, and realising she didn’t actually want to. Amy Jo also reflects on how not drinking changed her friendships, why some social situations stopped feeling fulfilling, and how having support at home made it easier to follow through.

This short episode explores:

• Why you don’t need rock bottom to change your drinking
• How removing alcohol can reduce anxiety and mental noise
• What happens to friendships when drinking is no longer the focus

If you’re questioning your relationship with alcohol, feeling unsure about stopping, or wondering whether you’re “allowed” to want something different, this clip may help you take a first step.

To listen to the full episode:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/amy-jo-johnson-alcohol-free-loving-life-pink-power/id1617239923?i=1000653697345

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🎵 Music: “Jonathan Tortoise” by Christopher Tait (Belle Ghoul / Electric Six)

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Series Context
• 0:27 Why Amy Joe Chose Not To Drink
• 1:54 Labels, Dry January, And Mindset
• 2:27 The Mentor’s Reframe: I Can, I Won’t
• 3:13 Sharing Publicly And Finding Role Models
• 4:39 Anxiety Without Alcohol’s Noise
• 6:02 Parties, Friendship Shifts, And Boredom
• 8:13 Cannes Relapse Scare And Panic
• 9:01 Partner Support And Quitting Together
• 9:17 Subscribe, Share, And Further Resources

Transcript

SPEAKER_02: 0:00

This is a renewed original recording. Hello and welcome to Believe in People Extra, the companion miniseries to our award-winning podcast about all things addiction, recovery, and stigma. I'm Robbie Lawson, the show's producer, and each week I'll bring you highlights, exclusive recordings, extended cuts, and powerful moments from our back. This series brings together the most impactful conversations and recovery-focused insights, condensed into short episodes to support and inspire those on their journey. In this clip, Amy Joe Johnson talks about why she chose to stop drinking. Not because she hit the bottom, but because alcohol was making her anxiety louder and life feel harder. She shares the simple mindset shift that helped the most. Instead of saying never again, she reminded herself that she could drink. She just didn't want to. Amy Joe also reflects on how not drinking changed her friendships and why having support at home made it easier to stop.

SPEAKER_00: 0:50

Sober. I don't know, that's such a heavy-loaded word. It's quite a loaded word for pictures. Yeah, for me, I it's been two years since I since I decided I don't want to drink anymore, and it's my choice. And at any point, I could change my mind if I wanted to. And I think that's helpful for me. Yes. Because I have no desire. And it sort of gives me the control, I feel, as well. And it has been almost two years. May 23rd is the day that I was like, I'm done. And I feel like within those two years, the confidence within even talking about that is now really because because I'm so comfortable with not drinking now. It's such a part of my life now that I I I I I have yeah, I guess I just have more confidence around that. Like the first year it was like, I don't want to talk about it because I don't want to disappoint maybe myself or somebody else, or but now I I have absolutely no interest.

SPEAKER_01: 1:52

It's good to say that about the label though, because I I I too find that if when I attach a label to something, it becomes really hard to do. Here in the UK, we have a annual campaign called Dry January where people give up alcohol for a month. I probably do that subconsciously a lot, but if I say to myself, I'm gonna do dry January, all I will want is to, I'll probably get cravings to have an alcoholic drink.

SPEAKER_00: 2:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 2:14

So that the label of it of saying I'm doing this or I'm committing to this, I find that quite hard. So it's nice that you have that the flippancy that you could, you know.

SPEAKER_00: 2:23

Yeah, so that was advice given to me from a mentor of mine. His name is Robert. But when I first decided to quit two years ago, I was really struggling for the first maybe three weeks. And I actually called him and I was just like not that I wanted a drink, but it was just like almost like a mind fuck happening for me. And I called him and I'm like, I'm driving myself crazy. He goes, Well, what is it? And I was like, I just I, you know, I say I'm not gonna drink anymore, but it's like it's making me crazy. And he said, then go have a drink. You're allowed to go have a drink, and I was like, but I don't want one. He goes, Great.

SPEAKER_01: 3:01

Yeah, yeah. Now now it's been spilled back on you.

SPEAKER_00: 3:04

Yeah, I don't even want one. And he's like, Yeah, so just tell yourself you can, but you just don't want one. So that works for me, and it has worked.

SPEAKER_01: 3:12

Good. At the one year mark, you decided to share a profound statement that reached hundreds of thousands, if not millions. I'm gonna read it out actually, because I've got it here. It says here a year ago, I found myself struggling to stay okay. I was perpetually depressed, I had anxiety, and it was scaring the shit out of me. I knew I needed to blow something up in my life, I knew I needed a drastic change. So instead of breaking up with my sweet boyfriend, I decided to leave an old friend called alcohol.

SPEAKER_00: 3:37

Yeah, so that was a year after I I had decided to stop drinking, and I felt comfortable enough to talk about it on social media within that, you know. And I did that because I tell you, that whole first year I would find myself on social media searching for other people who had stopped, and I found that really inspiring. When I hear Drew Barrymore talk about it, it really inspires me. Yeah, so I've I decided to just do that because I know how much it meant to me when I would see other people that had decided to stop that weren't necessarily hit rock bottom or necessarily you know alcoholics or or whatever, you know. So I just thought, why not share that? Maybe it will inspire somebody.

SPEAKER_01: 4:29

Yeah, absolutely. And you you've got such a you know large social media following, you have such profile and influence that people will look to you and seeing you go through that like you've said, I'm sure will help plenty of other people as well.

SPEAKER_00: 4:39

Yeah, and you know, and the funny thing is is like hearing that back, I still struggle with anxiety. I still struggle sometimes. I don't know if it's depression or it's more anxiety for me. I don't I don't think I'm really depressed, but it I think it's easier to sort of face all of that and find the tools to calm myself down, or without having the mind chatter of the alcohol, which to me it became really loud of like when's I wonder what I'm gonna have to drink tonight, or what am I gonna drink? Like it was everything was planned around alcohol, and to eliminate that from my life has been really interesting, even to see who I grav gravitate towards as friends to who I don't know, it's I I just eliminating that entire aspect of my life has been so freeing and really I love it. Like I I find it very empowering to be able to go to a party and not even think about having a drink or be able to, you know, all the different I mean I used to plan a drink that went with almost every occasion, right?

SPEAKER_01: 5:59

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 6:00

And to just not have that as a part of it.

SPEAKER_01: 6:02

Has it impacted any of like your you you know, you said then? I often found that when I speak to people, when they give up alcohol, sometimes they might find that their friends aren't inviting them to things anymore, or they maybe struggle to attend events because they don't have the comfort of alcohol, especially people with anxiety, and you know, I've talked about social anxiety in the past and people who need a drink to go to social events, but I often find that when alcohol is removed, some people uh they found that their friendship circles change because they're no longer being invited to things, or they don't want to hang out with friends who are drinking. Did you experience anything like that? Or did things sort of stay the same for yourself?

SPEAKER_00: 6:38

I I did experience that, but I you know what what I really saw was who who are my lifelong friends and my friends that I consider family. And if I have a drink or if I don't have a drink, it doesn't matter within any situation. And I realized I'm very bored quickly sitting around someone's counter with people just drinking. I don't find it that inspiring. And you know, at first I think it was like I put it on myself like, am I boring? Do I not have enough to say? But then I realized, no, this situation is boring.

SPEAKER_01: 7:20

It was much more fun when you was under the influence of alcohol. Now you're sober, you realize, hang on, these situations aren't as fun as I thought they were. I completely get that.

SPEAKER_00: 7:27

I think there's some people that just like they may, they may, you know, when when I did drink a lot, not a lot, but I it was a part of my life of every like almost every day, and somebody would stop drinking. I remember thinking, like, oh, they're probably not fun anymore.

SPEAKER_01: 7:47

Yeah, yeah, that is. I was the culprit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, that's what I mean. So it's it's one of the things, at least you can understand it from from another point of view then completely.

SPEAKER_00: 7:54

But I remember sitting on my backyard with my pal Joanne, my my best drinking buddy, who's now a very good friend still. And I looked at her and I'm like, I like I said in that thing, I gotta blow something up. And I don't think it's Matt. I think it's this. And we were like, okay, all right. So we just partied that day, and then it was like maybe a month later where I just I was in Cannes actually, and I it I just almost started to feel disconnected from my body, and I didn't, and I went to Cannes and I hadn't drank wine in over a year because it wasn't sitting well with me. And I decided that since I was in France, I could have rose. And I drank all that rose, and then I went out that night, and I drank more. I drank myself to a point where I I couldn't even see straight. Laid on the beach all the next day, just so hung over, and then started to have panic panic attacks the next day, and then knew I had to fly. And then I remember saying to Matt on the phone, and I said, I think I need to stop drinking and I don't know how to do it. And he said, I'll stop too.

SPEAKER_01: 9:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 9:04

And he stopped. And I do think it would have been so much harder. And just having that eliminated made it, I think, so much easier. I don't know. If if Matt drank, I don't know if I would have been able to do it.

SPEAKER_02: 9:17

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