10 Pain Points of Sobriety is a weekly series where I explore the real pain points of quitting alcohol—the uncomfortable truths that surface when initial motivation fades. I didn’t need alcohol to be creative; creativity was already part of my life. Alcohol stole the time and energy I could have spent creating. It was my escape from feelings of inadequacy, from not being good enough, from trying to fit in. Five years into sobriety, I’ve learned that removing alcohol isn’t the end—it’s the beginning of becoming who you’re meant to be. Each week covers one pain point: the struggle, the truth no one mentions, and what actually helps.
The Pain
Staring at the popcorn on the ceiling. There’s tension around my eyes. My breath is short. Stomach feels heavy. There’s no turning back. Fear starts to wash over me.
The commitment I’d broken repeatedly was now unbreakable. Thirty-one million seconds I had in front of me to trust that I could do this. 365 days with no escape route. Now, each morning I would wake up and tell myself, 'I'm not drinking today.' This was the time it would actually stick.
Trust.
It’s complex. It’s layered. It’s deep.
You can keep your word to others while breaking it to yourself. You can show up for commitments while abandoning your own needs. The lie isn’t always in what you say—it’s in what you do when no one’s watching. There’s a feeling when you tell yourself just one. The seed of doubt sprouts quickly. Six beers later, trust wilts into nothing.
When I was drinking, trust was this way. I was able to keep commitments. I was able to perform. The difference, though, came when things would get hard—I couldn’t stand in my power. I would try. Each morning, I told myself it would be different. Five o’clock comes. All of the challenging moments, thoughts, and actions throughout the day would slowly be chipping away. Desire snapped trust into a broken piece of wood. It was automatic. It was reinforced. Reliable. Until it wasn’t.
You know what it feels like to not trust yourself. To make a plan and doubt it before the day even starts. To commit to something and feel the certainty already slipping.
This is the pain of broken trust in sobriety. It’s not about whether others trust you. It’s about not trusting yourself.
I want to point out that with each of these pain points, the answers come from self-exploration. You have your own unique makeup, history, experiences, and habits that contribute to the desire to drink. What may work for you may not work for someone else. Adopting a state of curiosity, being willing to experiment, to practice, and ultimately commit to the process, will lead you more closely to the changes you wish to seek.
The Story
A splash echoed through the cavern. I looked down into the dark waters. Shimmers of light moved through the ripples. A person emerged and started to swim away. It was my turn. “Everyone, turn off your headlamps!” Pitch black. The only way forward was to believe. I jumped. Coming up for air, a big smile on my face, adrenaline was pumping.
This was three years before I quit. Still drinking, still tracking, still making promises in the morning and breaking them by dawn.
Turning off the light. Leaping into the unknown. In moments where I leaned in, something was accumulating. Each time I trusted myself, evidence was building that would matter later.
Three years later, on August 19, 2020, I made the real leap. I committed publicly to one year of sobriety. No tracking. No spreadsheets. No negotiations with myself about moderation or control. Just one clear number: 0.
The first few days felt like that cave—fueled with excitement and possibility. I was finally doing it. But as the weeks progressed, something different happened. The daily test wasn’t dramatic. It was mundane.
Waking up and meditating even when my mind said, “Let’s skip it.” Going to the gym even when my body resisted. Sitting down to work on creative projects even when I felt blocked. Having difficult conversations even when avoidance seemed easier.
Small moments. Quiet decisions. Each commitment brought resistance. Each time I showed up despite not wanting to, something shifted. Not dramatically. Just a tiny solidification of trust. A small piece of evidence: I can do this.
The Shift
We learn to break trust long before alcohol enters the picture. As children, we figure out early that we can get what we want by lying. We lie to dodge disapproval. We lie to avoid shame. We learn that our words don’t have to match our actions if the lie serves us in the moment.
Those patterns develop and get reinforced over time. Telling yourself you’ll start early, waiting until the last minute. Saying yes when you mean no. Sensing you should leave, but stay. Avoiding challenges because you don’t believe you can handle them.
Each broken promise teaches the same lessons. Words don’t mean anything. I can’t trust my own commitments. Consequences are manageable—or so it seems. It’s easier to avoid than follow through.
The pattern compounds with small broken promises. Not following through normalizes, which builds identity around unreliability and broken self-trust as a baseline.
Drinking was a way of keeping this baseline flat. Letting alcohol go was where rebuilding started to take shape.
Sobriety becomes the practice ground for relearning how to be someone whose words match their actions.
The shift happens when you stop trying to trust yourself through willpower and start building trust through evidence.
Trust isn’t rebuilt through grand gestures or dramatic commitments. It’s rebuilt through the small, unglamorous follow-through. The commitment made. The discomfort that follows. The willingness to stay anyway.
Resistance is normal. The old patterns fight the new ones. You can’t avoid the discomfort, but you can work with it. You notice it’s there, and you move forward despite it. That’s where trust gets built. In the gap between “I don’t want to” and “I did it anyway.”
You know this gap. The moment doubt arrives, and you have to choose. The decision point between what’s easy and what you said you’d do. That’s where the work is. That’s where the evidence starts to accumulate.
Trust isn’t about never breaking commitments. It’s about the pattern shifting from mostly broken to mostly kept. When that happens, you stop second-guessing every decision. You stop waiting for yourself to fail. You start believing your own word again. From “I can’t trust myself” to “I’m becoming someone I can trust.”
The Science
When you say “I’ll only have one drink tonight” and then have six, your brain experiences a prediction error. The prediction didn’t match reality. Over time, repeated prediction errors teach your brain: “Don’t trust this person’s predictions.”
This creates a feedback loop. The less you trust yourself, the more anxiety you feel about making commitments, which makes you more likely to avoid or break them, which further erodes trust. Alcohol amplifies this cycle because it numbs the discomfort of the prediction error—you don’t feel the full weight of breaking your word to yourself.
In sobriety, that numbing is gone. You feel the prediction error clearly. That’s what allows trust to rebuild. Your brain can finally update its model with accurate data.
Research on self-efficacy—pioneered by psychologist Albert Bandura (1977)—shows that trust in oneself is built primarily through mastery experiences: successfully completing tasks, especially challenging ones. Each time you do something difficult and follow through, your brain encodes that as evidence of capability.
Each time you do something difficult and follow through, your brain encodes that as evidence of capability.
The key is consistency. A single kept commitment doesn’t rebuild trust. But a pattern of kept commitments does. Your brain needs repeated data points to update its prediction model from “unreliable” to “trustworthy.”
This is why small daily commitments matter more than big sporadic promises. Saying “I’ll meditate for 5 minutes every morning” and doing it for a week creates more neural evidence than saying “I’ll run a marathon” and never starting training. Learning happens through repetition, not intention.
Studies on habit formation show that new behaviors become automatic after a median of 66 days—but the range is wide, from 18 to 254 days depending on the complexity of the behavior and individual differences (Lally et al., 2010).
Every time you show up despite resistance, you’re strengthening the neural pathway that says “I do what I say I’ll do.” Over time, that pathway becomes the default. The resistance doesn’t disappear, but the follow-through becomes easier, maybe even enjoyable.
This is why sobriety is such a powerful trust-building practice. It removes the substance that disrupts your prefrontal cortex—the part of your brain responsible for following through on commitments. It restores your ability to accurately predict your own behavior. That starts with noticing the resistance that used to send you toward the drink.
The Practice
Alcohol bypasses resistance. When it's removed, building awareness around resistance—without avoiding it—is how trust rebuilds.
When resistance arrives: Notice it.
Your brain will offer reasons not to do the thing.
“You’re too tired.” “You don’t have time.” “You can do it tomorrow.”
Don’t fight it. Don’t override it. Don’t force yourself to push through.
Just notice it’s there.
What does resistance feel like in your body?
Heaviness? Tension? The urge to distract yourself? The voice that says “later”?
What stories does your brain tell you?
Are there excuses? What patterns emerge across the week?
Write down what you noticed.
This is the entire practice: Awareness.
By the end of the week, you’ll have at least one moment where you practiced noticing resistance.
You can’t rebuild trust without first seeing where it breaks. You can’t shift the pattern without knowing what the pattern is.
Awareness comes first. Action comes after.
You’re just learning to see resistance for what it is: an old pattern fighting to stay alive. Not truth. Not you. Just a pattern.
Once you can see it clearly, you can work with it.
One observation at a time.
You Don’t Have to Do This Alone
What You’re Feeling:
Sobriety isn’t just about saying no—it’s learning how to live without the false edge.
The quiet moments feel heavier. The creative spark feels unpredictable. You’re trying to rebuild trust in yourself, one decision at a time.
The Pattern:
You stay clear for a few days → energy returns → a moment of doubt hits → “maybe just one” → fog creeps back in → regret → restart.
Each cycle drains your belief that change is possible.
The Hidden Truth:
You’re not broken—you’re rebuilding your creative system. The fog isn’t proof you’ve failed; it’s evidence your body and mind are recalibrating toward clarity.
What This Costs You:
The energy that could power your next breakthrough
The focus that builds real momentum
The self-trust that turns ideas into finished work
The Path Forward:
Each week, I’m unpacking the real pain points of sobriety—the ones no one prepares you for—so you can navigate them with awareness, not avoidance.
Next week: Broken Trust (and how to put the pieces back)
Ready to see what happens when the fog lifts?
On January 1, the 31-Day Sober Creative Reset begins.
No labels. No lifetime promises.
Just one month to restore clarity, energy, and momentum.
".....unpacking the real pain points of sobriety—the ones no one prepares you for..." Thank you for this. I detoxed in rehab and found out I was unprepared for the outside world. I really needed someone to tell me "good, bad and indifferent" of sobriety in order to be successful as it is not a magical path littered with rose petals
Brilliant and inspiring post-thank you!