373: Hangiexty with Millie Gooch373: Hangiexty with Millie Gooch
Soberful
Veronica Valli talks with Millie Gooch about her journey from blackout-heavy partying to founding Sober Girls Society and writing *Hangxiety*. The discussion focuses on alcohol’s impact on women’s mental health, blackouts, anxiety and the importance of sober community.
36:41•4 Nov 2026
Hangxiety, Blackouts and Building Sober Girls Society with Millie Gooch
Episode Overview
- Millie describes how binge drinking in her twenties severely affected her mental health, leaving her with days-long hangovers and intense anxiety.
- She explains blackouts as a failure to form memories because alcohol suppresses glutamate, meaning some events are never stored and cannot be recalled.
- Sober Girls Society grew from Millie’s need to meet other young sober women and now offers varied alcohol-free events and virtual meetups across the UK.
- Her book *Hangxiety* focuses on how alcohol impacts anxiety, stress, sleep and mood, highlighting that short-term relief often leads to long-term worsening.
- The conversation stresses that some people are simply not well suited to alcohol due to factors like genetics, neurodivergence and hormones, and that this isn’t a moral failing.
“I am just not set up as a human for drinking really.”
What drives someone to seek a life without alcohol? This conversation between Veronica Valli and guest Millie Gooch centres on exactly that, with a sharp focus on anxiety, blackouts and the hidden mental health impact of drinking. Millie shares how her "classic party girl" lifestyle in her twenties left her obliterated on nights out and wiped out for days afterward.
While her friends bounced back with a bacon roll and a headache tablet, she needed "two to three working days" to recover and often woke with terrifying memory gaps.
She explains blackouts in clear, practical terms, noting that alcohol can literally stop memories being formed: "It’s almost like if you had a phone and you were taking a video of everyone but you'd actually forgot to press record." From that chaos came Sober Girls Society, the community Millie created because she couldn’t find anything for young women who didn’t drink.
What started as online meetups has grown into booze-free brunches, burlesque classes and city-wide gatherings across the UK, with women arriving nervous and leaving as if they need to be kicked out because they won’t stop chatting. The episode also unpacks Millie’s latest book, *Hangxiety*, which focuses purely on alcohol’s impact on the mind: anxiety, stress, sleep and that crushing next-day dread.
She talks about sensitive brains, genetics, neurodivergence, hormones and why some people simply aren’t well matched to alcohol, saying she’s "just not set up as a human for drinking really." There’s discussion of women’s health, perimenopause, and how research still lags behind lived experience.
If you’ve ever wondered why your hangovers feel like days of madness rather than a mild headache, or why you can’t drink "like everyone else", this chat might make you feel a lot less alone and a lot more informed. Could understanding your brain be the missing piece in your relationship with alcohol?
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