ADHD and Alcohol with Liz

ADHD and Alcohol with Liz

What drives someone to seek a life without alcohol? This episode follows Liz, a 51-year-old writer from the UK, as she talks through grey area drinking, late-diagnosed ADHD, and the surprising joy she’s found in an alcohol-free life. Liz describes how alcohol slipped into every corner of her days – not in huge quantities, but in constant, low-level dependence and mental preoccupation. Nights out, kids’ performances, even simple dinners were all framed around when she’d get that next glass.

Attempts to stick to guidelines and “just moderate” left her stuck in what she calls the worst of all worlds: feeling deprived on non-drinking days and never at peace when she did drink. Her late ADHD diagnosis, layered on top of perimenopause, helped her finally make sense of this pattern. She talks about naturally low dopamine, rejection-sensitive dysphoria, time blindness, and how alcohol’s quick dopamine hit can feel like a shortcut to relief and connection – until it isn’t.

Learning about the neurological link between ADHD and alcohol, she says, replaced years of shame with understanding and a bit of self-compassion. You’ll hear how Tribe Sober’s Breaking Free course and community gave her practical tools and real-life examples from others further along. She’s honest about falling into the “pink cloud” of early euphoria, slipping back, and then coming back to do the deeper work – boredom, flat moods and all.

Now four months alcohol-free, Liz talks about wild swimming, decluttering with neurodivergent support, and genuine friendships that don’t need a glass in hand. Her biggest surprise? Fun and connection didn’t disappear without booze; they widened. As she puts it, “sobriety delivers everything that alcohol promised.” Anyone who’s sober curious, stuck in moderation, or juggling ADHD and midlife changes may see a lot of themselves in her story – and maybe start to imagine their own alcohol-free future too.