The Share Shed: Awkward Questions & Confessions

The Share Shed: Awkward Questions & Confessions

Curious about how others navigate their sobriety journey? This Share Shed instalment of *Sober Awkward* throws open the doors on booze-fuelled chaos, then gently points towards balance and self-awareness. Vic reads out an anonymous listener story that starts like many nights out: a party, a few drinks, then a complete blackout.

The twist comes the next morning, when the gym staff reveal security footage of this listener arriving at 3am, “drunk, soaking wet… barefoot, and proceeding to run on a treadmill for 40 minutes” before being sick and disappearing again. Earlier, he’d apparently jumped a fence, swum in a stranger’s pool, and then decided he needed cardio. What begins as a ridiculous tale turns into something more reflective.

The writer talks about feeling “completely disconnected” from his own life, as if some other bloke was making all the decisions. Now sober and still a self-described fitness fanatic, he admits he’s “probably even more obsessed with exercise now” but, crucially, he actually sees it. That awareness sparks a chat about how easy it is to swap alcohol for another obsession and why “balance matters” even with healthy habits.

Vic keeps things light with her usual humour (including a confession about being “allergic to cleaning” and bragging about her pub quiz win), but she also takes the listener’s suggestion seriously and considers a future episode on fitness addiction in sobriety. She touches on how sport and alcohol are often tightly woven together, from cricket crowds to post-match lagers, and how guilt and pressure around exercise can feel familiar to anyone who’s struggled with booze.

If you’re questioning your relationship with alcohol, or wondering whether you’ve simply traded drinking for endless workouts, this episode gives you laughs, cringe, and a nudge to ask: have you swapped one obsession for another, or are you actually in charge now?