I was sent this book for review, and put off reading it for quite a while because I really hadn't expected to enjoy it. I was wrong. It's wonderfully light-hearted, and not at all preachy (well, maybe a tiny bit, towards the end).

The sad thing with that is you’re just putting off the joy of being sober. You’re just putting off the feeling of freedom and happiness and contentment of life in full color without hangovers. That is out there for you. I spent so many years trying to hang on to drinking, and didn’t realize how good I was going to feel once I finally gave it up.Catherine discusses some of the tools she used, while stressing that everyone has their own way of recovering. She has words of wisdom for everyone: Alcohol has performed an important social function for most of human history, as Mark Forsyth shows in his old-fashioned booze-loving book, A Short History of Drunkenness. Traces of beer have been found in large stone tubs in the world’s oldest known building, Göbekli Tepe in Turkey, which dates from 11,000 BC; it seems that before humans had even settled down to agriculture, our hunter-gatherer ancestors were meeting up to share a beer. Traces of wine dating to 7,000 BC have been found in China. The ancient Egyptians drank to commune with the gods; Viking lords inspired loyalty among their troops by lavishing them with mead. “Not to know beer is not normal,” ran a Sumerian proverb from the late 4th millennium BC, and that was still the case in medieval England, where ale was the principal means of hydration (water was dirty and dangerous, and drunk only by the very poor). I saw the author on breakfast TV over the festive period and decided to buy the book after seeing how engaging and down-to-earth she seemed. The book is very much in a similar vein. It’s not at all “preachy” or “annoying” - just sets out Catherine’s story in a way that is easy to relate to. Part autobiography, part health book, there are stories and anecdotes in the book to which we can all relate. While Catherine is now teetotal - and makes no bones about it - this book is useful for anyone who wants to examine their relationship with alcohol a bit further, cut down on drinking and/or give up completely. There’s no set script with the book. So I’m incredibly excited because my guest today is the author of The Unexpected Joy Of Being Sober and we’re here to talk about all things drinking, quitting drinking her writing, and her new book, Sunshine Warm Sober: Unexpected Sober Joy That Lasts . I bought this book because I heard about Catherine from the Happy Place podcast, and boy am I glad I did.

Yeah. And in the book, I think you say that staying sober is about so much more than putting down the alcohol right so you get away from the, from the physical or habitual or emotional addiction.And so we can all like give each other a little leg up when we when we’re out and open about being sober. Even if it’s in a closed group, you don’t have to do it. But you know, where your workmates can see or whatever. But it really does pass it on and pass it down. And that’s the best service you can possibly do. Yeah. And it takes a really long time to figure out all of those lessons, and you know what to do and what works for you. Because it really the approach that works for different people is completely different. You know, there’s no one way. The grandson stops and thinks about it for a second thenhe looks up at his grandfather and says, “Grandfather, which one wins?”

Betty White of The Golden Girls would say. ‘Why do people say “grow some balls?” Balls are weak and sensitive. If you wanna be tough, grow a vagina. Those things can take a pounding.’)” the unexpected joy of being sober, Catherine Gray, drinking, sober, alcohol, people, book, life, day, quit lit, feel, sobriety, unexpected, years, addicted, addiction, childhood trauma, cigarettes, joy, recovery Oh, that’s so lovely. Thank you for telling me that. And I mean, that’s what I did as well, I went on there. I mean, because I when I went on there, or additionally, I don’t think I what had found my day one. And so I was very much looking at other people and thinking what they’ve got, you know, I want that I want that glow. And I want that fun without alcohol. Addiction is all about seeking external relief from mental pain; whether you use cocaine, online poker, shopping, sex, razors, cake or exercise.”

So all of these things, it’s not just on a micro level, you know, keeping yourself sober. It’s also on a, it’s on a macro level, realizing that a lot of this is wrong. A lot of what’s going on is corrupt. And once you know that once you can kind of see the man behind the curtain that the reason why we’re not getting the whole truth about alcohol, you are much more immune to the marketing, because you can just see that it’s nonsense. It’s just smoke and mirrors to sell alcohol. She treated her recovery as if she was working towards a degree and studied accordingly. “I was completely fascinated by reading about the brain and the interviews with celebrities [who drank] and listening to podcasts,” she says. “I rewired my brain by doing so much writing and reading and listening.” It became a rehab of her own design and she threw all of her energy into it. It was not when her boss heard how she had climbed into a hot tub topless with work colleagues, or when she began hallucinating insects and faces in bed. There is so much that goes into putting together the tools you need to get through the first 30 days which are really the hardest.