The Catholic Sobriety Podcast

This week my Instagram reel took off, more than anything I’ve posted in a long time. The very next day, I didn’t want to post at all. I had five reels ready to go and just wanted to hide. I posted anyway, and not because anyone was watching. I’d made a promise to myself and to the Lord, and I wasn’t willing to break it.
That’s what this episode is about: what happens to your trust in yourself every time you say one thing about drinking and do another, and how you get it back.
In this episode:
Why “I have no willpower” usually means “I don’t believe myself anymore”
How your brain keeps track of broken promises, and how every kept one starts to rebuild trust
Why what you commit to matters less than keeping it
Why resistance often shows up when things are going well, and what it looks like to want to hide right when something is working
Fr. Mark-Mary Ames’s “freedom test,” and the question underneath the habit: what are you looking for in that glass that it was never meant to give you?
Sober(ish) Advent and New Year opens November 15 and begins November 29. That’s 64 days of daily reflections, coaching, community, and weekly group calls, so you can enter Advent with intention and walk into January in freedom. It’s not about perfection. It’s about building the tools to get through the season and start the new year well. COMING SOON
Not sure yet? Start with the free Sacred Sobriety Kickstart. Link Below
Other Links mentioned:
The reel that started it all: https://www.instagram.com/p/DffE4PSOn0A/
Fr. Mark-Mary Ames, Ascension Presents: https://youtu.be/HivBLV2kcco?si=OrLILbPLspBhjZgR
Follow me on Instagram: @thecatholicsobrietycoach
Drop us a Question or Comment
👉🏻 Get started with my FREE 5-Day Sacred Sobriety Kick Start
https://www.thecatholicsobrietycoach.com/5-day-sacred-sobriety-kick-start
👉🏻 Book a Clarity Call: https://thecatholicsobrietycoach.mykajabi.com/clarity-call

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You started paying attention to your drinking, and now you think about wine more than before. So did you break something?
Nope. You opened the closet.
In this episode, Christie walks through what actually comes up when you start examining your relationship with alcohol, and why messy is a sign you’re doing it right.
We talk about:
Why the mental chatter gets louder when you start paying attention
Taking “forever” off the table, without letting yourself off the hook
Why that guilty feeling with a planned glass of wine is really awareness
The grief nobody warns you about, and why you clamp back down right when you’re starting to let go
What happens when your faith and your drinking finally start talking to each other
Mentioned: Episode 184, “I Might Mess Up Your Drinking”
Coming November 15th: Doors open for the Sober(ish) Advent and New Year Reset. 
Drop us a Question or Comment
👉🏻 Get started with my FREE 5-Day Sacred Sobriety Kick Start
https://www.thecatholicsobrietycoach.com/5-day-sacred-sobriety-kick-start
👉🏻 Book a Clarity Call: https://thecatholicsobrietycoach.mykajabi.com/clarity-call

Visit my Website: https://thecatholicsobrietycoach.com

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Fewer Americans are drinking than at any point since Gallup started asking in 1939, and Catholics are one of the biggest reasons why. Restaurants that used to offer an O’Doul’s and a Shirley Temple now have full zero-proof menus. Celebrities, authors, and everyday women are talking openly about cutting back or quitting.
So what’s going on? And if the culture is finally questioning alcohol, why is the evening glass of wine still so hard to put down?
In this episode, Christie walks through the latest data on why people are rethinking their drinking and what the culture’s version of the story leaves out. Seeing the trade-off isn’t enough when the daily negotiation is the habit. The real question isn’t just what alcohol is costing you, but what you’ve been asking it to do, and what God is offering you instead.
In this episode:
The Gallup numbers: drinking at a record low and a shift in what Americans believe about moderate drinking
Why Catholic drinking rates dropped from 79% to 55% in about twenty years
The NA boom, and the Christmas party bartender who made a mocktail like it counted
The fine print on alcohol’s promises: relaxation, sleep, reward, connection
Why “everybody drinks” no longer works as a cover
What women are telling Christie about why they’re rethinking it
Why the desire for rest and reward is good, and where alcohol counterfeits it
Why a beautiful mocktail is a gift, but not the whole answer
Start here: Get the free Sacred Sobriety Kickstart, five short videos for the woman who’s done the math, knows something’s off, and wants to understand what’s really going on in her mind, body, and soul. (link below)
Sources mentioned in this episode:
Gallup, “Americans’ Drinking Remains at Record Low” (Aug. 2026): https://news.gallup.com/poll/713534/americans-drinking-remains-record-low.aspx
Gallup, “Religion and the Decline in Alcohol Use,” Frank Newport (Oct. 2026): https://news.gallup.com/opinion/polling-matters/715613/religion-decline-alcohol.aspx
Fox News, on Catholic drinking rates and Gallup’s findings: https://www.foxnews.com/health/catholic-alcohol-consumption-drops-record-low-americans-rethink-moderate-drinking-habits
Tastewise, mocktail and zero-proof menu growth data: https://tastewise.io/?p=20029
Scripture: Matthew 11:28
Drop us a Question or Comment
👉🏻 Get started with my FREE 5-Day Sacred Sobriety Kick Start
https://www.thecatholicsobrietycoach.com/5-day-sacred-sobriety-kick-start
👉🏻 Book a Clarity Call: https://thecatholicsobrietycoach.mykajabi.com/clarity-call

Visit my Website: https://thecatholicsobrietycoach.com

📈 The tools I use to optimize my podcast growth:

VidIQ: https://vidiq.com/ChristieWalker

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Most of us could name our vices in five seconds. What we can't name as easily are the things we've quietly built our days around: the glass of wine at 5:30, the scroll before bed, the snack that takes the edge off, the productivity that makes us feel worth something. They don't look like idols. They look like rest.
In this episode, I welcome back Kylie Hein, Catholic coach, spiritual director, and host of the Persistence in Prayer podcast, to talk about disordered attachments. We talk about how the ordinary ones crowd out God's voice, counterfeit His peace, and keep us settling for comfort when He's calling us to holiness.
In this episode:
What a disordered attachment is, and where enjoying a good thing crosses into needing it
Why wine, food, scrolling, and busyness are the attachments we rarely question
How attachments create interior noise that makes God harder to hear
The difference between God stretching you for growth and the enemy pulling you apart
Why letting go often feels worse before it feels better, and how to read that discomfort
Why detachment isn't white-knuckled willpower
A simple prayer practice and Examen question to help you notice where your heart is attached
Connect with Kylie:
Website: kyliemhein.com
Podcast: Persistence in Prayer
Drop us a Question or Comment
 I just rebuilt my Sacred Sobriety Kickstart — new content, new structure, all built on the four pillars I actually coach from. Five free days to get real clarity on your "why," your triggers, and the tools to stop white-knuckling it. Click the link to sign up!
👉🏻 Get started with my FREE 5-Day Sacred Sobriety Kick Start
https://www.thecatholicsobrietycoach.com/5-day-sacred-sobriety-kick-start
👉🏻 Book a Clarity Call: https://thecatholicsobrietycoach.mykajabi.com/clarity-call

Visit my Website: https://thecatholicsobrietycoach.com

📈 The tools I use to optimize my podcast growth:

VidIQ: https://vidiq.com/ChristieWalker

Buzzsprout: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1935235
(Get $20 off with my link)

Twenty-five years without a drink. And I still walked into rooms feeling like an alcoholic.
Not because I was drinking — I wasn't. But because somewhere along the way, being a non-drinker became a fact about my life, and "alcoholic" stayed the truth about who I was. In this episode, I'm telling you the two specific moments that showed me I was on the fringe of my own life — one at my cousin's 30th birthday, one in Las Vegas at 40 — and the sentence that finally changed everything: there were reasons I became addicted that weren't excuses. They were explanations.
This one's for you whether you're already alcohol-free or you're just trying to get to a place where you can take it or leave it with peace. You don't have to wait for this to get worse before you get curious about it.
In this episode:
The two moments that taught me what "on the fringe" actually feels like — even a decade-plus into being alcohol-free
Why "excuses" and "explanations" are not the same thing, and what changes when you stop confusing them
How I stayed alcohol-free for over two decades and never once talked about it
The two things that actually shifted something in me: joining Walking With Purpose, and building the Sacred Sobriety Lab
Why I don't come out swinging against alcohol, and why that's a deliberate choice, not a soft one
The four pillars underneath all of this — faith, neuroscience, inner healing, and identity — and why none of them work alone
Drop us a Question or Comment
 I just rebuilt my Sacred Sobriety Kickstart — new content, new structure, all built on the four pillars I actually coach from. Five free days to get real clarity on your "why," your triggers, and the tools to stop white-knuckling it. Click the link to sign up!
👉🏻 Get started with my FREE 5-Day Sacred Sobriety Kick Start
https://www.thecatholicsobrietycoach.com/5-day-sacred-sobriety-kick-start
👉🏻 Book a Clarity Call: https://thecatholicsobrietycoach.mykajabi.com/clarity-call

Visit my Website: https://thecatholicsobrietycoach.com

📈 The tools I use to optimize my podcast growth:

VidIQ: https://vidiq.com/ChristieWalker

Buzzsprout: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1935235
(Get $20 off with my link)