So many women tell the same quiet story:
"I'm fine. I'm grateful. I'm doing it all."
And yet…
There's a glass of wine waiting every evening just to soften the edges enough to keep going.
In this week's episode of Things Your Mother Never Told You, I sit down with Colleen Freeland, the woman redefining what sobriety means for high-achieving, overwhelmed women. Her work is not about labels or lifelong abstinence. It's about emotional sobriety - the art of living without the chaos, pressure, and self-abandonment that make us reach outside ourselves for relief.
Colleen brings a radically compassionate perspective:
Most women don't have drinking problems.
They have disconnection problems.
Inside this conversation, we explore:
Why Type A, hyper-capable women often use alcohol as a bridge to survive the life they've built.
How emotional numbing becomes a default for women who never learned to feel their own needs.
Why shame-based sobriety models can backfire - and what actually creates lasting change.
The truth about "mommy wine culture" and the billion-dollar industry marketing alcohol as self-care.
How creating small, honest moments of pleasure and regulation can begin to untangle long-held patterns.
What happens when a woman finally tells the truth: I'm not okay, and I can't keep living this way.
The real reason midlife becomes a turning point, and why so many women "wake up" during these years.
This episode is an invitation to pause.
To listen inward. To meet the woman you've been overriding for far too long.
If something in this conversation lands in your body - share it with someone who needs to hear it.
Your revolution begins within.
Connect with Dr. Amanda on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/midlife.muse/
Connect with Colleen Freeland:
https://www.instagram.com/thehangoverwhisperer/
https://emotionalsobrietycoaching.com/