7 Ways to Handle Stress Without Wine (When Everything Feels Like Too Much)
By 5pm the kids are screaming, you’ve had 77,000 tabs open in your brain all day, and a voice says you deserve a glass of wine.
That voice isn’t weakness, it’s your brain reaching for the fastest exit it knows. In this solo episode I take you deep into what’s actually happening in your body when stress hits, and why alcohol keeps showing up as the solution even when you know it isn’t serving you. I walk you through nervous system 101, the fight or flight trap so many of us are living in, and the biology of GABA and why perimenopause leaves us more depleted and reaching for wine. Then I share my seven favourite tools for handling stress without alcohol, the exact practices that helped me and the thousands of women I’ve supported.
The big ideasKey Takeaways
- 01So many women are living in fight or flight for years, not hours, with 77,000 tabs open and stuck in middle gear.
- 02Alcohol mimics GABA in the short term, but quietly leaves you more deficient over time, and perimenopause makes that drop even bigger.
- 03Drinking raises your baseline cortisol and creates a next-day anxiety loop most women never connect to alcohol.
- 04Seven tools help: low gear breaks, walking, breathwork, alcohol-free rituals, the “of course” exercise, shaking out adrenaline and calming hands-on activities.
Jump straight inEpisode Chapters
- Nervous System 101
- The 5pm Wine Trap
- Living In Middle Gear
- Why We Seek Oblivion
- How Alcohol Hijacks GABA
- Alcohol Borrows Calm From Tomorrow
- The Research On Women And Anxiety
- Rewiring The Stress Loop
- Seven Tools For Stress Without Wine
- Your Personal Toolkit
Tap a chapter to watch from that moment on YouTube
Sarah Rusbatch is an accredited Health and Wellbeing Coach and one of Australia’s leading experts on grey area drinking. Her podcast, Stronger, Bolder, Wiser, is the go-to space for women who are questioning their relationship with alcohol, navigating life alcohol-free, or simply curious about what life could look like on the other side of the bottle.
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