{"podcast":{"title":"Rewired Sober","slug":"rewired-sober-7110186","podcast_index_feed_id":7110186,"rss_url":"https://feeds.captivate.fm/rewiredsober/","website_url":"https://rewiredsober.captivate.fm","image_url":"https://artwork.captivate.fm/d80d3dd9-542a-4703-8bb3-d1a805b0d894/Rewired-Sober-3.jpg","author":"Kate Vitela","episode_count":80,"summary":"Rewired Sober is a sobriety and recovery podcast for women who are tired of surface-level self-help and ready for real change. Hosted by psychiatric nurse, addiction specialist, and recovery coach Kate Vitela, RN, this podcast explores the neuroscience of addiction, emotional sobriety, mindset change, and the messy, honest reality of rebuilding your life after quitting drinking. This is not a preachy recovery podcast full of toxic positivity or shame. It’s real conversations about: women and alcohol gray area drinking anxiety and emotional regulation perfectionism and people pleasing cravings and habit loops neuroplasticity and brain rewiring identity in midlife anger, grief, and healing creativity, fashion, and self-expression in recovery relationships, boundaries, and self-trust learning how to feel your feelings without numbing them Kate combines clinical insight, lived experience, humor, and a feminist lens to help women understand why they drink, not just how to stop. Whether you’re sober curious, newly alcohol-free, or years into recovery and wondering “now what?” — this podcast is designed to help you build a life that actually feels good to live. If you’re looking for a so…","last_synced_at":"2026-06-09T18:18:31.848618+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/rewired-sober-7110186"},"episode":{"title":"EP 74  Trying to Quit Drinking But Feeling Stuck? - You Might Be Using a Strategy That Shuts Your Brain Down","slug":"ep-74-trying-to-quit-drinking-but-feeling-stuck-you-might-be-using-a-strategy-that-shuts-your-brain-down","published_at":"2026-05-19T08:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/rewired-sober-7110186/ep-74-trying-to-quit-drinking-but-feeling-stuck-you-might-be-using-a-strategy-that-shuts-your-brain-down","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/rewired-sober-7110186","url":"https://rewiredsober.captivate.fm","audio_url":"https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/209c4ff8-cfbb-4edc-9e90-6a23f04c046d.mp3","summary":"My solid guess is this: You didn’t drink because you were weak. You drank because your brain adapted. In this episode, we’re breaking down one of the biggest lies in recovery culture: that shame will somehow motivate you into becoming a better version of yourself. Spoiler: it won’t. In fact, it does the opposite. Using both neuroscience and real-life, messy-human examples, Kate is walking you through why shame keeps you stuck in the exact patterns you’re trying to escape—and what actually creates lasting change instead. We’re talking about: Why alcohol “worked” (and what it was actually doing for you) The internal war that starts for many women in sobriety The difference between eliminating parts of yourself vs. integrating them What shame does to your brain (hello, survival mode) Why your prefrontal cortex basically clocks out when you’re in self-attack How safety—not punishment—is the key to rewiring your brain The real difference between suppressing behavior and actually changing it Why encouragement works (and why punishment backfires) How to interrupt the shame spiral in real time This isn’t about letting yourself off the hook. It’s about finally using a strategy that actually works. Because: You cannot hate yourself into a new identity. But you can understand yourself into one. If you’ve been stuck in the cycle of: Trigger → shame → escape → repeat This episode will show you how to shift into: Trigger → awareness → safety → choice → change And yeah… we’re also calling out the very human tendency to try and fix your life by bullying yourself into submission. (How’s that been working for you?) KEY TAKEAWAYS Your brain is not moral—it’s efficient Shame activates survival mode, not growth Safety is what allows real change to happen Encouragement reinforces behavior;…","meta_description":"My solid guess is this: You didn’t drink because you were weak. You drank because your brain adapted. In this episode, we’re breaking down one of the bigg…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2009,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/rewired-sober-7110186/episodes/ep-74-trying-to-quit-drinking-but-feeling-stuck-you-might-be-using-a-strategy-that-shuts-your-brain-down/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/rewired-sober-7110186/ep-74-trying-to-quit-drinking-but-feeling-stuck-you-might-be-using-a-strategy-that-shuts-your-brain-down.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}