{"podcast":{"title":"The Big Drink Rethink","slug":"the-big-drink-rethink-6691442","podcast_index_feed_id":6691442,"rss_url":"https://feeds.captivate.fm/the-big-drink-rethink/","website_url":"https://www.thebigdrinkrethink.com/podcast","image_url":"https://artwork.captivate.fm/ff4686d6-b0f4-440e-ab16-2a87b6ed77eb/b523631-d77f-d4d-4c5e-f00cbf6d85f-tbdr-podcast-artwork2.jpg","author":"Anna Donaghey","episode_count":135,"summary":"The Big Drink Rethink is a podcast for anyone questioning their relationship with alcohol - whether you want to quit, drink less, take a break, or just explore the role alcohol plays in your life. Hosted by Alcohol Mindset Coach and Author, Anna Donaghey, each episode blends lived experience, psychological insight, and powerful tools to help you create change - gently, intelligently, without pressure, and in a way that opens up your life. Featuring expert guests, real stories, and practical strategies, this podcast offers a refreshingly smart, non-judgemental space to reflect, grow, and explore the life you want. Because rethinking your drinking isn’t about missing out. It’s about tuning in. It’s not about restriction - it’s about making space. To feel clearer, live more fully, and ask one honest question: What are you really thirsty for?","last_synced_at":"2026-07-30T12:21:50.792018+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-big-drink-rethink-6691442"},"episode":{"title":"Ep 118: When Avoidance Stops Working with April Day Garcia | Rethinking Alcohol |","slug":"ep-118-when-avoidance-stops-working-with-april-day-garcia-rethinking-alcohol","published_at":"2026-04-16T01:30:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-big-drink-rethink-6691442/ep-118-when-avoidance-stops-working-with-april-day-garcia-rethinking-alcohol","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-big-drink-rethink-6691442","url":"https://www.thebigdrinkrethink.com/podcast","audio_url":"https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/2574e537-d3e9-4a96-81bc-c4412bac99ba.mp3","summary":"What happens when the strategies we rely on to avoid pain, achievement, busyness and constant momentum stop working? In this powerful conversation, Anna Donaghey is joined by April Day Garcia, author of The Room to Be Brave: Sometimes the way forward begins with going back , to explore how avoidance can hide in plain sight, especially for high-functioning people disguised as success. April shares how chasing achievement and belonging led her further from herself, with alcohol acting as a quiet form of escape. When a period of forced stillness changed everything, she began the deeper work of healing, returning to the “rooms” where old beliefs began. This episode offers a hopeful reframe: avoidance isn’t failure, it’s protection and real change starts not with becoming someone new, but with coming home to who you already are. Here are the Highlights: 00:00 Intro: Rethinking avoidance with April Day Garcia 00:45 The art of avoidance and the illusion of achievement 02:27 April’s memoir mapping unravelling through literal rooms 05:11 Running from the pain, and chasing achievement 09:33 How avoidance can sometimes look like high performance 11:31 No room for vulnerability, linking emotions to old, unsafe moments 13:49 Alcohol’s role in numbing, postponing, and belonging 16:50 Avoidance creates new problems, emotional costs rise 20:35 The clear rupture: seeing darkness reflected in family 23:07 Having a breakdown broke the cycle, and led to giving up alcohol 38:09 The hardest rooms: confronting your own mistakes and shadow work 41:55 Old beliefs aren’t yours and reclaiming your true self 44:12 Redeveloping your rooms and rewriting your story 52:36 Choose your hard, start with one room 54:04 Healing isn’t failure, sometimes your truest self is waiting in the rooms you feared m…","meta_description":"What happens when the strategies we rely on to avoid pain, achievement, busyness and constant momentum stop working? In this powerful conversation, Anna D…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3342,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-big-drink-rethink-6691442/episodes/ep-118-when-avoidance-stops-working-with-april-day-garcia-rethinking-alcohol/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-big-drink-rethink-6691442/ep-118-when-avoidance-stops-working-with-april-day-garcia-rethinking-alcohol.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}