Stop Over-drinking and Start Living

Slipped back into drinking after real progress? Shame is keeping you stuck. Angela Mascenik breaks down why — and how to stop hiding and start again.

An episode for the woman who changed her relationship with alcohol, lost her footing, and is now too embarrassed to ask for help again.

If you've been working on your drinking — maybe with a stop drinking coach, inside a sober community, or on your own — and you had real progress, and then you slipped back into old patterns, this episode is for you. Not the version of you that had it together. The version of you right now, who is quietly struggling and convinced she has too much to explain before she can ask for help again. That shame? It has a name. And once you understand what it's doing to your brain, it loses some of its power.

Changing your relationship with alcohol is not a straight line. Most women who do this work, whether they're aiming for sobriety, cutting back, or simply drinking with more intention, will hit a stretch where old habits creep back in. That's not a character flaw. That's behavior change. And it's exactly what this episode is about.

What makes the slip harder than it needs to be isn't the drinking. It's the silence that follows.

Women who have worked with a coach, attended a sober retreat, or been part of a community like Alive AF! often find that coming back after a slip feels impossible. Not because help isn't available, they know it is. Not because they don't want it, they do. But because shame has convinced them they have to earn their way back first.

In this episode, Angela Mascenik — certified stop over-drinking coach and host of Stop Over-Drinking and Start Living — breaks down exactly what is happening in your brain when a slip turns into a spiral, why shame is the real barrier between you and getting better, and why the woman who comes back is not starting over. She's picking up.

This Episode Is For You If:

You've tried to quit drinking or cut back and had real success, then slipped

You've worked with a stop drinking coach and are embarrassed to reach out again

You're in a sober community or sobriety program and have gone quiet

You attended a women's sober retreat and feel like you let the experience down

You know what to do and you're still not doing it, and shame is why

You're a high-achieving woman who is exhausted from breaking promises to herself around alcohol

If you’re ready to explore private coaching or attending a Magic House Retreat in Lisbon to transform your relationship with alcohol at a deeper level, you can book a Clarity Call here:
https://www.angelamascenik.com/claritycall

And check out the last 3 spots in the May Magic House Retreat in Lisbon!
https://www.angelamascenik.com/magichousefounderscircle

About Angela Mascenik
Angela Mascenik is a certified stop over-drinking coach with nearly eight years of experience helping high-achieving women change their relationship with alcohol. She is the host of Stop Over-Drinking and Start Living — with almost 400 episodes — and the founder of Alive AF!, a monthly membership for women doing this work together. She also runs The Magic House, a retreat center in Lisbon, Portugal, where women gather for immersive sober retreats focused on the body, the mind, and real transformation.
Her approach is compassionate, shame-free, and rooted in the belief that you don't have to want sobriety to want a better life.

Your body doesn't reach for the wine because you're weak. It reaches because it's never learned that discomfort is survivable. That changes today.

In this episode, I share the story of Amy — a high-achieving client who came to The Magic House retreat in Lisbon for the photos and left with something she didn't expect: a completely different relationship with her phone, her body, and the quiet moments she used to fill with scrolling.

No decision. No willpower. It just happened.

That's what building a regulated nervous system actually looks like. And in this episode, you'll learn exactly how to start building yours.

You'll learn:

Why women who over-drink tend to be disconnected from their own bodies — and what the research says about the link between body awareness and alcohol cravings

What interoception is and why training it is one of the most powerful things you can do to stop over-drinking

How embodied practices like breathwork, forest bathing, mindfulness, yoga, and sound healing work — and why they have nothing to do with relaxation

The simple grounding practice Angela uses at every retreat that you can do anywhere, starting today

Why your nervous system can't be talked into feeling safe — and what to do instead

If you're a woman who drinks more than you want to, finds herself reaching for a glass at 5pm almost automatically, or has tried every top-down strategy and still can't seem to make it stick — this episode is for you.

No labels. No shame. No telling you to quit forever. Just the science, the story, and a place to start.

This is the Stop Over-Drinking and Start Living podcast with certified stop over-drinking coach Angela Mascenik. New episodes every week for high-achieving women who want to change their relationship with alcohol, feel their feelings, and actually live their lives.

Find Angela at angelamascenik.com | Learn about The Magic House Retreat Center in Lisbon, Portugal at https://www.angelamascenik.com/magichousefounderscircle

This week I share a small bit about what happened at The Magic House in Lisbon during my first retreat.

One woman shared that here cognitive firing came back online and that for the past year or 2 she couldn't recall some of her vocabulary that she prided herself on.. and it came back online.

One woman shared she felt like a shell of herself when she first arrived and at the end she felt whole and alive and like herself again.

One woman realized she was prioritizing everyone else and wasn't listening to her own needs and learned how to do that this week.

There were first yoga practices, sound baths and massages.

There was adventure and integration.

Stepping away from our day to day lets us see what is and isn't working and where we might need to pay attention more.

Allowing yourself to tell yourself the truth, learn how to be in your body to access important wisdom, and being surrounded by beautiful souls all doing it together is transformative.

Also, having a private chef and not having to do any chores helps too!

Magic happens at The Magic House Retreat Center and you definitley want to be a part of it!!

Join us in May or April 2027.

Angela Mascenik is a certified coach who helps women stop over-drinking and has created an elevated bohemian sanctuary in a century old building in Lisbon, where women come to release their own magic without substances clouding their true needs and desires.

Click the link to get more info about the Lisbon Magic House:
https://www.angelamascenik.com/magichousefounderscircle

Please enjoy this podcast REWIND- Frustration As Fuel

This episode I dive into how you can channel your frustration to stop over-drinking to get you to take actions you haven't been willing to take. Frustration can be a great emotion to initiate permanent changes if you know how to identify which actions will move you forward or keep you stuck.

Angela Mascenik, certified stop over-drinking coach, breaks what it really takes to create lasting change from the inside out with your relationship with alcohol, every week in the Stop Over-drinking and Start Living podcast.

If you’re successful, responsible, and “high functioning” on the outside but privately exhausted from managing alcohol in your head, you'll resonate with the helpful tips in this episode to cut back or take a break from alcohol.

Click the link to get more info about the Lisbon Magic House:
https://www.angelamascenik.com/magichousefounderscircle

This week's podcast is a must listen if you have been making drink plans or zero drink plans and not following them.

First, I'm sharing how I'm self-coaching myself through the final days before I welcome my first group to The Magic House Retreat Center in Lisbon, Portugal! And you can apply this to any project or big event in your life that might be happening.

Then, I share a tactic that will help you interrupt the automatica behavior of drinking off plan, even when you have the best intentions to stick to your plan in the morning.

The idea is that we need to pro-actively check in with ourselves and Stop - Notice- Process BEFORE the urge or the chatter hits at the end of the day.

SNP {Stop - Notice - Process} is my signature interruption technique to handle urges or interrupt behavior when we have strong feelings or desires to do drink or take unwanted actions.

Don't miss this episode.

Angela Mascenik, certified stop over-drinking coach, breaks what it really takes to create lasting change from the inside out with your relationship with alcohol, every week in the Stop Over-drinking and Start Living podcast.

If you’re successful, responsible, and “high functioning” on the outside but privately exhausted from managing alcohol in your head, you'll resonate with the helpful tips in this episode to cut back or take a break from alcohol.

Click the link to get more info about the Lisbon Magic House:
https://www.angelamascenik.com/magichousefounderscircle