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Episode
82

9 Years No Alcohol

By
Hannah Kissel
May 19, 2026
•
12
min
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About the episode

Nine years ago, Hannah Kissel made the most important decision of her life. She was sitting in a bathtub, a few days before her 27th birthday, and she realised something: she didn't want to do this anymore. Not life — but the version of it she was living. In this deeply personal solo episode, recorded on her 36th birthday and 9-year sobriety anniversary, Hannah shares what she's never talked about publicly - the moment that changed everything, what sobriety actually gave her, and the new pattern she's currently working through: an addiction to struggle. This isn't a cautionary tale. It's a blueprint. And whether you drink or not, if you're a high performer who constantly makes things harder than they need to be, this one's going to hit home.

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In this episode, Hannah covers:

  • The bathtub moment: the decision that started everything
  • What her therapist said that she'll never forget
  • Why addiction is really about discontentedness — not willpower
  • How an addictive, obsessive personality shows up in other areas (work, relationships, sugar, hockey romance novels)
  • Why the 12-step modality is the most powerful transformation framework she's ever encountered — and how she built her entire coaching program around it
  • Her current phase of recovery: the addiction to struggle, overcomplicating, and working harder than necessary
  • The intentional self-care routine that keeps her at equilibrium (and why she does it even when she doesn't want to)
  • Why "I could have drinking — or I could have everything else" is still the most clarifying thought she's ever had
  • Learning to let things be easy — and why that's harder than it sounds for high performers

The bottom line: Sobriety was the foundation. Everything else — the business, the marriage, the novel, the life — was built on top of it. And the next frontier isn't doing more. It's learning to let it be good.

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Timestamps:

02:00 — The bathtub moment: sitting in the dark before her 27th birthday
03:30 — What her therapist said that changed everything
04:30 — Growing up in LA: why sobriety and recovery were normalised early
05:30 — Moving to Australia: the taboo around sobriety and why it went underground
06:30 — "I could have drinking — or I could have everything else"
07:15 — The addictive, obsessive personality and where it shows up instead
08:30 — Why addiction is discontentedness, not weakness
09:30 — The 12-step modality: why it's the most powerful transformation framework she knows
11:00 — How Hannah built her coaching program on the AA model
12:30 — What sobriety gave her: business, marriage, novel, PTSD diagnosis, herself
14:00 — The current phase: addiction to struggle — overcomplicating, overworking, overdoing
15:30 — The master's degree story: reading four extra books for a one-page assignment
16:30 — Learning to let it be easy — and why that's the hardest thing yet
17:30 — The intentional self-care routine that keeps her at equilibrium
18:30 — Closing: gratitude, what's next, and the invitation to reach out

If this episode resonates with you, please leave a rating. It's the biggest way you can support what we're building here, and every single review helps us reach someone who needs this. Big love, dreamers.

Hi there, I'm Hannah

Executive Coach, podcaster, speaker, writer, and builder of big f*cking Dreams. My mission? To help ambitious professionals build self-acceptance, self-trust in their careers.

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