Love your honesty as always! Lyme disease damn near ruined my life! Definitely was part of the reason I ended up becoming addicted to alcohol (drinking due to physical discomfort). 10 specialists told me I didn't have it. Hopefully the testing and Dr.'s knowledge has improved but doubtful. Please insist on Doxycycline even if the test is negative or inconclusive.
My question for the addiction expert is around that piece you recently linked to about Ozempic helping curb cravings. My question is if the cravings come back after ozempic has been flushed out? Or does it get people enough over the hump to build new habits? I am solid in my NQTD but feel like this could be useful for folks having a hard time and I’m just a super curious person.
Would questions on hormones include neurotransmitters? I'm curious what he thinks happens in the brain of someone on SSRIs who drinks alcohol (something beyond messing with dopamine/serotonin levels?), and how often he sees people who only drink "moderately", who then begin psychotropic meds, develop a more serious alcohol use problem. Thanks!
Yay podcast! Holly, reading your newsletter is self care for me, I set everything else aside and swim around in it every week when it comes, love it. Thank you. Anyway, a I am a psych NP that works in addiction and fellow sober sally. I am fascinated with the emerging literature on neurohypophyseal hormones and addiction. If Dr. Schmidt would comment on the use of intranasal oxytocin and/or other forms of actual clinical treatment on the horizon, that would be amazing. The potential here is mind-blowing to me.
“ I’m trying to do what actually makes me happy and what feels sustainable.” This thisthisthis this. This is what the planet needs, this is what women need. Brava girl, sink deep. 👯♀️🌿🫶🏽
First, thanks for NOT mentioning Barbie! Second, I love Maria Popova’s newsletter too (themarginalian.org for anyone interested in reading it) and agree that it’s impossible to read it without clicking at least one link (usually more, and each has new great links to explore). Finally, Lisa Olivera frequently seems to be inside my mind because she writes what I’m thinking!
Holly, I love this new schedule and all of these links are killer.
I have a question for your podcast, which is one I see crop up month after month on the Reframe forums: cravings (for alcohol) intensifying by a lot in the lead up to our periods. I only recently learned about PMDD, which I think I may experience. I’m trying so hard to keep my sobriety but for a week every month (so ONE FOURTH of the time) I feel like I’m battling doubled cravings. It’s not in my head because I see others questioning it as well. Is there any science on this? Is there any help or hope?
This is great holly. I like when you have the chance to revisit your work before you send. The work you produce after iterations is so rich and I enjoy seeing the ‘holly debate’ unfold.
Big yes to listening to yourself/making it all work for you -- in the process of figuring out what that looks like for me, too, and it's always helpful to hear about the process for others. Also, I have The Bigger Picture and I'm excited to read it now! And so grateful for your resonance with Sunday's letter -- always relieved to know it's never just me in the ongoing grappling, even when it feels like it. xx 🤍
“Thru fixtures and forces and friends your sorrow does stem. They’ll hype you and type you and make you feel like you gotta be just like them. “ from To Ramona by Bob Dylan
I am very glad to hear that you figured out the rhythm because YES you deserve the time and space to write long form. You are so good at it and you go very deep in the way you connect these dots together. but also love the weekly touch points, despite the fact that your links and lists sometimes make me feel like I am SO GenX, completely out of touch, and I just can’t keep up with what the kids are doing these days! Yes I have a question for the doctor- what happens!!! How does quitting ethanol impact our hormones or neurochemistry. I was on a steady diet of wine tastings and end of the week vodka and sodas, weekend dinner parties. glasses of shit Chardonnay at work events, bespoke craft cocktails that smoked, and all the rest. Excluding the decade of my 20s that was really just stupid amounts of beer drinking, I look back on the rest of it in sort of bewildered dismay. For 20 years as a “grown up” I was imbibing one, or two, or three drinks a day, 2-3 times a week. Its like my liver and brain would *just* catch a break and the boom! More neurotoxin. It was almost like a switch, one day I stopped being able to do it. One glass of nice red wine and I was up at 2am. I felt a sense of doom in the mornings, which my first experience with that sense that everything was going to be horrible from here on out. I cried at the drop of a hat. Of course, I didn’t know at the time- this was the start of actual menapause. The wine plus the changes... it was like a car crash going on in my body. Of course I kept drinking wine in utter denial for about three more years until I decided to do yet another “cleanse”... which then I just kept going. And then, I felt that I had been let of of JAIL! I was in shock at how much better I felt. And the doors just kept opening from there. It’s like my life, my body, my soul was a house that I had never actually lived in, and I was going room to room thinking, “what’s this??? I didn’t even know this room was here?!” I later found out that when we head into menapause a woman’s body stops making the same amount of some enzyme? Or something? That breaks down alcohol? It’s part of the process when you drink the body gets to work and breaks down the ethanol in stages. Women make less of the one that’s in the middle of the process... and that is why even in the solid “oh no it’s a school night” one and done I still felt like I got beat up in an alley the next morning. Amalaize? Can’t remember. I can’t remember also because my memory is shit now compared to what it used to be. Is that left over COVID or menapause or just being a human I don’t know. I digress!!! I want to know what happens and the interplay when your body stops getting poisoned...what are the impacts to our hormones? Our aging process? Assuming that I’m doing other wellness stuff really consistently like moderate exercise and yoga and water and sleep etc. I would love to know more about the science of it. Who knows maybe this was just my journey and there is no science to it at all. Wishing you a lovely weekend HW!
I love that you’ve decided to go back to what works for you. I only recently started thinking about how I can be swayed into thinking I should be writing X, Y or Z and then catch myself being lured by other great writers and what they might be doing -- only to really discover as I think about it, that I actually want to stick to a different format that feels more me.
I think it would be great to understand more about menopause, hormones and addiction as mentioned here already in the comments but also neurodiversity and addiction, specifically those with ADHD for example. As a mother of a teen with autism, dyslexia and ADHD (inattentive type) I would be keen to understand this further.
Thank you for the great newsletter as always Holly. :-)
The conversation about boundaries is interesting. I like your take, that we learn to speak a thing before we can actually embody the thing. Linking thinkers like Eva Illouz, Naomi Klein and Rina Raphael, it always gets messy when we commodify human needs (love, activism, wellness). Boundaries are profitable right now, so that makes it harder to parse through the muck. I will say that one of my favorite Recovering essays is "The Long Game of Boundaries" (#6). I've quoted that piece in my own writing.
For the podcast: maybe this is not in the realm of this person's expertise, but I'm interested in the impact of hormones and alcohol on addiction, yes, but also on other embodied consequences (fibroids, breast cancer, etc..). Also, what role does HRT play in this intersection, whether it's related to the trans experience or aging?
Wtf is Weight Health? Sounds like WW knows diet culture is going down so they are rebranding (I didn't mean that to sound deep but that is what's happening, right?)
Love your honesty as always! Lyme disease damn near ruined my life! Definitely was part of the reason I ended up becoming addicted to alcohol (drinking due to physical discomfort). 10 specialists told me I didn't have it. Hopefully the testing and Dr.'s knowledge has improved but doubtful. Please insist on Doxycycline even if the test is negative or inconclusive.
Snort laughed about “No Barbie in here” :-D Xoxo you’re the best.
My question for the addiction expert is around that piece you recently linked to about Ozempic helping curb cravings. My question is if the cravings come back after ozempic has been flushed out? Or does it get people enough over the hump to build new habits? I am solid in my NQTD but feel like this could be useful for folks having a hard time and I’m just a super curious person.
Would questions on hormones include neurotransmitters? I'm curious what he thinks happens in the brain of someone on SSRIs who drinks alcohol (something beyond messing with dopamine/serotonin levels?), and how often he sees people who only drink "moderately", who then begin psychotropic meds, develop a more serious alcohol use problem. Thanks!
Yay podcast! Holly, reading your newsletter is self care for me, I set everything else aside and swim around in it every week when it comes, love it. Thank you. Anyway, a I am a psych NP that works in addiction and fellow sober sally. I am fascinated with the emerging literature on neurohypophyseal hormones and addiction. If Dr. Schmidt would comment on the use of intranasal oxytocin and/or other forms of actual clinical treatment on the horizon, that would be amazing. The potential here is mind-blowing to me.
“ I’m trying to do what actually makes me happy and what feels sustainable.” This thisthisthis this. This is what the planet needs, this is what women need. Brava girl, sink deep. 👯♀️🌿🫶🏽
Would love to know about menopause, hormones, and addiction!
First, thanks for NOT mentioning Barbie! Second, I love Maria Popova’s newsletter too (themarginalian.org for anyone interested in reading it) and agree that it’s impossible to read it without clicking at least one link (usually more, and each has new great links to explore). Finally, Lisa Olivera frequently seems to be inside my mind because she writes what I’m thinking!
Holly, I love this new schedule and all of these links are killer.
I have a question for your podcast, which is one I see crop up month after month on the Reframe forums: cravings (for alcohol) intensifying by a lot in the lead up to our periods. I only recently learned about PMDD, which I think I may experience. I’m trying so hard to keep my sobriety but for a week every month (so ONE FOURTH of the time) I feel like I’m battling doubled cravings. It’s not in my head because I see others questioning it as well. Is there any science on this? Is there any help or hope?
Thanks for all your work.
This is great holly. I like when you have the chance to revisit your work before you send. The work you produce after iterations is so rich and I enjoy seeing the ‘holly debate’ unfold.
Big yes to listening to yourself/making it all work for you -- in the process of figuring out what that looks like for me, too, and it's always helpful to hear about the process for others. Also, I have The Bigger Picture and I'm excited to read it now! And so grateful for your resonance with Sunday's letter -- always relieved to know it's never just me in the ongoing grappling, even when it feels like it. xx 🤍
“Thru fixtures and forces and friends your sorrow does stem. They’ll hype you and type you and make you feel like you gotta be just like them. “ from To Ramona by Bob Dylan
I am very glad to hear that you figured out the rhythm because YES you deserve the time and space to write long form. You are so good at it and you go very deep in the way you connect these dots together. but also love the weekly touch points, despite the fact that your links and lists sometimes make me feel like I am SO GenX, completely out of touch, and I just can’t keep up with what the kids are doing these days! Yes I have a question for the doctor- what happens!!! How does quitting ethanol impact our hormones or neurochemistry. I was on a steady diet of wine tastings and end of the week vodka and sodas, weekend dinner parties. glasses of shit Chardonnay at work events, bespoke craft cocktails that smoked, and all the rest. Excluding the decade of my 20s that was really just stupid amounts of beer drinking, I look back on the rest of it in sort of bewildered dismay. For 20 years as a “grown up” I was imbibing one, or two, or three drinks a day, 2-3 times a week. Its like my liver and brain would *just* catch a break and the boom! More neurotoxin. It was almost like a switch, one day I stopped being able to do it. One glass of nice red wine and I was up at 2am. I felt a sense of doom in the mornings, which my first experience with that sense that everything was going to be horrible from here on out. I cried at the drop of a hat. Of course, I didn’t know at the time- this was the start of actual menapause. The wine plus the changes... it was like a car crash going on in my body. Of course I kept drinking wine in utter denial for about three more years until I decided to do yet another “cleanse”... which then I just kept going. And then, I felt that I had been let of of JAIL! I was in shock at how much better I felt. And the doors just kept opening from there. It’s like my life, my body, my soul was a house that I had never actually lived in, and I was going room to room thinking, “what’s this??? I didn’t even know this room was here?!” I later found out that when we head into menapause a woman’s body stops making the same amount of some enzyme? Or something? That breaks down alcohol? It’s part of the process when you drink the body gets to work and breaks down the ethanol in stages. Women make less of the one that’s in the middle of the process... and that is why even in the solid “oh no it’s a school night” one and done I still felt like I got beat up in an alley the next morning. Amalaize? Can’t remember. I can’t remember also because my memory is shit now compared to what it used to be. Is that left over COVID or menapause or just being a human I don’t know. I digress!!! I want to know what happens and the interplay when your body stops getting poisoned...what are the impacts to our hormones? Our aging process? Assuming that I’m doing other wellness stuff really consistently like moderate exercise and yoga and water and sleep etc. I would love to know more about the science of it. Who knows maybe this was just my journey and there is no science to it at all. Wishing you a lovely weekend HW!
I love that you’ve decided to go back to what works for you. I only recently started thinking about how I can be swayed into thinking I should be writing X, Y or Z and then catch myself being lured by other great writers and what they might be doing -- only to really discover as I think about it, that I actually want to stick to a different format that feels more me.
I think it would be great to understand more about menopause, hormones and addiction as mentioned here already in the comments but also neurodiversity and addiction, specifically those with ADHD for example. As a mother of a teen with autism, dyslexia and ADHD (inattentive type) I would be keen to understand this further.
Thank you for the great newsletter as always Holly. :-)
The conversation about boundaries is interesting. I like your take, that we learn to speak a thing before we can actually embody the thing. Linking thinkers like Eva Illouz, Naomi Klein and Rina Raphael, it always gets messy when we commodify human needs (love, activism, wellness). Boundaries are profitable right now, so that makes it harder to parse through the muck. I will say that one of my favorite Recovering essays is "The Long Game of Boundaries" (#6). I've quoted that piece in my own writing.
For the podcast: maybe this is not in the realm of this person's expertise, but I'm interested in the impact of hormones and alcohol on addiction, yes, but also on other embodied consequences (fibroids, breast cancer, etc..). Also, what role does HRT play in this intersection, whether it's related to the trans experience or aging?
Wtf is Weight Health? Sounds like WW knows diet culture is going down so they are rebranding (I didn't mean that to sound deep but that is what's happening, right?)