“I Thought I Was Too Young”: The Untold Truth About Liver Disease & Alcohol / EP 67

What happens when “just one glass” turns into a deadly diagnosis?

In this raw and riveting episode of Feel Lit Alcohol Free, Ruby Williams and Susan Larkin sit down with Karla Adkins, co-founder of Zero Proof Life and author of She Came Tumbling Down. Karla was a young professional when she was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver at just 36—a wake-up call that nearly came too late!

Why Karla wrote her riveting book: "I can't be silent anymore. I have to share my story. I want people to know what can happen, the truth of this dangerous game that a lot of people are playing."

We dive deep into:
✅ The toxic culture of pandemic drinking and “mommy wine” humor
✅ Why liver disease is rising rapidly in women ages 25–34
✅ What it really takes to heal—physically, emotionally, and spiritually
✅ How Karla went from silent shame to powerful sobriety advocate

This conversation is urgent, inspiring, and unforgettable. Let’s get into it.

Read Karla's compelling story And She Came Tumbling Down : Breaking the Bonds of Alcohol and Creating a Life of Freedom 
Connect with Karla: Karlaadkins.com  @thezeroprooflife @karlakadkins

Listeners have said that our podcast has helped them get alcohol free! So we created Feel Lit 21, a way for you to press your reset button and take a 21 day break from alcohol. Every day you will receive emails with videos, journal prompts, and the inspiration you need to embrace 21 days without alcohol that feels lit!

Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, and ask us any questions you have about breaking free from wine or living an alcohol-free lifestyle.

Websites:
Susan Larkin Coaching https://www.susanlarkincoaching.com/
Ruby Williams at Freedom Renegade Coaching https://www.freedomrenegadecoaching.com/

Follow Susan: @drinklesswithsusan
Follow Ruby: @rubywilliamscoaching

It is strongly recommended that you seek professional advice regarding your health before attempting to take a break from alcohol. The creators, hosts, and producers of the The Feel Lit Alcohol Free podcast are not healthcare practitioners and therefore do not give medical, or psychological advice nor do they intend for the podcast, any resource or communication on behalf of the podcast or otherwise to be a substitute for such.

Transcript

Sick and tired of your love-hate relationship with wine? Welcome to the Feel It Alcohol Free podcast. Hi. I'm coach Ruby . And I'm coach Susan Larkin. We are two former wine lovers turned alcohol freedom coaches exposing the lies about alcohol and giving you, our listeners, the tools to break free so you can feel lit. And when you're lit, you'll feel healthier, freer, and more in control of your life. So relax, kick back, and get ready to feel lit alcohol free. Grab our fun bingo card with 21 feel lit activities shared on the podcast. This is a fun way to get motivated to try some new practices in your daily life. 

Ruby Williams [00:00:37]:
Welcome back to the Feel Lit Alcohol Free Podcast. So excited today to have a special guest. I met Karla when we were both This Naked Mind Path coaches back in my first path group in August 2021. So I'm so excited to have Karla here. She's the co-owner of Zero Proof Life and the author of She Came Tumbling Down.

Ruby Williams [00:01:10]:
I have it here. I'm so excited to talk about her book.

Ruby Williams [00:01:13]:
Yeah. In her book, Karla shares her personal journey of triumph over alcohol addiction, offering insights, strategies, and inspiration for those seeking to change their relationship with alcohol. So Karla started her alcohol free journey in 2014, and we're gonna dig in. So welcome, Karla.

Karla Adkins [00:01:32]:
Hi. Thanks and it's so good to see both of y'all, you and Susan, and I'm just really honored to be here. So thank you for having me. You're so welcome.

Ruby Williams [00:01:42]:
I'm so excited to, like, dig in and find out about your story and your book. 

Ruby Williams [00:01:48]:
Will you get us started with a share about your life before you made that decision to quit drinking and your journey. I'd love to hear.

Karla Adkins [00:01:54]:
That's a big chunk. So I'll probably need to section that off. It became a book, so I probably would need to section that. You know what? I think I'd probably start, Ruby, on why I wrote the book and just start there. And then, you know, like I told you, I am an open book when it comes to any questions as to what happened. I mean, anything goes at this point. So I wrote the book, and it was after I couldn't. It was after the pandemic.

Karla Adkins [00:02:29]:
Pandemic happened, and we all know, you know, our world's kind of shut down and all the things were happening. And I I saw this huge shift in social media and all the memes, and you name it name it, all this stuff around alcohol, the jokes. Like, it's, you know, basically the acceptance that, you know, anytime now was an acceptable time to drink. Mhmm. And especially around somewhere. It's 05:00 somewhere. I mean, oh my gosh. I remember.

Karla Adkins [00:02:58]:
Right? I cringed. My mom even shared what like, it was just like this I was like, ah, what's happening? You know, we saw that, you know, the liquor stores and alcohol stores were deemed essential places that needed to stay open. And, you know, I knew the heart of that. I mean, it was like but people seeing it so publicized and such a really truly scary thing, I felt this sudden need, and urge, especially when I started hearing about people getting sick, what was happening in our, you know, emergency emergency department. You know? Again and we get we're still seeing the aftermath of the pandemic and what happened to people's health. And one of the biggest people in groups impacted was young women.

Susan [00:03:48]:
Mhmm.

Karla Adkins [00:03:48]:
And I remember hearing that, and I remember just getting this fire in my belly. I was in my driveway, and I just had enough. The combination of all the jokes and all the silliness and, oh, this is so fun knowing there is a really hard, scary end, you know, to that. It's not funny. It's not you know, again, the liquor stores are deemed essential because they're afraid people are gonna go in withdrawals. That is the truth behind that. You know? And I remember just thinking, I can't stay silent anymore, especially hearing the rise of liver disease and knowing, you know, what people picture when they hear that word. Heaven forbid people still like, even, like, the word cirrhosis, but also just that that combination, that ties to young women.

Karla Adkins [00:04:35]:
And I was like, I just I just got to I can't be silent anymore. I have to share my story. I want people to know, number one, what can happen, you know, the truth of, you know, this dangerous game that a lot of people are playing. And also, you know, the truth is that many people are out there while all these jokes are happening and all these memes are passing around. And, you know, just making light of, you know, drinking during the day and all of that, knowing how many people are sitting home scared, knowing they're drinking too much, knowing they're in trouble, and knowing they don't know what to do. You know? And so that was just that was the fire that got me to write the book. And believe me, I had to do a lot of work for that to do my own healing, to be able to share, you know, the truth of all of my story, not just parts of it. That's the thing when you write a book too.

Karla Adkins [00:05:36]:
You can't really just cherry pick the pretty parts. You really need to share it all. And that took time for me to get there. I remember when I was even certified as a coach, I was not sharing my whole story. I was ready to help people with drinking a %. I was ready. I knew I, you know, it's been alcohol free for some time, but I was not ready to go down the road of talking about the health and definitely not ready to go down the road of talking about cirrhosis because that is a heavy it was a heavy word for me, and and I truly was almost paralyzed by that diagnosis. So it was baby steps for me.

Karla Adkins [00:06:16]:
And so it was really so cool. And we were talking before this because we all have a mutual coach and friend, Lorna Wilson, and she really taught me the beauty of coaching to really help me get there. It took work to get me there. And but, again, it was a beautiful kind of storm of why that book was put into the world because, I'm loving I'm loving all the conversations and all the podcasts and all the Instagram influencers and all the conversation around alcohol. The one thing we're not hearing that much is there's a real dark side and that scary things can and do happen, and they're happening a lot. And, I want people to know they can find freedom from that too. It doesn't matter where you're at on this, you know, alcohol use disorder spectrum. No matter where you're at, I want people to know you can get through that as well. So that's great.

Susan [00:07:16]:
He can heal you. You can thrive. I remember when I got your book, I stood in the kitchen and just like it, I came in the mail, and I just stood in the kitchen and read the whole thing. I just went there. Because I was just, like, fascinated. It and, yeah, your vulnerability, it's well written. I was just I think I reached out to you and was just like, woah. Woah.

Susan [00:07:37]:
Yeah. I'm so glad that fire in your belly was, you know, the spirit saying this has to be out in the world and your pictures. Bravery to do that. It's just

Karla Adkins [00:07:50]:
Thank you so much. And there's actually a really, really cool story behind the pictures in the book. And as I was writing the book, I was actually coaching in a group, and it was a group. It was and these people had no idea, and I think they do because they're just such great individuals. We're really my kind of loading ground to kinda test the waters. Like, I need to start putting this out there. And in that group was a beautiful woman that just was, again, walking away from alcohol herself and just doing amazingly well, in the path, and she's an illustrator. So how cool.

Karla Adkins [00:08:32]:
It gives me chills just thinking about it to learn the science, to walk through it yourself, to know exactly what I'm trying to to be able to put a picture to what I'm trying to say. I don't think it would have happened any other way with anybody else that you're just trying to describe, you know, the science and what I'm trying to portray in a picture. But she had that mind of an illustrator and just walking through that herself did it so beautifully. I was so, so lucky. And for me, that was just a cool god wink to have that happen. And but so she was able to put some of the coolest pictures together because the pictures like that really speak to me where, you know, there's a lot of words, but when we see that, one of my favorite ones too is the one that's a double page where it's always it's never a good time. Mhmm. And it goes through that, you know, that everything, little things from, you know, the holidays to there's a wedding or there's book club or there's, like, I can't stop yet because there's always something else.

Karla Adkins [00:09:37]:
She just did a really, really cool job of that. And I wanted it to be an easy read because, you know, there is a hard, hard section. Even some of my dear friends, when they read the book, they're like, oh my gosh, Karla. I'm sitting there gripping, and I know the end. I know you're okay, but I was reading some chapters, chapters bracing myself going, oh my god. It's just scary. It's scary, but it is the dangerous truth around this substance. Yeah.

Karla Adkins [00:10:09]:
And it's important because I and, again, it's not not to scare people, but we also don't need to sugarcoat things and not speak truth around some of them because I think there's a danger and irresponsibility to that too. Yeah. Because everybody is different. Everybody processes alcohol differently. And so what happened to me and what it took for me to get there looked a certain way, but that will look different for someone else. There's not an exact formula. And so I see it as this, you know, it's a dangerous game, you know, that is being played, and it's important for people to know that. Yeah.

Ruby Williams [00:10:52]:
Yeah. I really relate. I wanna go back and then segue because I remember being in the pandemic and seeing all those memes. And, like, I remember one that really scared me. It was like an SNL episode or some sort of a comedy show, and they were putting wine or alcohol in baby bottles, and they were having kids sitting at home, you know, at home school. And it was about this, like, just give them alcohol all day. I was just, like, flabbergasted. Like, what? This is in our society right now that we're supposed to, like, homeschool our kids and give them alcohol? I know it's a joke, but it was kind of, like, really scary for me.

Karla Adkins [00:11:33]:
Because those jokes are what have normalized alcohol in the first place. You know? It's like we have so normalized being drunk. Oh, it's fun. You know, when we look at the science of it, that's not a funny thing at all of what's actually happening in the body. And it and I think you it's my heart too because, oh my gosh, we've gotta change the narrative, and I wanna change the narrative for our kids because we've got it. That's why we don't wanna teach them. And, again, think about what was being put out there. Mommy's having a hard day.

Karla Adkins [00:12:06]:
You're hard you're hard, so I drink. So when things get hard, that means you drink. Like, so we're tea like, and I don't think anybody's purposely meaning that no one's purposely trying to teach their kids that, and I know that. So it's not about mom, like, shaming you. Wanna shame the moms. Yeah. Not at all. But we've gotta have these conversations because they would never intentionally put that message out there.

Karla Adkins [00:12:31]:
But when we take the defensiveness down and we just really are able to look at it without the blame game, it's a message that's being, you know, told, and it's like, oh, you know? Oh, I wouldn't, I don't wanna tell my child that. And so it's being able to have those conversations.

Ruby Williams [00:12:50]:
Right. And that type of a message, it's really so we, Susan and I looked this up. In recent years, a troubling trend that requires attention is the increasing prevalence of alcohol related liver disease in young women, which is shocking to me, especially the ages of 25 to 34. So I do wanna talk. Would you talk a little bit more about being diagnosed? And you were pretty young. I mean, how old?

Karla Adkins [00:13:14]:
Yes. Yeah. Yes. I believe I was 36. Wow. See, I was never very young.

Ruby Williams [00:13:21]:
Liver cirrhosis is like someone in their sixties

Karla Adkins [00:13:23]:
or something. Right? Absolutely. Yeah. And that is a common and that's why it's important to talk about because, again, liver disease typically man. Man, older man, you know, heavy drinker. That is the picture that people get. There's another great illustration in the book too of what alcohol use disorder looks like. Oh my gosh.

Karla Adkins [00:13:43]:
She nailed that. It's one of my favorites. And especially when it happened to me, that's when again, this is obviously pre-pandemic and all of that. There was already a big spike, and it was young women. And I fell right into that category of, you know, liver disease. And so I think it's important for people to know too. I was a working person. I was working on a Friday and, you know, hospitalized, on a Sunday.

Karla Adkins [00:14:12]:
Now, again, was everything peachy? Absolutely not. I describe what we say in the South as a hot mess. I felt I was a hot mess. I was a combination of I didn't know what it was like to feel good anymore. People because a lot of people were asking me about warning signs, and I totally totally get that. And, yes, my body was giving me signs, but I didn't know it because here's the thing. It's for me, my anxiety was very physical. It made me feel physically bad, upset stomach, panic attacks, you know, that feels debilitating, all of this stuff.

Karla Adkins [00:14:52]:
So I like to tell people a lot of times your body's giving you signs all the time, but it is. It's gonna show up as going to your doctor for anxiety, going to your doctor for high blood pressure, all these things which can be other things. And it's in the background. It's like this I like it's like this dark thing. I always say it's the missing piece of the puzzle. And, also, meanwhile, I was not being honest about how much I was drinking. So, you know, my health care providers, I'm not telling them the full story. Yes.

Karla Adkins [00:15:26]:
If you know, again, I forget how much I would say. I'm just yes. I drink, you know, wine at nine. I have my glasses of wine at nine, but that's not it. I'm just, I mean, I was just always blaming my anxiety. Meanwhile, with zero clue zero clue of the tie between alcohol anxiety. I didn't learn that until I was alcohol free, and that's you could've knocked me over with a feather. I did not know that.

Karla Adkins [00:15:53]:
And I just really so much that I remember googling, and this was a while after I got sick, but I googled where my anxiety went. Because one of my biggest fears when I was, you know, again, didn't wanna stop because what was I gonna do? It was the only thing that helped me with my anxiety. So I'm hanging on to this thing, and I remember after a while feeling this very foreign foreign feeling of calm because I didn't know what that felt like. You know? But now I know my nervous system, you know, was just kinda settling in. It was just so I remember googling where my anxiety went because it was just this I couldn't understand. So I definitely embraced it. But going back, you know, I just will never forget. And one of the vulnerable parts in the book and I I actually shared this in one of our path groups, in a big path group, and I remember because there was definitely shame around it.

Karla Adkins [00:16:50]:
Why I kept it to myself. And the reason why I put it in my book was because I shared it in a big group, and it was that first group that I shared about me looking at the whites of my eyes when I would get into my car and go to work. I would, like, pull out, like, in my driveway, and I would, like, look in the rear view mirror and look at the whites of my eyes. And, you know, if that didn't tell you my subconscious was where you know, I was worried. I was worried about my drinking, and I knew enough to know that, you know, if there's something wrong with your liver, you know, it shows up as yellow. And so I would just do this check. But the cool thing is when I spoke that out loud in that group that day, I got so many messages from people saying, oh my gosh. I do the exact same thing.

Susan [00:17:36]:
Mhmm.

Karla Adkins [00:17:36]:
And it gave them this freedom to say, ugh. Because you don't feel good about it. You don't know how to explain that you clearly know you don't like where you're at and you're worried because you're looking at the whites of your eyes and then not doing anything about it. It's hard to understand. But when we're in that pattern, it we're just in that pattern and it you're not until you know and you can step away from it. Your brain is always gonna seek out, you know, that alcohol. So I didn't know any of that. But it started with me doing my routine look, and then one day there was yellow.

Karla Adkins [00:18:12]:
And I've heard in movies before where it's like that where your body runs cold, and I never have experienced that feeling that day I did, though. Like, in that in my car, it was like that ultimate, like, paralyzing fear of, oh my god. What am I gonna do? But then, again, what swoops and immediately takes over is I gotta keep pushing forward. I'll fix it. I'll fix it. I have gone through years of, like, let me just finish this work thing. This particular time, I happened to be in a wedding. I gotta get through this.

Karla Adkins [00:18:49]:
I was gonna get through that, and then I'm gonna fix it. Then I'm gonna share. Then I'm gonna talk about it. And for some reason, you know, that in itself gives us this, like, overwhelm. Like, okay. I'm off the hook, and I'll fix it. And my body had a different plan. My body I truly describe it as, like, there was gonna be no more pushing forward, and my body just said I can't do it anymore.

Karla Adkins [00:19:15]:
You know? And I shared it with my now husband. My husband is amazing. He was my boyfriend at the time. And, godly, most people run for the hills. Like, what's happening? But he clearly did not. But I shared it with them. They took me and, again, I was surrounded by health care providers. They were all physicians.

Karla Adkins [00:19:35]:
My husband's a physician. Took me to the emergency room, and that's where, again, I just saw my body morph into something. It was really quite scary. And, you know, there was a lot of kind of quick testing. They ended up releasing me, you know, with the promise of doing blood work. And I think I just hoped to see what my body was gonna do, and I did get the blood work. And I knew things were really bad. And that's where I got the phone call from doctor Jofflin, who, by the way, is the one that wrote the foreword of the book.

Karla Adkins [00:20:11]:
K. She is amazing. We're still in contact to this day. She's such a big part of my story, but it was that phone call that I got that they had gotten the results of my blood work. And when something, you know, is a critical lab result, doctors see it immediately. It kinda skips to the top of everything else, and that's when I describe it to people. All my control, all of my I'm just gonna fix it. I'm just gonna fix this.

Karla Adkins [00:20:42]:
I'm gonna get through this and just fix it. It's like all my plates came tumbling down because that's when she said, at that point, my last name was Miss Kepa. Are you okay? And I said, no. I think I'm dying. Because I remember I was asleep when she called, and I just was I. It was hard to even wake up. I was just, like, super groggy. And she said, I think you are too. And that's when everything left my butt.

Karla Adkins [00:21:10]:
Like, it's just it's and I think and that's my heart y'all. Like, that I don't want people to be there, and that's why I share. That's why I because there's a very big real reality of what I went through and the touch and go because we did get to that point where there was nothing they could do. They got me there. They took care of me the best I could, but it was a waiting game. What is your liver gonna do? And that's another thing that just makes me cringe when people like, oh, it regenerates and it heals itself, and it's like we take advantage of this amazing, amazing organ in our body that is fighting so hard for us. And we keep putting this stuff in it, and you keep it in the oh, it will just regenerate. Well, you know, there's a time then there's no turning back, and I can't do that anymore.

Karla Adkins [00:22:09]:
And I feel so honestly, it is I know that I'm here for a reason, and that was my nudge too. I'm here to share my story and that I'm here for a reason. I know God saved me for a reason, and it was not to keep my mouth shut and just not tell anybody about it because I was trying to do that. I was trying to just sit back and just say, okay. I'm good. But, you know, there's people that are in the exact same position I was, and there is nothing they can do, and they're gone. And that's what happened. It happens to people all the time, and, and no one talks about it.

Karla Adkins [00:22:49]:
And because there's still as much as we have made so much headway, you know, with talking about alcohol. I mean, I am so excited about all of the headway, like, that we've made with, you know, just destigmatizing. So many people, like, just choose to not drink, and so many people just, like, I wanna do this for my health, understanding all these health things coming out, you know, the American Cancer Society, all these things. They're such such big wins, but there's still so much saying there. And especially for those, like, what happened to me, because then there can even be a sense of like, oh, you were bad. I mean, I've gotten that before. I mean, I was bad, but you were really bad. And there's, like, disgust there.

Karla Adkins [00:23:34]:
And so I and I I'm just so grateful because I would have been one of those people. I would have been one of those people that slipped away, that I would have been begging my family to please not tell anybody. Like, oh my god. Because that was my biggest fear of people finding out my horrible secret about myself, and that would have been it. And I'm so glad that I'm here. I'm able to tell it. I'm able to share with, oh my gosh, my nieces and nephews that are now teens, and they understand. Like, they know what happened.

Karla Adkins [00:24:09]:
They read the book. I'm like, here we go. And it was just the coolest thing because my, you know, my knee they mean the world to me and those kids and, obviously, my daughter too. But one of them said I said, well, I didn't want y'all to be embarrassed of me when I wrote the book. I didn't wanna embarrass them. And what she said, auntie Lawler, are you kidding me? It's such a flex. My aunt is an author. And I was like, oh, and I just sobbed, and she has no idea, like, what that means to me.

Karla Adkins [00:24:41]:
But keeping silent is such a dangerous thing, and we're just missing out on so much if we try and hold on to those things. But yeah. So it's it the diagnosis didn't come till later because, again, when you're sick like that, it's very acute. So they just let it wait and see. Let's see, like, how does the body and once you heal some, then they can do testing. For me, it was a biopsy to see. And I think you know, what is, you know, cirrhosis? And it's the, again, big scary word. But the way I described it to Lorna and that's where I found so much healing because I could not even say the word.

Karla Adkins [00:25:22]:
But she, you know, my coach had me describe to her, okay. What is it? I don't even know what you're, what is this cirrhosis that you're talking about? And it was kinda like I described it the way it was described to me. I was like, you know, when we fall and we hurt ourselves and we then heal when we have a scab, there's a hardening. Yeah. And that's the danger. There's a hardening to the liver. And so, you know, that whole regeneration and all the cool stuff that it does, that hardening, they can no longer do that. Right.

Karla Adkins [00:25:50]:
And the worst in their different stages, like, and there's all kinds of complexities that I don't even wanna get into because I'm not. I just know that that is what the description made sense to me. But when I was able to describe it to her, I said, so it's like my it's like it's like my wound. It's like my battle wound. And there was something about the word battle wound that was able to flip things around for me and be able to stop looking at what happened in so much shame and and truly start to flip it into awe of what my body did for me. What my body and every all the science that, you know, Susan and Ruby, we've all learned now as coaches, and we share with people all the science and understand, like, the poison and what it, you know, what it's when we drink it and what it turns into and all this all the science. Instead of being so shocked, how did that happen to me, I can honestly say, I'm like, how did it not happen sooner? And, you know, because it's also not just drinking. Like, it's like, okay. High stress.

Karla Adkins [00:26:57]:
Your drinking is stressful. You're not you're not no coping mechanisms. No good tools, eating poorly, not sleeping.

Susan [00:27:05]:
Mhmm.

Karla Adkins [00:27:05]:
Not sleeping. Huge.

Susan [00:27:07]:
Yep. Huge. Huge.

Karla Adkins [00:27:09]:
So then you put all of those things together, and then I'm looking at them like, good gravy. I'm glad I made it to 36. And so there it was just really a turnaround that was so important for me to be able to get to, or else I wouldn't have been able to share everything. Because I do think it's so important. We've gotta change the face of, you know, cirrhosis old man. It's not that's not the case anymore. If you know, I've seen in, you know, there's people on the keyboard, keyboard warriors is what I call them, and, like, they love to act like they know everything. Like, cirrhosis only happens to, you know, chronic drinking for years and years and years and when you're older.

Karla Adkins [00:27:48]:
And that's just not true. And doctor Joplin, who wrote, you know, the four of my books, gosh. She's so amazing. And doctor Sarah Allen, who wrote the afterward, had two amazing, just quite frankly, badass women that were there, and they treated me. And I hope they will always be a couple of my favorite people, but how beautiful that they were kinda my book too, the forward and the after. And, you know, one of them said, you've gotta write this. I mean, Carly, you've got some serious street cred. Okay? Like, that is some I'm like, that is true.

Karla Adkins [00:28:24]:
But for her to be treated like a human and have that empathy come in and have the understanding of because quite frankly, you can have a medical degree, and you could be using alcohol just like everybody else does. Absolutely. They're not treating them, they're not learning about me. I would love my dream one day to need to go ahead and put that out there to have like, I want to have people do a zero proof life challenge and have that be part of residency. You need to do part of your high stress residency, you need to go through, you know, a thirty or sixty day challenge and learn the science, Learn what it does. Learn and have it be part of your teaching tool because it's really quite fascinating. You know? But they don't know all those things. What a great idea. Using alcohol.

Karla Adkins [00:29:19]:
Right? So I need to, you know, keep putting it out there. They're human too, and they're growing up with the same messaging of a hard day after work. I'm stressed. I and I had several friends that are doctors that wrote to me after the book came out, and that was so beautiful. Just really cool conversations of not shame not blame, not, oh, you're that's why I can't stand the word alcoholic. Throwing that word out the window and just having the conversation of, man, I didn't like I found myself, Karla, after a long shift going and saying I deserve and I'm stressed or hearing those words come out of my mouth, had a stressful day. I need a drink, and it Yep. Made me pause.

Karla Adkins [00:30:07]:
Y'all, what kind of movement can we make in this world if we all just could, like, do that and go, wow. That made me pause. Let me think about that. You know? That's all I want to do. It's kinda like our conversation about moms earlier. Nobody's saying anybody's a bad mom. Let's just pause and just go, oh, wow. I don't wanna send that message.

Karla Adkins [00:30:28]:
And so that was another, you know, cool thing about the book is, like, I was writing it for me, like, that person.

Susan [00:30:38]:
Mhmm.

Karla Adkins [00:30:39]:
I wanted someone to have hope. I wanted again, like I was saying, get the picture out of their head of the old sick person, the person on the street, the person that's lost all their jobs, that's had DUIs, all of that, and get that picture. And I wanted people to have another face, another but healthy, healthy and living life, love your feeling, let all of these things. Like, I wanted people to have that go. Wait a minute. I want to want that, and I can do that? You know? And it's that that was really my drive and we because we do, and I think it's important to change the narrative and change the conversation and all of those things.

Ruby Williams [00:31:28]:
Karla, you are such a badass. I'm like, I love everything you're saying, and you segued it perfectly because I

Karla Adkins [00:31:36]:
was gonna ask you next, like, what do you do in your life to feel it alcohol free? You know what? I am so glad. This was perfectly timed because I just recently because number one, I think feeling lit is a continuum. Right? Like, it's learning all the little things. And I recently did with my fellow zero proof life coaches, did a dopamine detox. And I, y'all, it was fascinating. Number one, I needed to stop and pause and look at myself because, you know, things started to eerily seem similar to the escaping, you know, like getting up scrolling, scrolling, and that was kind of like an escape. And the thing that hit me the most is one thing that we've learned with, you know, alcohol is that, you know, it thinks other things don't seem as fun, and that's because of all the, you know, hedonic threshold, all the science y stuff I won't get into. But I started to notice, oh my gosh.

Karla Adkins [00:32:41]:
My thing, I don't. I'm not excited about reading at night anymore. I used to love to, like, have a good yummy drink and a good book. I would get giddy over that, and I wasn't. I was scrolling. That was winning over things. So I did a dopamine detox, and I was blown away. In just a short time, I think I ended up doing seventy two hours. It was very eye opening.

Karla Adkins [00:33:06]:
My creative side came back out. My, like, my reading again, sleep immediately changed. So I can't recommend that enough. I'm gonna keep doing that. That's my plan now. How do I immerse this and do this all the time? Or just how am I gonna make it look? But that made me feel so lit, and it made me feel so productive and just energized and all of that. And truly I would recommend that to anybody just taking a look at that. What is, like, what is a dopamine detox? Like, real quickly, like, what Yeah.

Karla Adkins [00:33:44]:
Real quick. There's a book, like, and I can send you the link. It's super inexpensive on Amazon, but honestly they don't even need to get a book. I made it look right for me. I knew where I was being pulled. So for example, you set up rules before you do it. So what is your dopamine detox gonna look like? Some people, you know, they are too aggressively out there exercising, and that's their there and kind of that was not my problem. So I did not put that in my mind. I was like, girl, I need to get out and walk.

Karla Adkins [00:34:15]:
There is nothing wrong with that. So you make it look right for you. For example, my daughter and I decided that we weren't gonna do YouTube or Netflix, but we would allow, during that seventy two hours, documentaries. And that was something that we would do together. And no social media. So I completely got off social media, and it was so freeing. So that's what my specific one looked like. Okay.

Karla Adkins [00:34:41]:
And I would encourage people. Again, you know where you're being pulled and make sure it's a little uncomfortable. Because for me, removing Instagram and TikTok, that's where I scroll. It made my palm sweat a little bit. I'm like, oh my gosh.

Ruby Williams [00:34:55]:
So it's only seventy two hours, but,

Karla Adkins [00:34:57]:
like, your palm

Ruby Williams [00:34:57]:
is sweating.

Karla Adkins [00:34:58]:
Yeah. And we were all floored. And I think it was because I was afraid. What am I gonna see? And it was like the truth of how many times did I go to grab my phone? How many times? Because I was using it as a reward through work. I was like, let me finish this project, and then I'm gonna treat myself and go scroll. And I'm like, whoo. I felt a little hypocritical. I was kinda feeling that conviction.

Karla Adkins [00:35:23]:
And but, again so it was no social media, and we watched documentaries. I ended up getting some crossword puzzles, some good things at night, some good books. And I really think that shift and the cool thing too, though, is the shift really did happen almost immediately. Kinda got it out of my system and definitely I'm gonna try it. You talk me into trouble. Please. I'm telling you, it was eye opening. And as a coach, it gave me so much to be able to share.

Karla Adkins [00:35:56]:
As a mom, it helped me with, like, okay. Because we're heading into the stages of, you know, of course, wanting phones and wanting all that stuff. And, again, I think the cool thing is it's not about blame if people understood the science, and that's exactly what's happening on these the scroll pull is it's not you. It's just what happens. And so you're not weak. You're not slack. It's just what's gonna happen. So I highly recommend it.

Karla Adkins [00:36:22]:
Thank you.

Susan [00:36:23]:
Do you recommend doing it, like, once a month? I've been trying

Karla Adkins [00:36:25]:
to do once a week, one whole day. Yes. I would and that's because we our thing was and we might even bring it into our groups that our 0% group is doing it monthly in the group. That was my thing. I definitely do it monthly. I like your idea, Susan, of doing it weekly. I think it's just like anything. If you once you get off that detox, it's like people then going back to moderation.

Karla Adkins [00:36:51]:
Right? Yeah. You're gonna be right back to where you were, and then you just feel like, well, I feel bad. So you need to then go at it with a plan. And I think that's where I'm at now. It's like, what because with work, I am on social media, and I am, you know, on Instagram and things like that. But how can I marry those two and make it look right? And so maybe that will be weekly. I'm not sure, but it is definitely happening monthly. I just went on vacation.

Karla Adkins [00:37:19]:
We made sure that we did it during that. And, you know, making it look right for you. I think that's what's important.

Ruby Williams [00:37:27]:
So inspiring. So great. Yeah. Well, your book is just so inspiring. Your whole story and journey and how open you are. Karla, this has been such a pleasure to have you.

Karla Adkins [00:37:39]:
Thank you. Again. Yeah. This has been fun. Y'all, anytime, you just let me know.

Ruby Williams [00:37:45]:
So real quick, where can people find you and find your book?

Karla Adkins [00:37:48]:
Yeah. You can find my book, and it's and she came tumbling down in that on Amazon. I have my website, and it's, you know, Karlaadkins.com. You can find out everything that I'm doing. The zero proof life is we have a really fun Instagram page and a community and where we do, you know, we do alcohol free challenges, but just a beautiful community where people are there to support each other. And so you can find us there at the zero proof life.

Ruby Williams [00:38:17]:
Thank you so much, Karla.

Karla Adkins [00:38:19]:
Thank y'all for having me. Bye bye. Bye.

Thanks so much for listening to the Feel Lit Alcohol Free Podcast. Do you have a question you'd like us to answer on the show?All you need to do is head over to Apple Podcasts and do two simple things. Leave a rating and review telling us what you think of the show, and in that review, ask us any questions you have about breaking free from wine or living an alcohol free lifestyle. That's it. Then tune in to hear your question answered live. And remember, do something today that will help you feel lit. Don't forget to get your free feel lit bingo card. Link in the show notes.