Is This As Good As It Gets?

That thought you barely dare to say out loud, “Is this as good as it gets?”, can creep in even when life looks fine on paper. I’m Meg, and I’m sharing the real story behind that question: the years of doing everything for everyone else, the creeping sense I’d lost touch with myself, and the role alcohol played in helping me tolerate a life I wasn’t truly connected to.

I talk about the dreams I had as a teen, my love of communication and storytelling, and how anxiety and social phobia helped me pack those dreams away as “unrealistic”. Then came marriage, kids, bills, and responsibility. Like so many women in midlife, I kept showing up, but inside I felt lost. My drinking grew alongside that disconnection, until the inner voice got loud enough that I couldn’t ignore it anymore.

We also unpack why alcohol feels like relief in the moment. Our brains avoid discomfort, and alcohol can quieten the stress response and spike dopamine, but that short-term calm isn’t the same as healing. When we numb feelings instead of processing them, we repeat the cycle and lose clarity about what we actually need. The good news is those neural pathways can change, and putting down the booze can create the space to hear yourself again.

If you’ve been wondering about sobriety, alcohol recovery, or what it means to live consciously and realign with your values, this is for you. Listen through, share it with someone who needs it, and if it helps, please subscribe and leave a review so more people can find the show. What does “more” mean to you right now?

Contact Meg: 

Website: https://www.meganwebb.com.au/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61579436511475
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/meganwebbcoaching/

Link to FREE discovery call with Meg:  

https://calendly.com/glassfulfilled

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:27

Hi everyone, I'm Meg and welcome back to Conscious Unbottling. Today's episode is about a question I used to ask myself over and over again. It was a voice in my head that just got louder and I couldn't quiten it down. It was, is this as good as my life is going to get? And is this all there is? Now, don't get me wrong, I was and am so grateful for my kids and

The Question That Would Not Stop

SPEAKER_00 0:54

for my friends and family, but I just had this nagging feeling and voice that was telling me it just wasn't enough. And on top of that, I was obviously drinking way too much. And that was getting worse and would continue to do so thanks to tolerance. I had lost touch with myself. I'd settled on a life that was really only for others. I had let go of dreams and goals that I had thought I'd get to someday, but that someday wasn't appearing. When I was a child, I'd had dreams. At about 16, my mum introduced me to self-help books, and I loved them. I loved affirmations, positive quotes, I loved movies and TV shows that were deeply moving. I was highly emotional even at that young age. I used to imagine myself on television or radio. I loved communicating, telling stories and connecting with people. Even then, I loved

Childhood Dreams And Social Anxiety

SPEAKER_00 1:50

the idea of helping people feel something. I also remember thinking I'd love to be a public speaker one day. It's funny saying that now, because at 17, I developed an anxiety disorder and social phobia. Suddenly standing in front of people became one of the scariest things I could imagine. So all of those dreams slowly got packed away. I convinced myself they weren't realistic, that they belonged to a younger version of me. Life happened, marriage happened, children happened, bills happened, responsibilities happened. And somewhere along the way, my dreams quietly moved to the bottom of the pile. I still believed there was something more for me, though. I just had absolutely no idea of how I'd get there or even what that something was anymore. There wasn't actually one solo event that prompted me to stop drinking. I had many moments that were not good at all, but it was more this voice was calling out to me as I was getting deeper into numbing out of life. And thank God it was getting louder because that was the catalyst for me to stop drinking and finally choose myself. I knew that no one was going to come and rescue me. And I knew that if I didn't stop drinking, I'd lose relationships, dreams, goals, and ultimately myself. This involved me making a firm decision that I was going to do the one thing that I knew had the potential to change everything. I was going to let go of alcohol. But not only was I going to do that, I was going to dive very deeply on healing. And I was going to be open to what lay ahead. I had pieces of the puzzle floating around in my head of what I wanted my life to look like, but I could never really get clear until I put down the booze. I knew I wanted to be an alcohol recovery coach, and I can't explain why, but it felt like that was something I had always been meant to do. Seems weird

Choosing Sobriety And A New Path

SPEAKER_00 3:44

when I'd been a binge drinker since I was 18, but it felt like it couldn't be any other way. It was meant for me. And then the opportunity to co-host a podcast came up, and that felt like a huge bit of the puzzle had been completed. It combined my love for public speaking. It was kind of like radio. And I would be helping people by sharing my purpose and passions. It was like a full circle. This podcast on my own is such a completion of a circle, it blows my mind. Maybe you can relate to that nagging voice or feeling that you're here for more. Or you ask yourself, is this as good as it gets? Maybe you've built the life you thought you were supposed to build. You've got the career, or you've had one. You may have raised children, and maybe you're going from that to caring for elderly parents. You've looked after everyone else. You've ticked all the boxes. Yet somewhere deep inside, there's this quiet feeling. Surely there's more than this. I remember sitting on the couch most evenings with a glass of wine or ten, thinking exactly that. I remember waking up each morning with shame and blame, yelling at myself in my mind, why can't you just get yourself together? There has to be more than this. The thing is, I didn't realize alcohol was helping me tolerate a life I wasn't truly connected to. I realized now that I'd settled, settled into the role of mother, carer, wife, but also I had to work to bring money in and keep the household and family going. I tried to follow my dreams early on, and there was a part of me that had kept trying. In my 30s, I decided to follow another passion of mine and became a photographer. I started my own photography business and I absolutely loved being behind the camera. The creative side lit me up, although I quickly realized I wasn't quite as passionate about the business side of things. What I hadn't mentioned earlier was that I'd actually worked at a television station for a few years in my 20s. I loved being in that environment and had always

Creativity Lost To Overload And Wine

SPEAKER_00 5:46

been fascinated by cameras. So when I discovered I had both a passion and talent for photography, it felt incredibly exciting. It was another piece of the puzzle that just seemed to fit. But between raising three children, working, trying to keep everything together, and if I'm honest, drinking more than I should have been, I just didn't have the energy to take it where I wanted. I didn't have the money to invest in growing it. I didn't have the confidence. Looking back now, I can see that alcohol wasn't the only reason, but it certainly wasn't helping. It was stealing my energy, it was stealing my motivation, it was stealing my belief in what was possible. I kept waiting for the right time, when the kids were older, when life settled down, when I had more money, when I felt more confident. But someday has a way of becoming never, unless we make a decision. And it was around then in my late 30s that I started to feel a bit lost in life. I'd pour a drink if I felt anxious. I'd pour a drink if I felt lonely. I'd pour a drink if I felt overwhelmed, disappointed, or exhausted. Instead of asking, why do I feel this? I'd just numb the feeling until tomorrow, and then I'd do it all again. Now there's actually a reason this happens. Our brains are designed to avoid discomfort. Alcohol temporarily quietens the stress response and increases dopamine, giving us a brief sense of relief. But because that relief is temporary, we never actually process the emotions underneath. Instead, we repeat the cycle. The feeling returns. We drink again. The brain learns that alcohol equals relief. But relief is not the same as healing. And over time we become

Why Alcohol Feels Like Relief

SPEAKER_00 7:28

disconnected from what we're actually trying to tell ourselves. In fact, we are not even aware often that there is something going on underneath. The good news is that yes, our brains are designed to look for comfort over discomfort, but we can also change our brain. Those neural pathways that are so used to reaching for a drink can be changed. And I will talk about that in another podcast. So from my late 30s, this discomfort, this feeling lost in my life, it started to increase. I was heading to midlife and heading pretty fast into crisis mode. My drinking increased in my early 40s and I spiraled into deep unhappiness and feeling so lost and alone. I was really at a crossroads. Things got messy, very messy. Work suffered, my self-esteem suffered, my marriage suffered, and I was as low as I'd ever been. Now, this could have been a crisis, but since reflecting back, I look at it more as an invitation now. An invitation when I asked, who am I now? What do I want? What have I spent years ignoring? And what needs to change? For many women, putting down alcohol in midlife is the first time they've had enough space to hear themselves. The children are older. Life slows down just enough. And suddenly that little whisper becomes impossible to ignore. There has to be more. I also used to think more meant a different

Midlife As An Invitation To Change

SPEAKER_00 8:54

life, a different job, a different relationship, a different house. Now I know more was not out there. It was within me. It was feeling peace. It was waking up excited and content. It was trusting myself again. It was living consciously instead of just surviving. It was realigning with my values, values that had been dissolved in the drink. And this invitation led me to the most exciting part of my life so far. The bit where I am my authentic self, where I trust who I am and what I'm doing, where I believe in myself and where I've learned to love myself again. So if you've been asking yourself, is this as good as it gets? I want to leave this with you. Maybe that question isn't a sign that something is wrong. Maybe it's your authentic self trying to get your attention. Maybe it's asking you to stop settling, stop numbing, to stop surviving. Because I truly believe midlife isn't the beginning of the end. It's the beginning of finally becoming who you were always meant to be. If you want someone to walk alongside you on this journey, you can book a free discovery call with me. The link is in the show notes, or you can go to my website, meeganweb.com.au, and reach out to me that way. I am so excited to be living the rest of my life, however long that may be, as the true authentic me. Appreciating the small moments, loving the people I love, doing things that fulfill me, and you can have

Becoming Authentic And Next Steps

SPEAKER_00 10:22

that too. See you next time.