E104: Why Alcohol Doesn’t Help You Cope with Dr. Ashish Bhatt, MD, MRO

Gill welcomes Dr. Bhatt, MD, MRO to the podcast. We think that alcohol helps us cope with our problems, but in reality, alcohol prevents us from learning how to deal with life. Once we stop drinking, we have no idea how to handle anything. Dr. Bhatt helps us understand resilience- where it comes from, how addiction breaks it down, and what steps you can take to improve your resilience.

Dr. Ashish Bhatt, MD, MRO, is recognized as a leading physician, addiction medicine specialist, and psychiatrist. He has extensive experience in a variety of substance abuse treatment programs, psychiatric and co-occurring diagnosis programs for both adults and adolescents, and has served as the Chief Medical Officer for regional and national behavioral health companies. Dr. Bhatt’s philosophy is that there is no compromising in medicine, that each patient should be treated as we would our own family. 

In this episode you’ll learn:

• What resiliency is and what determines whether or not you are resilient
• How your belief and confidence in yourself impacts your resilience
• How addiction break down resilience
• How alcohol and drugs prevents us from learning to deal with life
• Why your emotional maturity stops when you start drinking or using
• How drugs and alcohol distort our perception of reality and leads to inaccurate conclusions about what’s going on 
• The challenges you might face in early sobriety that might make you want to drink again
• How to develop resilience in sobriety
• How to deal with intense negative emotions in early sobriety
• The idea that you “should” be able to do it on your own and not wanting to get help
• Why low self-esteem exists in addiction but not in other medical conditions

Connect with Dr. Bhatt:

https://www.addictioncenter.com/drbhatt/

https://www.addictioncenter.com/community/bubble-of-addiction-broken-resiliency/

https://www.addictioncenter.com/community/addiction-absence-presence/

https://www.addictioncenter.com/

Resources I offer:

• Community: Living a Sober Powered Life https://www.soberpowered.com/membership
• Weekly emails on Thursdays where I explain the latest episode in more detail, share images to help you understand the concepts, share announcements, interviews, writing, discount codes and more. https://view.flodesk.com/pages/6107260617e156c4839768b5
• Free resources https://www.soberpowered.com/free

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https://www.soberpowered.com/sponsors

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Sources are posted on my website

Disclaimer: all of the information described in this podcast is my interpretation of the research combined with my opinion. This is not medical advice.

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