We Recover Loudly – Personal Recovery and Mental Health Stories · Shell Righini

S2 Episode 020 - Derek Brown - From Escaping the Mind to Mindful Drinking

·57 min·3 clips

Brown describes sweating through his shirt in a Kentucky distillery as his liver was overworked.

1. We Recover Loudly features Derek Brown on no-and-low alcohol, mindful drinking, and recovery in hospitality. 2. Shell interviews Derek Brown, an author, NASM-certified wellness coach, founder of Positive Damage, Inc., and a bar-industry figure who wrote Mindful Mixology in 2022. 3. The episode asks how someone can leave heavy drinking behind without leaving bartending, community, or creativity behind. 4. Brown says his first drink was an “alien secretion” made from Midori, Captain Morgan spice rum, and canned pineapple juice. 5. He says he entered hospitality at 16 and grew up around substance use in the restaurant world. 6. Brown links his relationship with alcohol to his father leaving when he was around 5 because of alcoholism. 7. He also names his foster sister’s death in a drunk-driving accident as an early part of alcohol’s impact on his life. 8. Brown describes a “vampiric lifestyle” of working from 4 to close and drinking until morning in Washington, D.C. 9. Shell and Brown discuss the classic cocktail revival and the rediscovery of drinks like Sazeracs and aviations. 10. Brown says he learned from old-school bartenders, revised craft-cocktail voices, and the internet. 11. Brown says he did not need to change everything when he changed how he drank. 12. He argues that mindful drinking and no-and-low drinking are part of one continuous movement. 13. Brown says alcohol became optional after he addressed mental health issues he had been using it to medicate. 14. He describes feeling excluded from nightlife and then realizing places like Club Soda show a different kind of bar culture. 15. Brown says a college-student study suggested reduced drinking can mean fewer social interactions but better quality interactions. 16. He gives a personal example of repeat conversations, blurry memories, and reduced connection when he drank heavily. 17. Brown describes a spirits-competition stretch through San Francisco, Kentucky, and Tennessee that ended with a sweating episode in a distillery bathroom. 18. He says that episode showed him his liver was overworked and that he was risking liver disease if he continued. 19. The conversation is candid, reflective, and practical, with Shell sharing her own recovery experiences and Brown answering in a measured, teaching style. 20. People in hospitality, recovery, or no-and-low drinks will get the most from this episode, while listeners wanting light bar chatter may skip it.

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