It sounds cliché and maybe it is, but that's what happens when we have romanticized things that we shouldn't. Here is not a platform to hate those who drink alcohol 🍾 nor is it a place where we are going to give sermons that alcohol is the worst thing that exists, of course not. Everything in moderation is fine, it is part of the balance of being human.

It all starts with my path as co-founder of Sober Bar, I am Alina Alvarez and in September 2022 I realized that I had a strong addiction problem, it was not to alcohol, but to tobacco, after 20 years as a smoker I fully recognized myself dependent on tobacco after a series of failed successes to quit smoking:. And not only was it beginning to have a negative effect on my physical health, but also on my mental health, the frustration that accumulated from not being able to stop smoking was getting bigger and bigger and I felt more and more like a failure, totally unable to stop. something I believed my entire life I had under control. And sometimes in the life of a Mexican (and perhaps other countries as well) growing up in an environment where you start drinking very young and that for many also starts with social smoking, only when I'm drinking, it's the most Normally, I think that in my entire life only 2 or 3 of my many friends never smoked and none of them drank alcohol. So we grew up thinking that of course it is the most normal thing in the world. Many of my friends stopped drinking because they got pregnant, others stopped smoking during their pregnancy but came back and the drink was not mentioned, although I couldn't say that I have many friends who have had serious problems with alcoholism or drugs, if I can say that in my social circles in which I grew up, alcohol and cigarettes were part of the combo of the minimum required to be accepted. And although throughout my adult life I have been putting alcohol aside, cigarettes, as I said before, were very difficult for me.

Then of course realizing that I couldn't stop smoking, that I really didn't have it as under control as I imagined, began to weigh heavily on me 🥺, at that time I was taking a meditation course and my teacher (who is my age) said " when I stopped smoking at 22...I began by visualizing the life of a person who did not smoke and I began to live it" and I, for my part, writhed with frustration at not having been able to achieve it until that moment . In a special class of the meditation course they invited a doctor specializing in neurotransmitters (these chemical messengers that inform every conscious or unconscious action of the brain) who, in one of the most interesting talks I had ever attended, said something that totally left me. shocked. I paraphrase because it was a while ago, but he said something like "The life that you think you see in front of you is not absolute reality (I already knew this :)) but the reality that you have been strengthening through the lenses with which you You see your life and those lenses have been created in a greater or lesser way through the balance of the neurotransmitters in your brain 🤯”

And at first it sounded a little confusing, but as his scientific position progressed everything began to make a lot of sense. Our brain works through these chemical messengers that are divided into three types: excitatory, inhibitory and modulatory, and within these categories there are different functions that are "called" that happen in our brain where they connect different neurons to carry out certain actions from breathe, until you concentrate or run away 🤾🏾‍♀️ in case of danger 🦁. But not to make a long story short, we have 4 main neurotransmitters in the brain and they govern in a very powerful way the way we see life and therefore the things we do, or not, this is what he was referring to with the lenses with which we see life, for example if I am a person who likes dopamine and feels danger, adrenaline and everything that dopamine entails, you will see life through the lenses of dopamine, What that creates is that if you are presented with a situation that may be boring but necessary, you may not do it. The doctor gave a brief summary of the function of each neurotransmitter and what generates each imbalance on a perceptual and physical level.

Very long story shortened, I ended up taking a test designed by the company that this talking doctor founded and surprise! what I had suspected since he began to explain the function of each neurotransmitter and the symptoms that a person with an imbalance in one of these neurotransmitters can experience. I remember as if it were yesterday when he said "We all know someone who drinks, smokes cigarettes or marijuana to "relax" or because they feel that it "calms their nerves." They are also people who have a hard time sleeping or having deep, restful sleep" and he said a few more examples that passed me by because I stood there stunned when he continued explaining that the neurotransmitter Gaba plays a very important role, it is an inhibitor and it is the neurotransmitter that tells the brain when it can stop being "alert" when the danger and when it is necessary to rest, and this connection must be made naturally, is entering and exiting survival mode, however a person who, for whatever reasons, has experienced high doses of anxiety, insecurity and other things in their life situations, it is difficult for him to make the Gaba connection because he is always in alert mode, and therefore, these people have to look for ways to achieve those states of relaxation necessary for the body. And that was where I identified myself 🙋🏾‍♀️. Explanatory NOTE I am aware that each person is different and each of us is where we are because of a highly personal story. The reality is that these imbalances affect the vast majority of people who suffer from addictions and mental illnesses. But my role is not to explain the brain and its function. If you are curious, go to the test link at www.neurotropy.com and this is not a paid advertisement, I simply recommend it because it worked for me.

So immediately after the talk I made an appointment with the doctor and completed the test which as I suspected I had a severe Gaba imbalance. When I talked to the doctor about my desire to quit smoking, the first thing he told me was "Don't want to run before you walk, you are 20 years old creating a signal to your body that the way you get rest, relaxation, "The state of non-alertness" is when you smoke, so you can't expect that to disappear overnight, first we are going to treat your imbalance and in another session we will treat the smoking habit . This company's treatments are supplements that feed the precursors of neurotransmitters and the science is found in Neurotropy, but what happened to me was that overnight after exactly 14 days of treatment I didn't want to smoke again. And that day was one of the happiest days of my life because I knew that it was finally the beginning of a path where I could take seriously the changes I wanted to make in my life without feeling frustrated or prey to something that I no longer wanted, that Not only was it destroying my self-esteem, but I was really starting to doubt myself in even the most basic things, with hurtful comments towards myself that said "you think you're going to be able to do this if you can't even quit smoking" and it was horrible. As I began to understand this, I began taking my treatment and studying more about the subject, I began to look for things that could alleviate my mood, which at that time was a little on the rocks, and that is how I began to find the different products that are being created in the world, without alcohol, but they not only remove the harmfulness of alcohol, but many of them use the amino acids that feed the neurotransmitters in order to achieve greater neuronal connections that can make you feel changes in your mood. and even help you sleep better.

That's how I decided to start Sober Bar because I understood that addiction, although it has thousands of nuances and levels of severity, all addictions are defined as the inability to be able to leave something on your own without having to resort to professional help, medications or other things. tools. And I am a total believer that there are solutions and treatments as there are people in this world, but without a doubt I believe that feeling trapped by something, be it a harmful substance or a negative or harmful thought or action such as eating too much or exercising excessively or any act that falls into obsession and cannot be stopped by one's own means can be called an addiction and without judging it as good or bad, as less bad than the other, or less harmful, without wanting to place any type of value on it other than personal value. What we give to not be prisoners of that action is extremely liberating 🧚🏾‍♀️.

If you are here because you want to explore a path with less consumption of substances harmful to your body, welcome. If you are here curious about what it could be like to take less or even integrate other products that are good for your body in your daily life, welcome. If you are here because you have already taken the big step towards a life without alcohol permanently or if it is something temporary, but you want to continue offering interesting and much less boring options than mineral water, this is the place. Later we will love to take this conversation beyond a blog, but in the meantime we hope it helps you to know that you are not alone, that many of us have gone through similar situations and that frustration is real, that the last thing you want to hear is someone tell yourself "well, let it go", if you are having a hard time, be kind to yourself and ask for help to the best of your ability, for some it will be a neurotransmitter test and a 30-day treatment, for others it will involve more effort and more changes in habits and even lifestyle. friendships and places to frequent, but whatever path has brought you here, we want you to know that we are a safe space for this process.