When Trauma, the Liver, and Sobriety Collide

Recently I took my daughter to see a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioner. She’s been struggling with a range of symptoms — nothing that seemed life-threatening, but enough to make her feel uncomfortable in her own body. As her mum, and as someone who has walked through my own healing journey, I couldn’t help but see how many of her struggles might trace back to the nervous system.

For years, we both lived in a home shadowed by complex trauma. Living alongside someone with serious mental health difficulties left her system in a state of constant vigilance. And if you know anything about trauma, you know that the body doesn’t just “get over” experiences like that. It carries them, sometimes quietly, until they show up in unexpected ways.

When the TCM practitioner gently said, “This is all being stored in the liver,” something clicked. I’ve always looked at trauma through the lens of nervous system dysregulation — hyperarousal, fight/flight responses, exhaustion, and the way stress shows up in the body. But hearing this idea of the liver holding anger, frustration, and trauma added a whole new dimension. It was like two worlds — Eastern wisdom and Western science — had collided right in front of me.

The Liver in Chinese Medicine

In TCM, the liver is far more than just a physical organ. It’s the system that ensures energy (qi) and blood move smoothly through the body. It’s also linked to our ability to make decisions, to feel clear-headed, and to regulate emotions.

When the liver is balanced, we feel:

• Grounded and emotionally steady.

• Clear in our decision-making.

• Connected to a sense of flow in life.

  
  

When the liver is burdened, emotions stagnate. Anger turns inward as depression or outward as rage. Frustration festers. Anxiety brews. Trauma can feel stuck, unable to move through.

The practitioner’s words brought me back to my own experience: over the past few years, I’ve had to navigate incredibly difficult situations — but I’ve done so without alcohol. And I realised: without alcohol clogging my system, I feel I actually had the capacity to feel, release, and integrate those emotions instead of storing them. It has taken me a few years to heal (and the journey is ongoing) but without alcohol I had the awareness that what I needed to do was to lean into those feelings, rather than using alcohol to run from them.

How Alcohol Interferes

Here’s where the overlap between East and West becomes fascinating.

• In TCM: Alcohol creates “damp-heat” in the liver. That means the liver’s energy gets bogged down, heavy, and inflamed. Emotions can’t flow freely, so they stagnate. The very organ meant to regulate anger and trauma becomes the site where they stick.

  
  

• In Western medicine: The liver is responsible for detoxifying not only alcohol but also stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. If you’re drinking, especially if it’s chronic or heavy, your liver can’t keep up. Stress hormones linger, keeping you wired, anxious, or irritable. On top of that, alcohol changes the way your brain regulates emotions. It dulls the prefrontal cortex (the part that helps you stay calm and make wise decisions) and ramps up the amygdala (the part that reacts with fear or anger).

  
  

So whether you talk about qi stagnation or hormone imbalance, the end result is the same: alcohol blocks your ability to process and release emotions. It keeps trauma locked in, circulating in ways that feel overwhelming.

The Self-Perpetuating Cycle

This is the cycle I see so often — in myself before sobriety, in the women I coach, and in anyone who feels trapped between trauma and alcohol.

• Emotional pain or trauma triggers drinking.

• Alcohol numbs temporarily but creates stagnation (in TCM) or stress hormone imbalance (in Western medicine).

• Emotions remain stuck, the nervous system becomes more dysregulated, and volatility increases.

• The cycle repeats, convincing you alcohol is the lifeline when it’s actually the trap.

  
  

Sobriety, Trauma, and Nervous System Healing

This is something I see all the time in my coaching practice. Women come to me with trauma histories or even full PTSD diagnoses. They feel so dysregulated that the thought of giving up alcohol feels impossible. In their minds, alcohol is the glue holding them together.

But here’s the paradox: alcohol is the very thing keeping them from healing.

It numbs, yes. It gives short-term relief. But it also:

• Dysregulates the nervous system further by spiking and then dropping blood sugar.

• Interferes with restorative sleep, leaving the body unable to repair.

• Creates shame, regret, and self-criticism that reinforce the cycle of trauma.

• Stops the emotional release that both TCM and neuroscience tell us is essential for recovery.

  
  

The truth is, sobriety doesn’t just remove alcohol. It creates the conditions for the nervous system to find safety again.

Sobriety allows you to:

• Feel emotions without them overwhelming you.

• Release what’s been stored instead of letting it fester.

• Build resilience and self-trust by facing hard things without escape.

• Reconnect with your body’s innate wisdom and capacity for healing.

  
  

When I connected the dots — that alcohol wasn’t helping me “let go” of the trauma but was actually blocking that release — I began to understand why sobriety felt so freeing.

Breaking Free: When Alcohol Feels Like the Lifeline

If you’ve lived with trauma, anxiety, or PTSD, it’s so understandable that alcohol can feel like the lifeline. It takes the edge off. It creates a momentary pause in the overwhelm. It feels like relief.

But here’s the truth: what feels like the lifeline is actually the loop. Alcohol doesn’t carry you out of pain — it keeps you circling inside of it. Both Eastern and Western perspectives agree: alcohol blocks the very pathways that allow you to process, release, and heal.

So how do we break free?

• Shift the perspective: Sobriety isn’t a punishment; it’s the off-ramp from a self-perpetuating cycle.

• Support the nervous system: Practices like breathwork, journaling, gentle movement, and rest give your system the safety it was searching for in alcohol.

• Reconnect with the body: Notice sensations, emotions, and triggers with curiosity rather than fear — your body is guiding you back to balance.

• Seek connection: Trauma isolates, but healing happens in safe relationships. Find support that understands both sobriety and nervous system repair.

• Trust the process: In the beginning, it will feel harder without alcohol. But over time, your resilience grows, and emotions begin to move through instead of getting stuck.

  
  

Breaking free starts with the brave decision to step outside of the cycle. Sobriety is not the absence of coping; it’s the presence of clarity, strength, and genuine release.

A Reflection for You

Take a quiet moment with this:

What do I believe alcohol is giving me? And what might it actually be taking from me?

Let that question sit with you. The answers may be the first threads of freedom.

Ready to Step Out of the Cycle?

If you’ve recognised yourself in this cycle, you’re not alone. So many women feel stuck between trauma, alcohol, and the hope for freedom. But you don’t have to do it alone, and you don’t have to keep circling.

That’s why I created It Starts with Sobriety — a program designed to help you find freedom from alcohol while supporting your nervous system, your body, and your emotional well-being. You’ll discover how to release what’s been stored, build resilience, and step into a life that feels clear, strong, and grounded.

✨ Click here to learn more and join us today — your freedom starts here.