Five months ago, I made a decision that would fundamentally change everything about how I operate as an entrepreneur and as a human being. After years of chasing quick wins in dropshipping, diving headfirst into NFT projects, and constantly pivoting between business ideas while using alcohol as both celebration and consolation, I finally said enough. The cycle of building, burning out, and starting over had to stop. But here’s what nobody tells you about early sobriety: clearing the alcohol fog doesn’t automatically clear the mental fog that comes with ADHD, social media addiction, and years of conditioning your brain for instant gratification.

5 Months Sober: My Battle with Focus and Distractions

The Fog Lifts: What 5 Months Sober Really Feels Like

The first thing people ask me about sobriety is whether I feel "clearer" now. The answer is both yes and frustratingly no. Yes, I wake up without hangovers. Yes, I remember every conversation from the night before. Yes, my sleep is deeper and my mornings are more productive. But the mental clarity I expected? That’s been a much more complex journey than I anticipated.

What I’ve discovered is that alcohol wasn’t just numbing my anxiety and overwhelm—it was also masking deeper issues with attention and impulse control. When I was drinking regularly, I could blame my scattered focus on the hangovers, the poor sleep, or the general haze of alcohol. Now, five months in, I’ve had to confront the uncomfortable truth that my brain naturally gravitates toward distraction, even in its cleanest state.

The physical benefits are undeniable. My energy levels are more consistent throughout the day, and I don’t experience those crushing 3 PM crashes that used to derail my productivity. My skin looks better, my digestion has improved, and I’ve lost the bloated feeling that was my constant companion during my drinking years. These improvements have given me a foundation of physical wellness that I hadn’t realized I was missing.

But perhaps the most significant change has been in my relationship with discomfort. Without alcohol as an escape hatch, I’ve been forced to sit with uncomfortable emotions, failed launches, and the inevitable setbacks that come with building a coaching business from scratch. This has been both the hardest and most valuable part of the journey—learning that I can survive disappointment and anxiety without immediately reaching for a numbing agent.

ADHD Brain vs. Sobriety: Why Focus Still Eludes Me

Here’s the reality check I wasn’t prepared for: removing alcohol doesn’t magically fix an ADHD brain. If anything, sobriety has made me more aware of just how scattered my natural thinking patterns are. Without the depressant effects of alcohol slowing down my already hyperactive mind, I sometimes feel like my thoughts are moving at light speed with nowhere productive to land.

The dopamine-seeking behavior that used to be satisfied by alcohol has now redirected itself toward other instant gratification sources. Social media scrolling has become my new vice, and the irony isn’t lost on me that I’m now building a coaching business partly focused on helping others overcome social media addiction. Some days, I catch myself mindlessly refreshing Instagram or LinkedIn for hours, telling myself I’m "researching" or "networking" when really I’m just feeding that same neural pathway that used to crave a drink.

What’s particularly challenging is that the entrepreneurial world often celebrates this kind of scattered, always-on energy. The hustle culture narrative suggests that jumping between ideas and staying constantly connected is just part of being a successful business owner. But I’ve learned from my years of failed projects and burnout cycles that this approach is unsustainable, especially for someone with ADHD tendencies.

I’ve had to completely reimagine what productivity looks like for my brain. Instead of fighting against my natural patterns, I’m learning to work with them. This means shorter, more focused work sessions, building in movement breaks, and accepting that some days my brain simply won’t cooperate with deep work. The key has been distinguishing between ADHD-driven distraction (which often leads to creative breakthroughs) and anxiety-driven procrastination (which usually leads to social media rabbit holes).

From Doom-Scrolling to Deep Work: My Daily Battle

Every morning, I wake up with the best intentions. I’ll meditate, I’ll work on my coaching program content, I’ll reach out to potential clients with thoughtful, personalized messages. And some mornings, this actually happens. But other mornings, I find myself two hours deep in a Twitter thread about some controversy I don’t even care about, wondering how I got there and feeling that familiar shame spiral beginning.

The transition from constant stimulation to sustained focus has been like training a muscle I never knew existed. My brain, conditioned by years of rapid-fire business pivots and instant feedback loops from social media, rebels against the slow, methodical work of building a coaching practice. Client outreach requires patience. Content creation demands sustained attention. Program development needs deep thinking—all skills that feel foreign after years of chasing the next quick win.

I’ve started implementing what I call "analog anchors"—physical activities that ground me when the digital world becomes too overwhelming. This might be going for a walk without my phone, writing in a physical journal, or doing some basic household tasks that require just enough attention to quiet the mental chatter. These activities don’t feel productive in the traditional sense, but they’ve become essential for resetting my focus and returning to meaningful work.

The biggest breakthrough has been recognizing that my relationship with distraction is often a barometer for how I’m feeling about my work itself. When I’m doom-scrolling instead of writing content, it’s usually because I’m avoiding some deeper fear about putting myself out there as a coach. When I’m refreshing my email obsessively instead of reaching out to potential clients, it’s often because I’m afraid of rejection. Sobriety has given me the clarity to recognize these patterns, even if I don’t always have the discipline to immediately change them.

Five months sober has taught me that recovery isn’t just about removing a substance—it’s about rebuilding your entire relationship with discomfort, distraction, and delayed gratification. As I continue building my coaching practice, helping other entrepreneurs navigate sobriety, ADHD management, and social media addiction, I’m constantly reminded that we’re all works in progress. The difference now is that I’m showing up to do the work with a clear head, even when that clear head reveals just how messy and complicated the work actually is. If you’re struggling with similar challenges—whether it’s breaking free from alcohol, managing ADHD as an entrepreneur, or reclaiming your attention from social media—know that progress isn’t linear, and clarity doesn’t happen overnight. But it does happen, one focused moment at a time.