Chris Gimpel
Founder of Booze Free Brain
Booze Free Brain is a method for understanding and changing drinking patterns. It explains how alcohol habits form, why they persist and what you can do about them. No labels. No judgement. No pressure.
Most approaches ask you to stop drinking and figure out why later. This one starts with the why. When you understand the pattern your brain has learned, you can see what needs to change and how to change it. You are not broken. Your brain learned a pattern. Patterns can be replaced.
How this started
My name is Chris Gimpel and I started Booze Free Brain.
I spent close to two decades in banking, most of it in organisational change management. I was good at understanding how people and systems adapt to new ways of working. What I did not understand for a long time was the pattern running in the background of my own life.
I had what I call a busy brain. From childhood, it was always running. Overthinking, seeking approval, replaying conversations. Alcohol was the first thing that quieted it. One drink and the noise dropped. That worked, until it became the only strategy my brain knew for getting relief.
There was no single dramatic moment. It was a gradual progression over about twenty years. The rules shifted so slowly I did not notice them changing. A beer after work became a bottle of wine became a routine I could not negotiate my way out of, no matter how many times I decided to cut back.
I changed my drinking pattern in late 2022. After about a hundred days I slipped, drank for a week and then stopped again. I have not had a drink since April 2023. That slip taught me something useful: it was not a failure, it was data. My brain had seized an opportunity and I had not yet built the tools to handle it. That reframe changed how I think about setbacks, for myself and for the people I work with.
Since then I have facilitated Smart Recovery groups, coached with other organisations in the alcohol change space and supported hundreds of people through understanding and shifting their own patterns. I have seen what helps people move forward and what blocks them from getting there.
What I kept noticing was a gap. The neuroscience research on alcohol and the brain is useful, but it is often complicated and clinical. The self-help and memoir space is relatable, but it leans on willpower and personal stories that not everyone connects with. I wanted to bridge that gap. Practical, relatable information that explains the mechanics in plain language and lets people make informed choices about what to do next.
What this teaches
Booze Free Brain teaches pattern literacy. It translates what neuroscience knows about alcohol, habits, dopamine and behaviour change into language anyone can use to understand their own experience. The understanding is the starting point, not the wrapper around a sales pitch. There are no identity labels to adopt, no group participation required, no pressure to commit to anything permanent. You learn how your pattern works, you get practical tools to change it and you decide what happens next.
Hear the longer version
If you want to hear more about my experience and how I think about this work, these conversations are a good place to start.
HOW I QUIT ALCOHOL WITH DANNI CARR
The impact of trying to be the person everyone likes
How the pattern started — people-pleasing, the busy brain and why alcohol became the default. 62 minutes.
HOW I QUIT ALCOHOL WITH DANNI CARR
1000 days on — what it took, learning to sit with discomfort and how change actually happens. 50 minutes.
Where to start
If you want to start with the mechanics, the book explains how alcohol patterns form and what you can do about them. The writing section has articles on specific topics. The podcast is where I talk through ideas in longer form. Start wherever feels right, or just look around.