Lauren McQuistin on Sobriety, Self-Reinvention, and No Lost Causes Club

Jen Eastwood

06 Nov 2025 — 1 min read

A conversation about agency, emotion, and learning to feel everything without falling apart.

This week on Sick Sad Lit, I sat down with the luminous, razor-sharp, and deeply funny Lauren McQuistin of @BrutalRecovery, to talk about her new book No Lost Causes Club getting sober young, building emotional muscles from scratch, and what it really means to reclaim your life when alcohol stops serving you.

We explore sobriety as self-respect, the discomfort and beauty of feeling your feelings fully, and the weird, tender limbo of recovering before anyone expects you to need to. Lauren shares the realities of early recovery, from navigating parties and friendships without numbing through them, to rewriting the story of who you think you are and who you’re allowed to become.

This is a conversation about agency, grace, and second chances; about learning that you don’t need to destroy yourself to be interesting, and that healing isn’t boring, it’s radical, difficult, and sometimes hilarious.

If you’ve ever wondered whether there’s another way to live (one grounded in self-trust, community, and staying soft in a world that rewards collapse) this episode is for you.

🎧 Listen to the episode here →

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Read more

Agustina Bazterrica on Culture, Craft, and Confronting Violence Through Fiction

Torrey Peters on Writing While the World Burns

Eliza Clark on True Crime, Female Rage, and Writing the Uncomfortable Truth

R. O. Kwon on Writing What Terrifies You