Frequently asked questions.

You can use it for plenty. For quick information, it’s fast. For a decision about alcohol, it has three problems.

1. It can be confidently wrong. AI tools sometimes make things up, and a wrong answer sounds just as sure as a right one. With alcohol, a wrong answer about stopping safely can hurt you.
2. It tends to agree with you. How you ask shapes what you get back. Ask whether two drinks a night is fine and you’ll often get the answer you were hoping for. That’s the last thing you need if you’re already good at talking yourself into one more.
3. It has never done this. It can’t tell you what the first two weeks felt like, and it won’t notice when you go quiet.

Use AI to learn. If you drink every day, talk to a doctor before you stop. And before you decide, talk to someone who has actually retired from alcohol.

A lot of jobs are built around these environments. Sales, law, finance, hospitality, any role with clients or travel. You don’t have to avoid every client dinner or skip the incentive trip. The goal is to be present and sharp at them without alcohol running the evening.

The first call is complimentary and lasts 30 minutes. Prepared Sobriety Signature, my one-on-one coaching, is 60-minute sessions by Zoom or phone, booked as you need them or on a monthly retainer. Signature is $400 per session. Or a monthly retainer, from $800 a month for a minimum of 2 hours. Many clients add more, and each added hour is $400. Retainer clients can text me between sessions. Prepared Sobriety Reserve, my private membership, opens January 1, 2027 at $100 a month. Or pay for the year up front, $1,100, and get one month complimentary. The first 100 members get their first month complimentary and keep $100 for as long as they stay. You can join the waitlist now.

Yes. You can start with either one and move back and forth whenever it makes sense. Some people start with Reserve and add Signature sessions later. Others start with Signature and keep going with Reserve.

Yes. It’s one-to-one, with me directly. I never share what you tell me with your employer or a licensing board. A first name and a personal email are fine. The calendar invite reads “Call with Colin Casillas.” See exactly what’s stored.

I never share what you tell me with your employer or a licensing board. Coaching isn’t billed to insurance, so there’s no diagnosis or medical record. Coaching, not medical care.

Yes. I coach men and women anywhere in the world, whether you’re still working or not.

No. AA works for many people, but it isn’t the only path. Some people want something private and one-to-one instead of a group. That’s what this is. Here we work one-to-one on preparation and identity, at your pace, toward a date you choose. No labels, no steps, no meetings, no crisis required. If something from AA helped you, keep it.

You can book the complimentary call for yourself to talk about someone you love. Sessions are booked and paid for by the person doing the work. I won’t contact the person you’re worried about.

Yes.

Grey area drinking is the space between social drinker and alcoholic. You’re not drinking every day, you’re not blacking out, you’re functioning at work and with family. But alcohol has become a quiet concern. You’ve set rules, only weekends, only wine, and they haven’t held. You’re thinking about it more than you used to.

No. You don’t need to hit rock bottom to retire from alcohol. Most people who find Prepared Sobriety are still functioning from the outside looking in. They’ve simply realized life could be better without it. They want to be sharper at work, more present with family, and at their best. Rock bottom is a crisis moment. This is a decision.

Willpower runs out. What held for me was mental preparation, six years of it, but that’s my timeline, not a requirement. For some people it’s a year, for others a few months. The framework builds the mental groundwork before you set a date, so the date isn’t the hard part.

You’re ready when you’ve started envisioning a life without alcohol and mentally rehearsing what it looks like. You’re imagining coffee shops instead of breweries, activities you loved before drinking took over. You’ve picked a timeframe, even if it’s tentative. You’re no longer asking “should I?” You’re asking “when?” and “how?”

Stage 1, Visualization. You’re quietly thinking about life without alcohol for the first time. Stage 2, Identity Drift. Who you’re becoming doesn’t match who you meant to be. Stage 3, Compounding Friction. The costs stack up until you can’t ignore them: weight gain, brain fog, irritability, inflammation. Stage 4, Decision Point. You’ve connected the dots, you pick a specific date, and you tell people. Stage 5, Retirement. Day one isn’t the finish line, it’s the start of compounding in the other direction.

Everyone’s timeline is different, and I can only speak to mine. Four months after I retired from alcohol, my LDL was down from 212 to 142 and I’d lost 14 lbs. My mood got better within two weeks, and I felt sharper within a month or two. Both were big changes. Ten months in, I was off two medications. Get baseline bloodwork before you stop so you can see your own changes.

I can tell you what happened to me. By August 2025, four months in, my total cholesterol went from 285 to 202, my LDL from 212 to 142 and my hs-CRP from 2.9 to 1.6. I lost 14 lbs in those four months. By February 2026 I was off amlodipine and omeprazole. Your results may look different. Get baseline bloodwork first so you can measure your own.

If you’ve set rules like only weekends or only wine and they haven’t held, that tells you something. Moderation works for some people. It works for my wife. It didn’t work for me. You don’t need a crisis to decide.

Prepared Sobriety is for people who aren’t in crisis. It’s also not a group program or a 12-step model. And it’s probably not the right time if you’re only considering this because someone else wants you to. Coaching isn’t medical care or therapy.

You don’t start over. We look at where the plan broke down, adjust it, and keep going. One night doesn’t erase months or years of preparation, and it doesn’t reset anything. This isn’t a streak you can lose.

Group programs use meetings and self-management tools. Moderation Management aims to reduce rather than remove alcohol. Prepared Sobriety is 1-on-1 coaching focused on fully retiring from alcohol as a clear-headed career and performance decision. It’s private, personalized, and built around your goals rather than a fixed curriculum.