What if the habit helping you cope with stress is now creating even more of it? Dr. Gary Sprouse returns to explain how recognizing that cycle can help you change it without allowing shame or harmful labels to define you.

Known as “The Less Stress Doc,” Gary is a retired primary care physician, speaker, and author of Highway to Your Happy Place: A Roadmap to Less Stress. In this conversation, he introduces his concept of “stress-reducer loops,” recurring patterns that can involve alcohol, tobacco, social media, work, shopping, exercise, self-sacrifice, or almost anything used to escape stress.

You will learn:

• How an ordinary coping behavior can become a stress-reducer loop
• Why caring people are especially vulnerable to burnout
• How replacing “I have to” with “I choose to” can restore control
• Why setbacks should become learning experiences instead of sources of shame
• How gratitude, connection, hope, and purpose create an accessible happy place

Gary also shares plans for Loop Breakers, his hybrid educational program designed to help people understand their patterns, reduce stress, and build healthier responses.

Learn more about Gary at https://thelessstressdoc.com/ or contact him at lesstressdoc@gmail.com (mailto:lesstressdoc@gmail.com) .

This episode is sponsored by Tar Heel Construction Group. Visit https://tarheelconstructiongroup.com/ or call 410-638-7021.

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