This is a general issue, in this post I want to make a short notice on the way it affects your sobriety.

Imagine an evening with a social situation, say, a family gathering or a party. You have been dry for a couple of weeks or months and try to maintain sobriety, but you are anxious you will succumb to the pressure that someone offers you a drink or persistently urges you to.

What can you do? Avoid the situation could be a solution. But is it? Isn’t it rather like procrastinating and pushing the problem into the future? At least I came to the conclusion that I didn’t want to avoid these situations or try to find cheap excuses, because that doesn’t solve the problem, either. Nor does it help if you drink, because you can’t say no.

I suppose you should work on your communication skills instead to be plain and direct and don’t hold back with your standpoint. Nor should you start to justify your decisions. I think the best way to deal with this situation is (at least I would do so) to no give a fuck about what the other person might think about me. I would not let the person dig into my conscience and make me feel bad or boring or uncool not to drink. Why should I care? The person (even if it’s a close friend or relative) doesn’t no squat of your decision and your quitting. Do what you find is right and stand behind your decision and point of view. I have long pushed aside the notion to be polite and nice to people only to fit in or maintain a friendly demeanor. If those people can’t stand it, they have to deal with it themselves. OR you might even ask yourself: Who has the problem?

That doesn’t mean an alcoholic problem. What I mean is, who has the problem so that he needs to keep up this silly discussion. In this case, the problem is not mine, because I decided that no drinking is suitable and I don’t give a f*ck about the person’s opinion of me being sober or not. Discussion closed. The problem is on the other side. IT takes some time to realize this and to develop this notion.

Until next time: Keep up the faith in yourself and take one step at a time.