Originally Posted by strongandsober

My office holiday party is coming up in about two weeks. I started working for this very small company a few months ago, so this will be my first holiday season there. It sounds like typically the dozen or so employees all go to lunch, eat, drink, then take the afternoon off. Everyone keeps joking about finding a restaurant with a good bar.

I am 28 days sober today, and will be about 6 weeks sober at the time of the party. Since it is such a small company, it will be noticeable if I am the only one not drinking. Not attending is not really an option since it is a mid-day party, leaving from the office. I can't say I have other plans, because if I wasn't at the party, I would normally be at the office.

Any advice on how to handle the situation? I don't want to tell everyone in my office that I'm a newly recovering alcoholic, especially since I just started the job. I thought about contacting the restaurant ahead of time and arranging for non-alcoholic wine, but I'm worried it will be noticeable if I order something different when everyone else is sharing bottles of wine.

Originally Posted by strongandsober

Wow, I was looking for advice from people who have been in a similar situation. My whole point was that I am ready to be the non-drinker. I'm simply asking for advice on how to best handle comments if they are made.