What Did You Tell Your Friends?
All right, I may be getting ahead of myself here since I decided to stop drinking all of ONE day ago. ;-) But I'm wondering from those of you who have been sober for any amount of time... what did you tell your friends / family if anything? I have stopped drinking before, but I never stick with it, or really intended for it to be permanent - just a set periof of time. I think part of that, is because I haven't told anyone, so it's easy to slip back in. No one knew I'd quit in the first place.
My family is very gossipy and judgemental. There are several alcoholics in the extended family and I hear others talk behind their backs. They also have no idea how much I drink. Nor would they ever pressure me to drink, so I see no point in telling them anything other than "Yeah, I don't really drink anymore" if someone offers me a beer. That's pretty easy.
My FRIENDS on the other hand..... Eventually one of them will buy me a drink, or buy me shots. Or say "We're doing shots!" and call me a big wuss if I don't want in. I don't think they're bad friends for this; they mean well. But I don't know what to tell them. "I'm not drinking tonight." only works for that night. Even then I'll get the "Awwwww come on, you can have one!" No I CAN'T, that's the whole problem! I'm not saying I can't resist this temptation, but I'd like to eliminate as much of it as possible. I don't want to make a big announcement then fail. Then again I don't plan on failing; I plan on succeeding. I'm tempted to send out a mass email to the people I hang out with most and let them know I've stopped drinking. Not for a month, not to get-in-shape, for good. I think 90% of my friends would respect that if they knew I was serious. The 10% that don't and give me a hard time... well I won't hang out with them anymore. I don't want sympathy, I don't want to make it a big deal, but I also don't want people offering me drinks constantly. How have some of you handled this? Is it better to wait until I have a certain chunk of sober time under my belt so they know I'm serious? Or what?