Stress without drinking, Anna is right it takes practice. sometimes you just have to feel the stress and remember it is only temporary. It sounds to me like it is more than stress that is causing you to drink because your son was home and you opened the beers anyway. Come on needstobesober. You can do this, I can do this, we can do this! So many people in the past kept telling me recovery is hard, but I can do it if I hung in there and I never listened or believed them, but now I know it is true know matter how hard it is it can be done.