But what do you do when you are still in one when you get out of rehab?
cams in reality the suggestion at least in AA is no
NEW relationships in the first year and if one really wants to get down to the nitty gritty of the suggestion in AA the real suggestion is no MAJOR life changes in the first year.
The one year mark varies from person to person, some folks have some good solid sobriety at 6 or 7 months, I heard a guy share that he was not ready for any major changes until he had almost 2 years sober.
BTW congrats on one year, that is a big mile stone.
My condolances on your friend, deaths and divorces are very trying times for an alcoholic in recovery, but many alcoholics do not drink over it because they know that a drink never solved a single problem for them, drinking may make a problem go away for a while, but the problem is still there and many times once we sober up the problem we tried to drink away has gotten larger.
Ask your self these questions and answer it honestly. "If I drank due to my friends death would they come back to life? Would it make the sorrow lessen long term?"
Our disease is always there, trying to give us a good enough reason to drink again when in reality for an alcoholic there is no reason good enough to drink over.