Pressures to drink
i'm a day away from being 20 days dry, and it feels amazing. Physically i definitely feel much better. My sleep is great and i no longer wake up in the middle of the night, drenched with sweat and unable to get back to sleep. Lack of sleep used to be an important trigger for me. I was very afraid of not being able to get to sleep, and having a rough time at work the next day, so would that as an excuse to 'drink to help me sleep' (which was of course the last thing it ever did!). Well last night, I had a bit of a rough night sleepwise, couldnt get to sleep, but no urge to drink. It seems that as I made the decision to stop drinking, I lost my 'fear of insominia' probably because it was one of the dirty tricks my mind used to convince me to keep drinking!
I cant believe I didnt do this earlier, I get slightly upset when I think of all the time i've been cheating myself of feeling good. When I first decided to stop for good, 20 days seemed like forever, yet here I am now, and I don't even feel like its been a long time.
This isnt an immediate issue, but one of my anxieties is that in a social setting, either with collegues/family/friends, people pick up that I am turning down alcohol. I've been able to avoid many situations so far where drinking was the sole activity and the few occassions when i've had to go, I've had something non-alcoholic. (There was that one time, i even pretended I had rum in my coke!). I know I have an alcohol problem, but I really am not too keen on involving other people now. Trouble is, in some situations, there is intense pressure to drink, and several folks insist on knowing why you wont have a drink (hence the rum in coke ruse!) any better ways to handle the situation?