lildawg

I think a lot of people see someone who is not drinking (or eating red meat) and take it personally. Maybe they see it as a challenge to their right to drink alcohol or eat red meat. They might even see someone else's abstinence as a silent judgement on their behavior. Most people want to do what everybody else in the room is doing. I really don't know; I'm just speculating. I've seen people act funny about it enough to wonder why, though.

Klar - Congratulations on your quit. This is a big step. You asked about literature for your girlfriend. Nobody has mentioned the AA Big Book, yet. This is the book titled Alcoholics Anonymous. Whether or not you choose to go the AA route, you and your girlfriend might both find some useful information in this book.

I think the problem you're going to run into with memoirs and books on alcoholism is that you don't sound like the kind of out of control drunk many of these books portray. I fear your girlfriend would say, "But, Klar, this isn't you. So you're not an alcoholic. You just need to refrain from drinking every single day." Which would probably be even more frustrating to you. Some advice I've heard over and over on SR, though, is, "focus on the similarities, not the differences."

I wish you the best of luck.