Avoiding Past Mistakes
Last night I remembered a situation that threw me off my sober course last summer.....
My dad lives several hours away. We only get together a few times a year.
He does know that I am working on my sobriety and even congratulated me. However, he is a high functioning alcoholic and still drinks around me.
Last summer he invited my family to stay in a cottage with him & his wife that they had rented. We met up on Saturday afternoon. I noticed he unpacked six or seven bottles of wine.
Him & his wife were the only ones drinking - and his wife probably only had 2 or 3 glasses of wine from those bottles. By Sunday night all of the bottles were gone and he had moved on to beer.
At the time, the fact that he was drinking around me did not bother me. I was enjoying the relaxing weekend and enjoying everyone's company. I was happy to be sober and sleeping well, waking up feeling good and full of energy.
But, for some reason, by the time I got home from the weekend trip my AV was loud - and my cravings were intense. I gave into it and drank.
Can some of you shed some light on why this happens (not seeming bothered at the time, but releapsing as soon as being removed from the situation)?
And thoughts on how to avoid this in the future. Not spending time with my father is not an option. I also am not comfortable asking him not to drink around me - although I wish he would choose not to without being asked.
I read in someone's post yesterday, ".......our sobriety does not need to be tested, but protected......" (sorry, I cannot remember who said that - but thank you!).
I dont want to test my sobriety but I also feel that I cannot remove alcohol from the world, so I need to learn to be around it without causing a slip, or releapse.
Sorry this is so long. Thanks for listening and I appreciate anyone's thoughts, feedback, insight.