This is so helpful, Mesa, thank you. I honestly found all of the "me" stuff counter productive. Putting additional pressure on myself at a time when these changes are already putting mountains of pressure on.
Would someone be able to respond specifically to how they felt in the weeks and 3-6 months after getting sober using AVRT. Going for dinners, weddings etc? Ie I am now on day 6 and have a dinner next Thursday with some Uni friends - but they are also old friends who saw me not drinking last time we met up. So that will be tough but fine. Then I have a lunch on Friday with a lawyer I placed into a job (I do recruitment) who initially suggested a boozey lunch and I told him I had knocked it on the head but I had no problem with him drinking. Finally, I have two weddings in Feb and March. Both involve two nights away with ex work colleagues - focus of those weekends will be drinking. My question is: should I go to all of them with my chin up? Ie the idea of a danger zone existing is just the Beast? Or should I adopt common sense and not provoke him? Cos sooner or later I'm gonna have to start living my life - admittedly my sober life will be less focused around occasions to drink and more on stuff I like doing like outdoors stuff, golf etc - but there are a lot of friends that I'll just meet for dinner where they will view it as a drinking session.
Thoughts??