View Single Post
Old 03-08-2019, 04:51 AM
  # 2 (permalink)  
August252015
Guest
 
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: Atlanta
Posts: 8,674
Glad you are sharing and good job on 2 wks!

I have to say what I allllways do - don't go. I didn't socialize with drinkers for quite awhile. My sobriety came first, physically then as the emotionally sober priority and that meant focusing on only things that supported that.

Plenty of folks will likely chime in that they did choose to socialize early on (which is very much where you are - for ME, I called myself in early sobriety til close to my 2d year, even though I knew I'd stay sober from the beginning bc it was life or death and I wanted to live). The key thing people who do it successfully have is a plan. I did this too when I began going out and about.

Drive yourself, leave if you begin to get squirrely, have an answer if your friends ask you why you aren't drinking (here, I believe in saying whatever you need to at this point), and plan ahead what you will order to drink.

A very good tool is called "playing the tape forward." Imagine what will happen if you have the first drink...literally, think thru each next thing that you know will happen, what kind of specific thing happened before that made you decide to quit.

Ultimately, it's not about hoping you will be sober at the end of tonight. You get to choose.

Let us know how it goes and what you decide.
August252015 is offline