Lifeislong

I have been in Athens, Greece on business this whole week and would normally have gotten drunk every night. NOT THIS TIME! I told my work colleagues that I was stopping for Lent and they were supportive (Still don't know how exactly I will address the non drinking long term with them but that is ok). EVERYONE else was drinking and it was terribly tempting, but I joked and drank my water out of wine glasses and faked shots (Held glass but no liquid was in it...)with the colleagues. I am alone now and enjoying the city sober. I look forward to another sober day tomorrow. Only down side is that my wife is TOTALLY suspicious of my sobriety while in another country---I guess she will come to trust me in time...

Reset

congrats.

i travel overseas a lot for business and know that sort of thing can be tough.

hang in there.

Stride34

Congrats on 22 days, though I doubt "faking shots" with colleagues is model behavior for recovery

Lifeislong

Stride--- yeah I agree it may not have been the best way to deal with it, but with everyone "cheersing" I was not really sure what to do! (-: Shot glass was in front of me, I waved off the waiter on pouring me anything and just cheersed with everyone else. Still young in recovery so trying to figure out how to deal with all of this...

Dee74

I usually toast with a glass of whatever I'm drinking at the time. If I'm not drinking anything I make some contributory gesture.

Noones ever noticed to the best of my knowledge - certainly no-ones ever said anything.

I'm glad you're moving forward
D

CarolD

It's the gesture that counts...not what is in your glass....

Yes we can and do win over alcohol
Well done....

reggiewayne

Congrats on 22 days! That's a very long time! I wouldn't worry too much about what you will or won't tell your co-workers. I struggled with this quite a bit early on. I had moments when I felt I needed to announce to the world that I quit drinking. I also had times / groups of people that I was scared to death to tell.

It's my experience that your personal recovery will dictate how / when you handle this. Alcohol isn't nearly as big of deal with others as I thought it was. The truth is the only people that it will be a big deal to are probably the alcoholic ones.

Just keep doing what you're doing. One day at a time. I have been told that whatever we put in front of our recovery we'll lose. I have come to believe this. That doesn't mean that I "spill my life story to anyone within an ear shot" but it does mean that I guard my sobriety with all I have. There are so many examples I've seen of people doing just fine and then get "swept up by the moment" and have that dreaded first drink. I try very had not to put myself in those situations.

Best of luck to you!