WineOOO

My favorite drinking holiday next to 4th of July is arriving soon must have strength... What will everyone else will be doing on this once loved day? Day 6 for me btw

Dee74

I'm Irish Catholic so St Pats Day used to be big for me too...now it's not. I just do other things.

There's a world of things to do that don't revolve around drinking Wine000.

It's almost a month away so there's plenty of time to think of things to do, make plans and take precautions

D

ando68

Paddys day is just another big excuse to go mental and completely overdo it with the booze over here. I've never needed a special day myself, any day was special enough for me to overdo it. When I look on with sober eyes at the carry on around the streets, people stumbling, falling , fighting , getting sick, and generally acting in ways which will hold regret for many the next day, I say " no thanks".
The only winners are the publicans who ramp up the hype and encourage the frenzy.
" not today mister barman, I've lots of other things to do " .

Nonsensical

Now that I'm not shackled to the bottle, I can do anything I want.

afloatsober

I used to celebrate the grand opening of a packet of fags....so St Patrick will just have to get along without me.

Ruby2

I always looked at New Years and st. Patrick's day as amateur hour for drinkers. I didn't need a holiday to give me a reason for drinking. I live at the tail end of the parade route for an annual st. Patrick's day parade. I will look off my porch at the people Ando described...the falling down puking drunks weaving their way up the street. People walking into light poles as they try to cross the street. The trash. The men and women urinating on the side of my house. The girls crying for some reason with their makeup smearing down their faces. All this in the middle of the day, in front of children. It is all so ugly that I have no desire to partake. I will make a nice lunch for my family and put the hose on the urinaters. Guard my house from the chaos.

reggiewayne

The world record for sobriety is 24 hours. St. Pattys day is over 20 days away. Stay in moment, be helpful, and just keep the focus on the here and now.

Best of luck!

doggonecarl

Congrats on day 6.

Stop priming the pump by talking about St. Patrick's Day with such alcoholic reverence. If you have made the decision to quit, for good, March 17th is just another sober day on the calendar.

Also, it's a month away. Focus on getting through today. Tomorrow, do the same thing. If you do that through to the 17th, there is no reason you can't make it through to the 18th as well.

Good luck.

Climber122

The only thing I can't do today (or on St. Paddy's Day) is take a drink. Other than that, the world is wide open. Our addicted minds are what tell us one day is better than another to get hammered on. The addiction is always looking for an angle... We need to shift our focus to others when this happens - it's not "how can I not drink" this holiday, because that imbeds the thought "I intend to drink unless I can find a way to not..." the thought is... "What do I plan to do this holiday?" or "Who can I help out this holiday?"

Threshold

I cook corned beef and cabbage. Bake Irish soda bread and an irish dessert (I think it's called apple mary), listen to some Irish music. Have my house decorated in green decos I buy at the dollar store.

I have a cool book of Irish sayings and stories to that my BF and I read, a lot of it is funny.

LadyBlue0527

WineOOO, it's hard to work on being sober and at the same time lament over the absence of alcohol. What are you doing to focus on recovery rather than not drinking?

There's a big difference. You have to want this or it's brutal. You know that you do want and need this but it makes the road that much easier to have a plan in place.

Ornithology

I'm running a 5k race that day.

FreeFall

I think it's okay to admit it's going to be a hard day for you. Old habits die hard. It used to be my favorite day to party too, so I get it. I made it through just fine last year-I still went out, drank ginger ale, listened to some Irish music, had some corned beef and got out of there fairly quickly. I had to do some pretty strict talking to the AV that day for sure. If it's too tempting, don't go out this year. It's just a day and there will be another one next year when you've got more sober time under your belt. If you're honest with yourself, there are probably some drunken St. Pat's stories that you might like to forget too. Drinking was not always a good time.

There's always going to be occasions-weddings, birthdays, vacations, days that end in y...you'll have to make good choices to get through each one of them, so make a plan and stick to it. Learn some skills that help you to choose wisely. You can do this!

badatbooze

I like ginger ale!

Louise82

Well done on your sober time. To me, in my new sober life, Paddy's Day is now just another day. Just like Christmas Day, New Year's Eve...whatever. Live in the moment and focus on staying sober for the next 24 hours.

Then on Paddy's Day perhaps find sober things to do that fit around an Irish/green theme. Wear green, visit an Irish history museum/archive/exhibition, go watch a movie featuring Irish actors/characters, start the day with a green smoothie, have a nice juicy steak with green salad on the side, put a few green jalapeno slices in your sub sandwich (don't burn your mouth), volunteer for a green-fingered gardening project, bake Irish soda bread, find out ten facts about St. Patrick and post them here...so many different things we can do now we're sober!

keithy

Focus on today.

You can do anything you want on that day that does not involve drinking and drugging.

For me, I have to view holidays as just "any other day" for the most part. If it is a family holiday, then I enjoy their presence, but for a drinking holiday, I pretty much just live my normal daily routine. I always request to work drinking holidays as well. Most of my co-workers love that.

PurpleKnight

I think worrying about things too far in the future is not a great idea, Sobriety can be tough enough focusing on the here and now, but I have to admit, St Patrick's Day has started to creep into my mind the nearer we've approached the start of March.

Up until now any social event or holiday, I have planned well in advance, every detail, and already I've started to come up with a few ideas on what I'm going to do on the day.

This being my first Sober St Patrick's, I know I have to take it seriously, but as I do it more and more just like going to watch sport since becoming Sober, remaining Sober will simply become routine, I hope, I'm attending an Ice Hockey game tonight, and I no longer have to think/worry about the games anymore like I used to when I first became Sober, I expect the same to happen after having a few Sober New Years/St Patrick's Days under my belt.

So what does an Irish guy, in Ireland, do on St Patrick's Day which doesn't involve drinking??

Well my guess is, the safest option is not spending it with family of friends here in Ireland, they will be in the pub, all day long, instead as it's a public holiday and have the day off work, I'm thinking of taking a weekend away to go fishing, either in Ireland or with some friends (non Irish friends) across the water in England/Wales . . . I did this once before a few years ago and even though St Patrick's Day is celebrated it's something that you wouldn't know was on if you never knew about it.

Anyways I think the main thing like all other occasions/social events is not to wait until the day to figure out what your doing, that text to come out for a Guinness with mates might be too much temptation if your just sitting in the house trying to forget about drinking, instead a plan for the day is important.

sunshinescooby

I really really really like this quote..

Thanks!