zeldachan

I guess one of the things that I never noticed when I was a drunk was the fact that alcohol is freaking everywhere.

I get up and turn on my internet radio and there's an ad for booze. An ad for booze on a billboard on the way to work. Coworker talking about how drunk he was the night before. Watch TV: booze. Read a book: booze. Go to the supermarket: LOOK AT ALL THE BOOZE. Walking down the street: more signs for booze. Especially my favorite brands!!

AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

It's so hard staying sober and dealing with this every day! What do you guys do??

gardendiva

I choose not to put it in my body. I have to - it's at work and home.

topspin

I don't notice it too much , but a few authors seem to weave it in every dang story, ....I can only think they were told " write what you know "....

I remember thinking everyone else was, for sure half drunk, in the bar, ...but when I finally stopped back in one to talk to an employer , it wasn't that way at all. My perceptions were truly skewed out badly.

The beer and wine section in our stores are pretty isolated , but I'm not a drinker any longer ( as in the present; ...I don't drink in the present ...is my new mantra )

It gets easier as the months go by , ....that's my experience .

least

How long are you sober? In early recovery I noticed it too, all over, it seemed. But as I got more sober time, I noticed it less. Just wasn't paying attention to it so never noticed it anymore.

You're stronger than the triggers. Trust yourself. Have a little faith. Ignore the signs and such. Just because it's advertised doesn't mean you have to buy it.

LadyBlue0527

You're hypersensitive right now which is normal early on. This does pass.

Dee74

It gets better. I really don't notice it at all now.

Stick with it Zeldachan

Hevyn

I agree that it won't bother you as you get more sober time. I felt the same way early on, but hardly notice it anymore.

resolute50

Yup, eventually you wont even notice it anymore.

Hope2014

I can now see it for what it is- poison.

Chicagoan

I look out of my bedroom window
and what do I see? The back door
of my once favorite liquor store
(how convenient).

I am getting to the point where
it doesn't bother me anymore.

Good News! My wife has not
drank since I have came home.
That sure does help.

Knat84

I feel ya'. I have been sober for going on 3 years and I suppose that I'm still in the beginning sobriety phase ..because, I notice it every where as well. My old chums are always drinking when they go out, I get offered booze, it's advertised like..everywhere. Super annoying. Maybe some true time has to go by for me (us) to stop noticing it.
What do I do? I just think about how the next morning, all the people who were drinking and cutting' it up the night before, will not have nearly the amount of energy that I do. I'll be able to get up early, (without a headache), drink my espresso, eat breakfast, exercise, and etcetera. I do more in the first hour of my day now that I'm sober than I did in one or two days when I was not sober. Yeah, alcohol advertisements / popularity is a total crap-bag for us addicts, but, we gotta' deal. Hopefully these folks up top are right and we will not notice it as much the more years we have behind us. Keep lookin' up man!!! SOBRIETY is the sh**!!!! xoxo

jason2

GardenDiva has some great advice. It's your choice to simply not put it in your body.

You're right though about it being everywhere. It does get annoying seeing booze ads all the time considering I don't drink often. It just goes to show ya that if there is a market for it, a product will emerge and EtOH has one heck of a markup.

Still, I have to say that I just love the Dos-XX guy. Those ads are just the best.
"He can disarm you with a wink. He can speak French in Russian. He is the most interesting man in the world." I guess you can just learn to laugh along with it.

LadyinBC

This is me too. Saw it everywhere when I first quit. I even had a lot of dreams about drinking too. But this shouldn't really surprise us as that we are so focused on not drinking in the beginning.

Now I don't really notice it that much. I think over time you will find you don't notice it that much either.

Tang

Although others say they were just hypersensitive to seeing it everywhere, I tend to disagree. I have a friend who moved here from a conservative Muslim country. One of the first things he asked me is why are there so many ads for alcohol?

In certain cultures, families and vocations alcohol can play a central role. Take my wife whose Italian family had made their own wine together for at least four generations. I'm not saying this makes it ok, just that it is possible for some people to be more exposed socially than others. I personally can not go more than maybe three days without someone offering me a drink. This is not my imagination. It does not give us an excuse to drink. This is why we need help outside of our current situation to tip the scale towards sobriety. Certainly this is a cornerstone of every recovery program.

I still think it's odd, when you think about it, that an addictive and unhealthy substance is allowed to be advertised and sold with little restriction in most places.

bookmaven

On days when I feel like I might relapse I stay out of the grocery store until the time of night when it's illegal to buy or sell alcohol. It's on end caps and all through the store, not confined to the liquor department. YMMV depending on the laws in your state.

Croissant

Yes, it is amazing that such a potentially dangerous substance is advertised everywhere and glamorised. Mind you, I sincerely feel the same way about junk food.

ScyllaCharybdis

I am so glad people are bringing this issue up! I'm only 58 days into my new, sober life and I am also now starting to notice how endemic positive messages about alcohol are. The media, advertising, billboards push it to a worrying degree. Alcohol kills more people than cigarettes. If advertising cigarettes is illegal, why can we not do so for alcohol?

ScyllaCharybdis

I am glad to hear from people with more sobriety than I that you come to not notice it as much. Talk about triggers!

Tang

This is my logic as well.

MattyBoy

Yep it is everywhere. Even when I accompanied a primary school trip to the Isle of Wight las week, the teachers would be having gin and tonics in the staff room after we'd put the kids to bed!

Alcohol is everywhere, but I also find that the reminders of how devastating it can be to people's lives can also be found everywhere - they're just not as in your face. Today I saw a young man walking the streets with a can of super strength cider in his hand. He asked me for a cigarette and is aid I didn't have one but I told him how the brand of cider he was drinking was the one I used to drink and we ended up having a chat about how awful it is to be hooked on booze - we had this conversation right outside a pub which, as the weather was nice today, was full of people drinking beer and wine in the sunshine. I found some strange irony about the situation but I'm glad I spoke to him - it's probably the road I would've gone down if I hadn't found sobriety - homeless with a can of strong cider in my hand.