Centered3

-Keep your private life private.

-It's no one's business but your own.

-People judge things they do not personally experience themselves

-Others may be innocently curious but it's still none of their business.

-Think it through carefully who you tell--just those closest to you perhaps

-Be confident in your response. If you don't make a big deal out of it, no one else will.

-Smile and say "No thanks".

-If pressed, "No thanks I don't drink". Keep it simple. Walk away, change the subject, just be confident in your reactions.

-If pressed further with "why", have a set answer prepared.

-ESPECIALLY protect yourself from those who want to see you fail.

Centered3

Be careful who you tell.

I told my best friend who although she's not one of us, she has been completely unconditionally supportive from afar. That made me overconfident and I then told another long-time friend and that didn't go over so well. She didn't understand it, and I could sense that she and her husband were from the school of "what's wrong with her, why didn't she just stop drinking and be done with it?" Seriously ever since she read a Jennifer Weiner book about alcoholism and addiction, our friendship hasn't been the same. And this is a friend who knew a little bit about my FOO (enough to know it was abusive and dysfunctional) but that's okay because I've grown.

If you meet someone you know you'll never see again, don't care what they think, and you want to handle it in a funny way, here's something a friend of mine told me he once said in reply to "why don't you drink?" - "I'm allergic to drinking. Anytime I drink I breakout in handcuffs."

oldsoul112249

I'm almost a year sober. I told a few people at first being so happy and wanted to share but wish I hadn't. I'm being treated differently like they think I've deceived them for years, them not knowing how much I drank so the trust isn't there I suppose or that I was a phony. Now I choose carefully as in if it would help someone. As far as recovery goes I'm just living the way I should have been all along, in the mainstream learning and growing like most people.

August252015

UGH on this one- my mom has shared (pre-quitting) with a couple of people I still try not to resent her doing so. (It also wasn't to share hope or anything with these people) One is a peer of mine whom I really dislike and it felt like a huge invasion of my privacy. Mom has shared with a few others who are people who do care about me but I still prefer that I am the one in charge of sharing, to the extent it is feasible (ie people talk so folks will know, even if not from me).