Giving up Alcohol? How to Tell Family and Friends You are Not Drinking
If you’re surrounded by people who make alcohol a big part of their lives, it can feel like everyone drinks. To be better prepared, it’s important to develop some go-to responses ahead of time for how you’ll politely turn down a drink or handle questions about why you’re not drinking. It’s up to you to decide how much information to share and who to share it with. You certainly don’t have to justify your decision.
What is Wet Brain? Symptoms Every Heavy Drinker Should Know
Most people don’t realize they’re doing emotional bookkeeping all week. You hold it together through difficult conversations, long meetings, and never-ending to-do lists. Maybe you’re pleasing everyone around you, putting out fires at work, or managing family expectations. But you rarely pause to fully process how that is making you feel. I reached out to my sister and close friends, telling them I thought I was drinking too much. “Well, you’re going to work, so there’s obviously no problem.” But alcoholism symptoms sitting alone drinking a quart every few days didn’t feel normal to me.
Always Keep a Beverage in Your Hand
Exercise is critically important in early sobriety and for ongoing mental health and wellness. It’s a great way to boost dopamine and endorphin levels naturally. Before I started drinking too much, I loved to write. I kept a notebook and pen beside my bed in case I woke up in the middle of the night with a brilliant song lyric or poem.
- I’ve known for a very long time that I had an issue with alcohol.
- Keep in mind that they will likely also be approached with questions after your disclosure.
How to Find Sober Friends
- One patient told me that his father — who he knew liked a drink — always abstained when they were together in drinking situations out of solidarity and support for his son.
- If you want to stop drinking but quitting seems hard or even impossible, remember that drinking probably feels hard sometimes too.
- Professional guidance designed to help on your journey to recovery.
- Still, navigating parties, dinners, dates, and get-togethers without a drink in hand can be awkward.
And I didn’t want to have to try to be someone that I wasn’t. The different reasons people drink and 3 building blocks of drinking less. You may feel significant pressure to have a drink for a variety of reasons.
“Many people going out on dates or meeting up with a friend for dinner will order an alcoholic drink with their meal,” the psychiatrist says. Much like everything being sober around drinkers else, the way you cut back or give up drinking will be personal to you because your lifestyle looks different to someone else’s. If you’re regularly socialising, completely changing the way you socialise (while also giving up alcohol) may be too much change in too little time.
