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Here are the 9 ways that I use to stay sober at social engagements. These are not guaranteed to work 100% of the time and I will be the first to admit, I have failed miserably at staying sober at sober social gatherings at times, but these will help you make it through a night out with friends.
- Don’t Go, or decide it’s absolutely necessary that you go.
- Always have an exit strategy. Like any good entrepreneur, an exit strategy is put into place before the doors are ever open for business. You need to have a plan in place to leave the social engagement if things start to get a little too uncomfortable.
- Drive your own car. Take the train, Uber, or Taxi.
- Seasons change and maybe friends should also. Consider who you will be going out with and ask yourself, will they be supportive if you are not drinking with them?
- Tell them. Tell Them. Tell Them. Tell them. Staying sober on a night out is way too difficult to do it on your own. You need your friends coming up to you with soda water, sprites, red bulls, robust plates of nachos and not Tequila Poppers
- Always have a drink on your hand. Of course this drink should not have alcohol in it, but make sure you always are holding a glass or a bottle of root beer. I love Ginger Beer. Most people who don’t know you have made this venture into sobriety will not even notice your not drinking if you have a glass in your hand. Your mind has a muscle memory and simply holding an object in those drinking mitts will satiate those receptors in your brain.
- Don’t flirt with the cute boy or girl across the bar.
- Lower your expectations. Maybe you used to be the life of the party or the funniest person at all the social gatherings because all inhibitions were gone. That’s not going to be you your first outings in sobriety. Your personality will eventually come back in a more colorful way, but don’t get upset if you’re not creating life lasting memories your first sober outings; they are going to be awkward, strange, foreign, and you might even realize your friends are not as funny as you thought they were also.
8.5 Have a fun response when people ask if you are not drinking.
- Have fun and start living your life. Have fun with people. You are living life. Life and death, but you are no longer dying, you are living and that doesn’t always mean it feels good. You may want nothing more than to go home, but next time, you may want to go home a little less.
