Quitting drinking, especially after abusing alcohol, is a tough thing to pull off. However, for many people, maintaining a sober social life is also a hard task. With how common alcohol is at social events, you might not know how you can get involved while staying sober. As it turns out, there are ways for you to still have a social life while keeping sober…
Sober Social Life: Maintaining Appearances
Establish your boundaries
It’s important to know what your boundaries are in order to have a sober social life. Constantly being around alcohol, and people who try to offer it to you, is stressful. When this happens, you won’t be having a good time, and your social life will suffer. Therefore, it’s important to learn the importance of saying “no”.
There’s nothing wrong with saying no to a drink when offered. After all, it’s a person’s personal choice to whether or not they drink. However, if the person offering doesn’t respect these boundaries, then they probably won’t in the future. It’s probably best to avoid going out with people like this, and instead stick with ones who support your recovery.
Re-invent your friend circle
Having a sober social life means you might have to make some changes to your friend circle. Unfortunately, you might lose some friends when you chose to get sober. This can be hard, but it tells you those relationships were only formed on how much you both liked alcohol.
Now that you’re sobering up, you can really make some meaningful connections with new people. Some of the best people to do this with are those who are also getting or staying sober themselves. These people will be able to understand what you’re going through, and create connections based on more than just alcohol.
Find new hobbies
Creating a good sober social life means finding things to do that don’t involve alcohol. After all, when you think about it, bars are just places for people to meet where alcohol is an option. However, there are plenty of things you can do to meet others while avoiding alcohol.
Finding new hobbies is a great way to meet new people. That way, your connection will be over an interest that isn’t alcohol. Even if they themselves drink, it’s not like that will get in the way of your mutual interests.