In our culture which normalises alcohol at every occasion: weddings, funerals, the end of a bad day, celebrating a great day, even baby showers, it is a truly courageous and rebellious act to say no and choose not to drink.
You worry that you’ll be ostracised by your friends because they won’t think you’re fun anymore or they worry you’ll judge them, so it’s easier to just keep drinking along with them.
I get it.
I had my moments of thinking my friend was boring for choosing to stick to lime and soda all night and going home at 10.30pm.
I had my moments of convincing my friend who didn’t want to drink into having one (and then more) anyway.
My whole identity was based around being the fun one who’d get the party started, the one who would crack open a beer before midday if the sun was shining, or we were on holiday, or someone’s birthday was coming up, or it was raining…
I worried that my friends wouldn’t want to hang out with me anymore if I wasn’t that person, so I’d miss out on all the fun.
But you know what?
Now I can have fun the day after a night out, because I’m not hungover. And I can have fun on the night out too – I’m just more picky about which nights out I go to.
And those friends that only want to hang out with the me that drinks? They’re not really my friends.
And I don’t really want to hang out with them now anyway if they want to drink every time – because it’s BORING!
So yeah, getting sober might mean losing some of your friends.
But it might be your choice rather than theirs.
Drop me an email to let me know some of your concerns about boarding the sober train.
Check out this video with my tips for telling your friends that you’re not drinking