I had a bass teacher who never drank alcohol but who had some social anxiety, and he'd drink O'Doul's when he went to shows to quell some of that, not for the intoxication obviously but for the "prop" of a beer in hand, and it seemed to work for him. But again, he never had a drinking problem.jason from volo wrote: Mon Jan 03, 2022 1:11 pmMy problem is social situations and that’s when my willpower breaks down. No one is really even pressuring me; it’s all in my head.
It can be hard to eschew social situations in early recovery, but based on my experience and observations as well as others', it's almost always necessary to do so if we want lasting sobriety. Why make abstinence harder than it need to be? I stayed well away from all former drinking environments for my first year, with the exception of band practice because at that point I was in a band with other sober people, so the setting changed with me.
It sounds like what you're saying is that you find yourself in social situations where there is internal pressure to drink, and what I strongly suggest is that you don't put yourself in those situations until you have more sober time under your belt AND have a social support system you can lean on when going into "hostile" situations. That is, if you don't want the option of drinking. However we often unconsciously hold some "reservations" by creating situations in which we have that option, even if we tell ourselves we don't want to drink. If you truly don't want to get wet then don't go in the water.
