My Experience Quitting Alcohol and Still Maintaining My Social Life

I was always a social drinker. I even had (and still to some degree still have) a fully stocked liquor bar at home that I built out of an IKEA cubicle shelf. The liquor bottles would be left untouched when I didn't have friends over as I had no desire to drink when alone. I am however a single woman and I like to have company over. So whether it was cocktail parties at home or going out to a bar and drinking cocktails there, I was probably drink 5-10 cocktails a week with Long Island Iced Teas being my poison of choice.

But November last year, all the eating and drinking caught up to me. I was and probably still am borderline diabetic. So I decided to quit.

"How can you go out to bars and restaurant and not drink?" some may ask. To be honest if you really want to make genuine good connections while going out you'll want to do that sober. While you'll still encounter lots of drunk people, most of the time if you're holding a club soda garnished with mint...nobody is going to know there's no alcohol nor are they likely to care.

A big thing we think everyone is watching us and that we think they care about how we live our life. To be honest, most people are likely to care about their own life more than they are your life. People walk into a room thinking everyone is watching them. This may be true if you purposely made yourself stand out. But if you match your environment chances are most people aren't thinking about you. And if they are then as the wise Gary Oldman put it, "What other people think about me is none of my business".

I lucked out because I actually don't even miss it. While I still like to go out I can choose places where mocktails or non-alcoholic beer are served. And to be honest, as long as I am carrying a drink, it could even be water, nobody else is going to care about what I consume.

Besides, why is it that lots of people think bars, restaurant and even coffee shops for that matter are the only places to hangout? If you live in a large city there are probably tons of events in your city that don't revolve around eating and drinking. Plus there are festivals, movie theater, bowling alleys and which are probably more fun and cheaper than sitting around and drinking 24/7.