Tips For A Sober and Joyous Holiday Season – Avoiding Banana Peels

Here are some excellent thoughts from folks for not drinking during the holidays. We’ve got just enough time to post all 9… [from a collective experience of those in their first year of recovery]

1) If you don’t want to slip, don’t go where it’s slippery! This means that we should avoid drinking occasions if we think they are going to be troublesome for us. Whether they are or not depends a bit on how much progress we have made with the steps. But for my first year, I was advised to make it a rule “Don’t go unless you have a GOOD reason for being there.” In my first year, I would very definitely not enjoy myself at a drinking occasion, and I certainly would not write any new business (come to think of it, I NEVER wrote any business at a drinking occasion, despite what my expense claims of the time may have said…). These days, I can take them or leave them alone. I went to the company Christmas Party and had a good time. I chose at the last moment not to go to the team dinner (I was tired and stressed by an end-of-project deadline, and I could not see how sitting around watching a bunch of amateurs do silly things on an amount of booze that would not even have wet my whistle was going to improve my mood.)

Thanks again to Alex. If you are aware who’s words these are I’d be happy to attribute them correctly. You can send an email to mark at b5media dot com (do the appropriate editing for that email).