Went to a party tonight for my 21 year old nephew. Naturally, the shots and drinks were flowing. I did not participate. I am proud of myself.
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Well done but stay grounded, I once stood leaning on the bar for 4 hours at the wake of a funeral drinking only cups of tea.
Next day I got absolutely pissed up because I had proved I wasnât an alcoholic.
Alcohol - Cunning, baffling and powerful.
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Good solid lesson about avoiding these types of situations in early sobriety. Often times itâs not the actual event, but the days following that cause the most issue. We see it time and again on this forum. People unnecessarily putting themselves in danger and then relapsing. This is why I donât congratulate people for âsurvivingâ events they shouldnât have been at in the first place. I choose not to reward bad choices with praise.
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And Genius 
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You can be proud of yourself but donât loose that guard. Itâs a thin line and I brought myself in positions I shouldnât be in. It may sound small like entering a supermarket I shouldnât be in or getting beer for tennis mates and pretend it doesnât bother me (one of them even said, what are you doing???). Like is said by @Englishd the days weeks after my mind is still on those events from time to time until mostly I vent it all out.
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Thatâs awesome 
Social situations are the hardest for me when it comes to alcohol.
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Wasnât a bad decision to go. It was a family party and I had no choice. Not everyone is the same.
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We always have a choice. The only 2 events you have to be at are your wedding and your funeral. Just because you didnât drink this time doesnât make it a good choice, it just means you got lucky. Ask the members here who have been sober for a minute. Theyâll all tell you the same thing, they prioritized their sobriety by avoiding events like this until they were stable in their sobriety.
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Hi.
My first week sober I made the choice to skip a family event I had attended for many consecutive years because I wasnât ready to be in that environment. Other than either dumb luck or good judgment it was clearly the right call. I donât know what could have happened either at that event or since because I made a choice not to put myself in a situation I wasnât prepared to handle. More importantly, at that time, I really didnât know what I could handle.
Now that I have some sobriety I do know what I can handle and I can make my choices with sober knowledge and sober experience. 
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When i first stopped drinking i made a promise to myself that i wouldnt be around any kind of drinking for the first 3 monthsâŚi didnt go to bars, the shops i used to frequent to buy my booze, no events where drink would beâŚits not as simple as just not drinking then go about your life as you did before⌠youve got to make sobriety your absolute top priority for a good while and work daily on what brought you to drinking in the first place, thats my advice anywayâŚyeah it might seem like your isolating and not having so much âfunâ for a while but i figured whats a few months if i can forge the rest of my life into a sober life? Wish you the very best on your journey friend 
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Congrats for staying strong and calm. Thatâs a brave thing to accomplish. I donât think Iâd be ready to step foot into another bar or party sober just yet. Were you tempted at all?
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Maybe youâre better off not sharing your successes here.
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Knowone here is saying that Jenna hasnt done well in not drinking but they are giving sound advice in warning against anyone in early sobriety putting themselves in situations where drinking is heavily involved, we all want Jenna to do well on her journey
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I know it can be hard to read the feedback sometimes but we do absolutely want to share success stories. I think the difficulties come when people who have been around a long time see people making decisions that they have seen lead others to relapse over and over again. They are trying to offer advice to prevent that. Everything is well intentioned here, even if the delivery sometimes stings a little.
This thread has got me to have a hard think so I am really grateful to @Calimilo for sharing. Well done on facing that challenge, hopefully you can avoid other parties for a while now. I am sure people would understand.
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Congrats on your win. I have no illusions about being able to go to a bar or a party right now and be able to not drink. That said, I have a wedding on Saturday to attend, but itâs my bossâs wedding and I never drank at work events so Iâm not worried. I wonât be stayiong long, but I will be there for dinner at the very least.
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Early on I actually found it easier to be where I knew alcohol was going to be so I had my guard up and my plan together. Good job!!!
The easiest thing for me 1.5 years sober is donât tell people youâre not drinking. I was just out at a beautiful resort pool all weekend. There was a bar and pool bar service. Iâd order a soda water and limes just to tip the server and it looks like a drink. I also had my thermoflask water battle full of ice tea or Red Bill/Soda water mix. Nobody even asked me in three days to drink or what I was drinking.
Be careful for crappy days at work or places you wonât expect temptation. Thatâs when it was the hardest.
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