Just passed the 10-day mark. Some friends and I met up at the bar, and I drank ginger ale the whole time. It actually felt really empowering to choose to drink something other than alcohol. I saved money, I got out of the bar before people started acting stupid, and I’m going to wake up clear headed in the morning! This is a pretty amazing feeling.
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Thats awesome!!! I rencently went to a bar, and I walked away after being the only sober person, impressed. I learned I can actually still enjoy myself sober I can socialize and be a DD who can get my loved one home safely. I had 0 percent jealousy I didnt wish I could drink. I did not think I could feel so good doing that, I thought for sure I would hate it, but it made me feel good confident and strong.
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Dangerous game 
right there but congrats on staying strong
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My mind tested me like this early in sobriety too I felt proud. Then I started to hate drinkers and didn’t want to be around it. Then I reached a year of sobriety, thought I was fine and started hanging out with drinkers all the time. I reached 456 days and haven’t been sober since. Just food for thought
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Knowing you can do it is great! You can learn from that experience for sure. 10 days in your brain is still going through a lot of stuff! Be on your guard for your next 10 days. Those casual old routines can stay with you for a few days and challenge you. No matter what happens in the short term, at least you now know that it IS possible to still hang with your friends and be able to make responsible decisions. Kudos to your friends for not giving you a hard time. 
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I know it is a temptation and some will say very dangerous. And I totally understand that. But I too have found great pride and empowerment in being around those who drink and making my own choices. I’m 29. I’m single. I do socialise a fair bit. If I cut off being around alcohol permanently it would change my entire social fabric.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy leaving early or removing myself if it gets too binge drinking, and I still doing more sober activities than before to help create a new social life. But proving to myself I can be out sober and enjoy my - cheap - ginger ale has been great for me too.
Well done and be proud. Keep on guard and plan other totally sober activities in too. But enjoy the feeling of knowing you can do it 
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I was never much of a drinker, but before going into recovery for my DOC, I gave up alcohol entirely.
Before then I had never liked going to bars. But when I stopped drinking I really started enjoying them. It became easier to talk to people and have fun.
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Congratulations with the double digits! 
Glad you didn’t drink and felt strong!
I couldn’t have done that in the first weeks of my recovery. For that reason I avoided every alcohol related event the first 3 months.
I relapsed more then ones and all just before the 3 months milestone (and 1 time after 5 years sober 
)
So be careful with your sobriaty, we are all one drink away from relapse.
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I’m not going to congratulate you. I’ve seen this story a million times on this forum. People get cavalier with their recovery and so some stupid shit like hang out at a bar with 10 days sober. Maybe they don’t drink that time, or even the next time. Maybe it takes 10 times, but eventually they let their guard down and boom, they are drunk again. Then they come here and post acting all surprised that it happened.
So no congratulations from me, just like I wouldn’t congratulate you for firing the empty chamber in Russian roulette.
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I agree with Derek (Englishd). If I hang around a barber shop, I’m eventually going to get a haircut.
Please, stop pulling the trigger.
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I don’t like to be around drinking. In a world filled with drinking, sometimes I cant avoid it. Sometimes there isn’t any temptation.
Then theres the other times. Like when my boss ordered a beer at lunch in a sushi restaurant. It smelled good, looked good, and I wanted one. My boss respects my decision not to drink, but he wouldn’t care if I drank. He would probably like that.
All of the people I know that drink are like that.
Other drinkers love to tell me I wasnt that bad. Sitting around watching them drink beer is not in my best interests. I dont need to hear that shit. I was that bad.
short term victory… Long term defeat.
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Hanging at a bar is a very serious boundary violation for me. And I don’t even drink.
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I have to agree. It’s dry drunk behavior. I’m coming up on 2 years sober and still haven’t socialized in a place with a lot of drinking. It’s just not something that feels safe to me. I will be attending a music festival in September and already know just how much drinking and drugging is going to be going on around me. I only feel safe because day one will be my sober anniversary and I will also have my 17 year old daughter with me. At another concert next year I will be with a friend who supports my sobriety. Recovery has to be at the center of everything we do forever. There’s no cure, so to be successful we need to be ever cautious in everything we do. In rehab I learned that relapse actually starts long before it actually happens. For us, playing with fire is just our brains talking us in to getting burnt.
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10 days and in a bar?? Not smart
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Dang, ok, everybody. Just trying to share my experience. I didn’t expect to be judged so harshly. I was fine, my friends know I quit drinking, and some of the folks I was with were also sober. It was a fine experience for me and I’m still not drinking.
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I think you are still completely missing the messages people were trying to convey. Even if it went okay once does not mean it will continue to okay. All it takes is one bad thought, one momentary lapse in judgment, or one offer of a drink and you could be off to the races. Take it from the people who have been there. My first relapse I thought I’d be okay going on a wine tour. My friends knew I was sober. I had like 45-60 days sober. Basically all the same circumstances you described for yourself. A year later I was homeless and back in rehab.
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I’m being sincere when I write this. Some of the people responding to your post have strong feelings and experience with these things and say what they say to show you what happens 95% of the time when Sober men and women decide to go to a bar a number of times. As you can see, some are a bit more blunt than other’s. Read it for what it is with an open mind ^.^
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Playing 2 on 2 with friends ar the park is amazing. Going on a hike with a chum is amazing. Joining up with some people and trash bags, cleaning a 1 mile stretch of road is amazing. Joining a bowling league, and tossing a rock down an alley is amazing.
So many amazing things in this world.
Telling alcoholics on a sobriety app that a bar is amazing, even when not drinking, not so much 
No judgment, we all live our own lives and here the common thread among us is sobriety, this is more of a read the room type of deal.
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I promise you no one is judging. Everyone is happy you’re still sober. We just know that it’s risky to be around alcohol like that so early on. Some are just more blunt about it.
Honestly? My thought is that real friends would suggest a non drinking activity if they knew their friend was early in sobriety.
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No judgment, just experiences. Your ego will try to make you feel judged to get you away from a helpful tool for sobriety. Best wishes either way.