HAVE A STAY QUIT PLAN FOR HOLIDAYS
REPOST by Troutnut 1.
Date Unknown
A few days before Thanksgiving in 1998, I discovered that I was an alcoholic and I attended my first AA meeting on 11/23/1998. My last drink was 11/21/1998. I was pretty shaky at that meeting because I probably had 48 hours of my first sobriety in over three decades. I was also a 3.5 pack a day addict of the drug nicotine, but I wouldn't deal with that for a few more years.
I finally took my last puff on 2/28/2001. Holidays can be stressful for a lot of us, and they can also lead to relapses for those in recovery. It is helpful to have a plan in place while you are celebrating.
Here are some tips from my plan which is mainly focused on avoiding alcohol. Lots of our newbies will want to avoid alcohol during the holidays even if they don't normally have a problem with it. Alcohol kinda puts to sleep the pre-frontal cortex of your brain which is in charge of reason and making good judgements and choices. Killing off the pre-frontal cortex of your brain is like cutting the brake lines on your sports car and then going for a drive. Without the pre-frontal cortex we end up operating off our limbic system which reverts us to our more primitive instincts. This is also know as "lizard brain”. If you are in the first year of your quit, you definitely do not want to be operating with your lizard brain at the next party or celebration.
Here are my ideas and I hope others will contribute theirs here as well:
1. I ask myself honestly what is the purpose of me going? Do I need to go at all? Do I want to go? Have I good reason for going?
2. I arrange my own transportation. If things get rough and I need to make a hasty exit, I want to be able to do it without delay. This may involve separate cars, etc. A few extra dollars in gas is nothing compared to relapse.
3. I always take a supply of my favorite soft drinks in the car. More than enough is the proper amount.
4. I take my "binky”. The binky is simply a stainless steel travel coffee mug filled with my favorite soft drink. It has a lid and I keep it with me at all times.
5. If someone offers me a drink I just hold up my binky and say “I'm good, thanks!" And they have no idea what I am drinking
6. I sneak back out to the car and refill as needed.
7. If caught without my binky somehow and offered a drink... I simply say, “Thanks, I'll take a root beer, water, etc.", without making any kind of a big deal about it.
8. I don't usually find it necessary to tell anyone that I don't drink. I DO drink! Just not things with alcohol in them. The exception to this would be if I regularly attend the same event with the same folks. Then they might as well know and be looking out for me.
9. I don't engage relatives or friends in arguments, politics, religion, etc. Some people are wired backwards at the factory, and I am unlikely to change them or fix them over Thanksgiving dinner. God created us both. Maybe created them to offset me!
10. I generally get there a little late and leave a little early. If asked why I just say, “Its a school night for me!”
11. The ONLY people who ever notice that I'm not drinking alcohol are other alcoholics, usually practicing ones. Nobody cares if I put ketchup on my burger unless they happen to be obsessed with ketchup.
12. I didn't know this when I was still drinking, but I know it today. A huge percentage of the population doesn't drink, do drugs, or smoke! I learned to seek them out and spend more of my time with them, and less with my drinking, drugging, and smoking friends. There are also some excellent podcasts out there for sobriety out there, so if you can't hang with real sober friends, you can at least hang with some virtual sober friends. Beware that Birds of a feather drink and smoke together!
This is getting kind long so I better wrap it up. It is my sincere hope that you have the most wonderful Christmas and New Years ever.
I am incredibly grateful for my quit, my blessings, and all of you! Your friend in Montana,
Troutnut1 (Dennis)