Features were organised into clusters with similar trends and summarised into codes (labels that are of importance to the research question) to create theme names. Connections were made between themes, with the allowance for the generation or collapse of others. Once reviewed to avoid missing important details, nine final themes were defined and collated to generate a codebook.

You can either let them get the best of you, which leads down a very dark road filled with even more issues, or you talk yourself down. This will be difficult at first but over time, practicing these methods of de-escalation will not only strengthen your mental fortitude but it will make being around casual drinkers easier. In the early days of recovery, it can seem impossible to not be jealous of someone who can casually drink. What is important is what you do with those feelings. When you go to a party, concert, or something along those lines, take a moment to observe your surroundings, or “people watch.” Notice how sloppy they get after a couple of drinks. You may be reminded of the reasons you got sober.

Finding Sobriety Among Drinker Friends Is Possible

Read on to learn how to not drink when everyone else is. For me, the first year of not drinking was an emotional time with many ups and downs. It’s a period when you discover who you really are and see the reasons behind why you drank while also learning how to heal without abusing alcohol.

This level of control also seeps into your life and gives you more control over your impulses and behaviours. Although in the early days it might sometimes feel like you’re depriving being sober around drinkers yourself of something, it’s really important to focus on what you’re gaining rather than what you’re losing. We gain so much more by living sober than we do by drinking.

Decide Which Friendships to Keep

But if I was going to quit drinking—and STAY quit—I had to break this old habit. I could not keep pouring alcohol on my problems. If I hated being around drunk people, https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/how-to-write-a-goodbye-letter-to-addiction/ I had to stop hanging out with drunk people. If I felt deprived in bars, I had to stop going to bars. When I was uncomfortable at a party, I had to go home early.

• When you notice a thought, you simply let it go – you just let it float on by – a bit like a cloud in the sky – and you turn your attention back to your breathing.
• Only UoN students were targeted for recruitment in this study due to the short timeframe to collect the data.
• You might order a non-alcoholic beer and get a funny look or a snidey comment made.
• It can be so hard to confront the messes we’ve made.
• Once you arm yourself with some strategies to fend off even the most persuasive drinking friends, you may have come to a point where you’re wondering how to meet sober friends.
• Treatment doesn’t have to be limited to doctors and psychologists.

Alcohol Change UK, found that 1 in 5 people feel pressured to drink by their friends. That’s at least one person sitting around the pub table with you on a Friday night. You might have heard the term popping up on social media recently but unsure of what it is.

You’re in!

Demographic information, such as gender, age, and nationality, was collected before the interview via the third online survey, alongside the completion of the SPS-24 and Flourishing Scale. They were reminded that the conversation was kept confidential within the research team and were asked if they had any questions before starting. All participants were asked if they would like to know EC’s experience with alcohol before the interview schedule commenced. An audio recording (no video) of the interview was made by a Dictaphone and transcribed verbatim by EC. Transcriptions were not sent to participants for comment or correction.

All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version. During transcription, all participants were given a pseudonym and identifying features were removed (names and places). Although noted as a difficult concept to define (see Fusch and Ness, 2015), data saturation was deemed to be reached when no new information was gathered from the interviews (Guest et al., 2006).

I started out wanting to carry on living the same old social life only without the booze and drugs. But I’m almost seven years sober now and I am finally ready to admit that I fucking hate being around drunk people. Sober shaming doesn’t necessarily just come from family and friends, it can be from strangers too. You might order a non-alcoholic beer and get a funny look or a snidey comment made. This can make you feel trapped and you might feel like everyone in the room is looking at you. You just need to remember that it isn’t true and don’t take the look or comment personally.