Hello! It's good to have you here and thanks for posting.

As I'm in the first month of sobriety I can only tell you of my limited experience. I struggled with the idea of not drinking for a long time. Frankly, I remember looking at my two cats and telling them they were lucky they didn't have the pressures of drinking. (maybe the first sign of a problem was that I was jealous of my cats' sobriety and expressing that out loud). As weird as that sounds, it was me just expressing my frustration of how prevalent alcohol was with my friends and in my life. However, when I came out as sober to my friends, I was a little surprised at how much they were tired of drinking as well. However, my sober life is a lot less action packed and people have stopped inviting me out. I guess I figure if a person can't hang out with me sober then maybe that person doesn't really like me that much. So....if you lose friends because you are sober then maybe they aren't really friends?

As far as wrapping my head around not drinking...I started to just say to myself: if you want to be a "normal" drinker then you are probably not going to drink. Normal drinkers don't drink much. So that has sort of helped me get through some tough days. When I feel like I really want to drink...I just say: what would a normal drinker do? Probably not drink. And then I don't. I also know if I obsess about moderation then I'm also acting like not a normal drinker so I decide to be "normal" and I won't drink during those times either. It's just a way for me to relate to being normal. Maybe because what was hard for me about getting sober was that I just wanted to be normal.

Anyway...sort of rambling thoughts, but I'm glad you posted and I'm definitely not drinking with you tonight!

Every day gets easier for me.