What To Never Say to Recovering Alcoholics During the Holidays

YOU NEED A MEETING –

Dec. 10, 2022 – And speaking of celebrations — oh, the parties and their awkward, alcohol-sodden conversations. Most people don’t give a thought to the glass of seltzer I’ve been holding all night, because fixating on someone else’s drink is generally something non-alcoholics don’t do. But there have been the occasional persistent types who truly wonder if no drinking really means no drinking (it does), or if the holidays mean a holiday from sobriety (they don’t).

Rarer yet — but extremely bothersome — are the self-styled contrarians eager to needle me about the usefulness of alcohol abstinence in addiction recovery. Today you might know these as people who “do their own research,” but plenty of us in recovery encountered this personality type long before vaccine refusal took off during the pandemic. I did my own research before trying sobriety almost nine years ago, mostly as an excuse to keep drinking. In short, if you’re a non-alcoholic drinker (a “normie,” in recovery lingo) and can see yourself doing any of this at a holiday party, please don’t. Sating your curiosity isn’t worth risking an alcoholic’s sobriety, even if that isn’t your intention.