Cutting drinking and social life
Hello everybody, I am a 35 yo woman from Italy, I am new to this place and happy to meet you all!
I have been an heavy drinker (drinking moderately on daily basis, even alone; passing out every weekend) for the last 4/5 years. During these same years I was in a relationship with a person who used to drink even more than me; as sad as it may sound, alcohol was one thing connecting us. During the last year i started to feel it as a issue and wanted to change my life for the better. He didn't see a problem with that and this was one amongst many reasons that led me to the decision to put and end on it and go back living on my own.
Now I gained back some control on my life and I am feeling much better: I eat clean and sleep well, I lost some weight, built a training routine. I am very happy with my progresses and my new life. But I feel very lonely. I don't know how to manage moderate drinking with keeping a decent social life. I would like to limit drinking to once a week, max 2 drinks, but I almost always drink too much and then feeling extremely guilty. So I often end up declining friends' invites out of fear of ruining everything.
I feel like a person progressing in rehab: it is not too hard anymore, I am starting to feel confident I can do this, but I am scared to death to go back to real life because I have not enough strength to manage it.
I feel very sad and alone. I don't know how to have fun with a diet soda. I don't want to spend every night alone at my place. I don't want to go back to my old life either. How do you people manage this? It is so hard for me. Thank you for any advice