If you recently finished rehab or want to stop drinking, you may question who you should spend your time with. After all, what if you have some great friends, but they want to drink when you hang out with them? This may cause you to question if you should be friends with people who continue to drink as you try to stop. Despite that point, you may have close friendships or relationships with these types of friends. Because of this, you should decide if you can still be friends with people who drink when they hang out with you.
The Importance of Friendship
After you overcome your addiction and want to remain sober, friendships can help you in multiple ways.
- Have friends who can help you remain sober.
- Let them hold you accountable and prevent you from relapsing.
- Spend time with them, so you can distract yourself while having some fun.
By maintaining friendships with others, you can help yourself with your drinking problems. This makes it great for people who recently went through rehab or those who want to get away from their drinking addictions. Even if you have some friends you don’t want to hang out with while they drink, you should have friends you can rely on.
Think About Your Chances of Relapsing
Before you decide who you should spend your time with, you should consider your odds of relapsing. For example, if you can’t control yourself at all when you have alcohol around you, then you should avoid it. However, if you can stop yourself from drinking alcohol when you have friends who drink, you don’t need to worry as much. You should also consider if your friends tend to offer you alcohol when you spend time with them. Will this invitation cause you to relapse, or can you resist the urge to drink? Make sure you understand these points, so you can avoid relapsing.
Communicate With Your Friend
If you don’t know whether you can spend time with these friends, you should know you can always communicate with them. If people understand why you plan to do something, most of them will respect your wishes and support you. This means you can talk with your friends who drink and explain to them your desire to remain sober and avoid alcohol. Hopefully, your friends will respect your wishes by not bringing alcohol with them when they spend time with you. This works well if you think you can’t control yourself when people bring alcohol to you, so make sure you communicate with your friends and remain honest.
Consider the Situation and Environment
You should also think about where you tend to spend time with your friends. For example, if you mostly go to the bar with your friends, then you should avoid that location. If your friends only want to spend time with you when you go to the bar together, you may have to spend time with other friends. However, if your friends want to spend time with you away from alcohol-heavy environments, you can still spend time with them. Some of them may only drink when they go to bars, so this situation could help you out further.
Set Boundaries When Necessary
As you talk with your friends, you may need to set some boundaries, so you can avoid running into problems. For example, if your friend wants to drink in certain settings, you could see if you can hang out away from the alcohol. You should also talk with them and let them know you don’t want to drink alcohol anymore. As you talk with your friends, you can tell them you don’t want them to offer any alcohol to you.
That way, you won’t feel tempted to drink alcohol if none of them give you the option to drink it while you spend time together. You can spend time with people who drink around you, but you need to consider your situation and how you can handle it. If you think alcohol will tempt you too much, you can talk with your friend and work out a plan. As a friend, he or she should respect your desire to remain sober. If you want to learn more about controlling your alcohol addiction, you should call the number 833-820-2922.