I quit drinking several months ago after 25 years relatively hard drinking. Was I an alcoholic? I guess so, but I am able to absorb alcohol quite fast, very rare had any hangovers and was a type of “high-functional alcoholic” with at least one bottle of red wine each evening. Of course, all social activities, celebrations, catch-up with friends always were combined with decent amount of alcohol. These my thoughts on challenges of sober life:

First of all, there are no crazy and adventure stories around starting with “we had a couple of cups of tea”, no. In same moment, it is extremely hard to be around drunk people more than half an hour being sober - endless loops in conversations, and jokes are not so funny as it were before. I definitely have less “party time” now, but I cannot judge my friends - this is their choice. Instead, I can offer them different type of activities - dinner at home at Friday or Saturday, outdoor trips, etc, to keep friendships going and be social. Interesting, people tend to drink less if you invite them on your activities. Just create this environment of interesting activities for your friends and comfortable for you. There is no reason to suffer in overcrowded bar at Friday night - too boring (tell me this year ago!).

Secondly, even with reframed social activities alcohol-free lifestyle releases a lot of free time. In my case I just overwhelmed with my old and new hobbies, all my spare time is already allocated and it is not an issue for me to spent Friday or Saturday alone in my cave - plenty things to do. Hard to advice something here, but maybe just learn something new?

Alcohol is a great social clue which makes you accept people you won’t accept.