Having a Social Life Without Alcohol

As a young person, I was very socially awkward. I would turn red when simply having a normal conversation with another person. As a high-school student, this meant that I had no friends. Both of my older siblings were popular and well liked which only made the situation worse for me. My parents were forever nagging at me to be more outgoing and social, but I just didn’t know how to do that. I thought that I would never even have a first date, let alone get married and have a family.

My parents were having trouble with their marriage, so they decided to spend a weekend at a marriage-enrichment retreat. That meant that my brother and sister and I would be left home alone for two days, but since both of my siblings were in their late teens, my parents thought that they were old enough to look after things.

My siblings decided to have a party. Of course, my opinion wasn’t asked for and probably wouldn’t have been welcomed anyway, and it wasn’t as if I had any friends of my own to invite. I planned to stay in my room during the party.

At around 10 p.m. while the party sounded as if it was going strong, I decided to go down to the kitchen for something to eat. I hadn’t had dinner and was hungry, so I entered the kitchen from a side entrance. I hadn’t expected anyone to be in that part of the house but there were several people standing around in the kitchen drinking beer. Someone jokingly offered me one and I think that I even surprised myself when I accepted. After that I had another beer, and then a few more after that. I have to say that I had a very good time that night. My shyness around people had disappeared and I felt liked for the first time in my life.

That’s where it started, I suppose. After that night, alcohol became a regular part of my social life. It was so nice to finally have a social life that I didn’t give much thought to how much I was drinking.

Two days before graduation, three of my new friends were killed in a car accident. Alcohol had been involved, of course, and I had been at the party where they had been drinking before they decidedd to go for a drive.

It was then that I decided that I’d had enough. Immediately after graduation, I checked into a rehab facility. It was there that I learned that I could live without alcohol. I also learned that having a social life doesn’t have to revolve around the use of alcohol.

Several years later my parents divorced, and my older sister developed a heavy drinking problem. I was able to convince her to go to the same rehab facility that I’d been in, and she has been sober ever since.

For more information, go to Treatment Centers