Anonymous wrote:If you need to steady your nerves before and after a night in a socially charged situation, park nearby. Chug some vodka with a breath mint chaser when you arrive. Slip out for something you forgot just before midnight and chug some more. Put bottle in trunk because of open container law. Bring in Resolutions list or a bell to ring or something you "went to get."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you need to steady your nerves before and after a night in a socially charged situation, park nearby. Chug some vodka with a breath mint chaser when you arrive. Slip out for something you forgot just before midnight and chug some more. Put bottle in trunk because of open container law. Bring in Resolutions list or a bell to ring or something you "went to get."

But you're not an alcoholic. Not at all. This is totally healthy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you need to steady your nerves before and after a night in a socially charged situation, park nearby. Chug some vodka with a breath mint chaser when you arrive. Slip out for something you forgot just before midnight and chug some more. Put bottle in trunk because of open container law. Bring in Resolutions list or a bell to ring or something you "went to get."

Beyond trashy. This is alcoholism.

Anonymous wrote:If you need to steady your nerves before and after a night in a socially charged situation, park nearby. Chug some vodka with a breath mint chaser when you arrive. Slip out for something you forgot just before midnight and chug some more. Put bottle in trunk because of open container law. Bring in Resolutions list or a bell to ring or something you "went to get."

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Anonymous wrote:I will be spending New Year’s Eve with my son’s girlfriend’s parents for the first time . They apparently do not drink (though are okay if their adult kids do). I enjoy wine with dinner, and to be honest would ideally have some wine on New Year’s Eve—especially in a socially charged situation—nothing excessive at all.

But, perhaps it is rude of me to bring wine, if they don’t drink? (No one under 21 will be present.) Thanks.

Bringing wine to a place where you know people are deliberately abstaining is excessive. If you can't go a night without it, even in "a socially charged situation" you may have a problem with alcohol use/dependence.

Spend a single sober night. You will survive. Unless, of course, you won't, in which case, you're already an alcoholic and will need supervised detox to deal with your DTs.

Seriously, though. The fact that the thought of being without booze for a single event is giving you this much stress indicates you have a problematic relationship to alcohol. There are all kinds of programs that can help you with this.

-7+ years sober (and I used to "sneak a flask" to all kinds of things I "enjoyed more w/o booze", so I get it)

Blah blah blah. It’s not just any night we’re talking about, folks. It’s NYE! Basically anyone who drinks has a glass of champagne on NYE. You’re acting like it’s a random Tuesday night in March. Get over yourself. Just because you’re an alcoholic doesn’t mean everyone is.

It's one night. There's nothing magical about a glass of alcohol on new year's. Plenty of people don't drink. If you can't be one of them, if you're so addicted that you have to bring booze somewhere you know it won't be, that's not about "enjoyment", it's about your addiction.

Fighting this hard for it, like it's some sort of sacred thing, represents a very flawed relationship to a food item. Do you go this hard for eggs on Easter? Goose on Christmas?

Sober up. If you can't, well, there's your problem

If someone really wants to bring pumpkin pie to Thanksgiving it doesn't make them an addict. Some people treat alcohol like food. It's just another item on the table to sample and not consumed as a drug. It doesn't have a hold on us as it apparently does for you.

Thank you.

Why are so many people using “need” interchangeably with “prefer?”

If it's a simple preference, there'd be no trouble going without. I'd prefer sunshine, but if it rains, so be it.

If you know a party/household is dry, but you're making all sorts of excuses about why you should bring booze, that's not "prefer". It's not really "need" either; nobody "needs" alcohol. But the mentality presents as a need, and the linguistic attempts to hide it (preference, tradition, enjoyment) are being called out as what they are: dodges and code words.

Nobody needs booze, and if it's true that you simply "prefer" it, well, you don't always get your preferences, right? For a non-addicted adult, this isn't even a question.

Anonymous wrote:You need to drink to feel comfortable in a “socially charged” situation? Hmmm…

Anonymous wrote:If you need to steady your nerves before and after a night in a socially charged situation, park nearby. Chug some vodka with a breath mint chaser when you arrive. Slip out for something you forgot just before midnight and chug some more. Put bottle in trunk because of open container law. Bring in Resolutions list or a bell to ring or something you "went to get."