There are plenty of excuses to avoid drinking socially that you can use if you aren’t comfortable sharing your sobriety journey. If you are in recovery but don’t necessarily want to tell people about it, then it’s easiest just to end the conversation quickly. You can use medication or health reasons to avoid alcohol. Or you could say that since you’re driving, you don’t want to indulge. You can also use work as an excuse to avoid alcohol. And finally, try just saying that you aren’t in the mood. Hopefully, you’ll be comfortable sharing your recovery soon, but until then, there are plenty of excuses you can use to avoid the conversation.
Excuses to Avoid Drinking Socially: Getting Out of It Without Awkwardness
Medication
One of the excuses to avoid drinking that you can use is medication. There are plenty of medications that have dangerous interactions with alcohol. The bonus of this excuse is that it doesn’t typically invite a lot of follow-up questions. People tend to not want to pry about medical issues.
Driving
Another excuse to avoid drinking is that you are driving. Driving after drinking is incredibly dangerous and should always be avoided. If you are wanting to avoid alcohol, plan to drive to meet your friends. That way, you’ll have a great reason to not join in on the alcohol.
Work
Work is always one of the most popular excuses to avoid drinking and one of the easiest. Unless your drinking buddies work with you, it’s unlikely they’ll know whether or not you’re swamped at work. So you can use this as an easy go-to to get out of drinking. Just say you either need to get work done when you get home, or that you need to be up early to focus on work.
Don’t Feel Like It
Finally, one of the best excuses to avoid drinking is saying that you simply don’t feel like it. If there are follow-up questions, just say that you aren’t in the mood or that you have a headache. You can also simply say “not tonight” to indicate that you’re still game, but just not at the moment. If you’re meeting somebody new you can just say that you don’t enjoy alcohol.
It’s important to have some excuses to avoid drinking if you’re in recovery. If you aren’t yet ready to share with the rest of the world, then you’ll need to have some reasons ready to go. Try using antibiotics as an excuse, or saying that you’re not feeling up to it for some reason. You can also say that you need to be sober in order to drive home. Work is always an easy go-to excuse to get out of all kinds of things, drinking included. And finally, you can simply say that you aren’t in the mood or don’t feel like it. Hopefully, you’ll be able to share your experience with recovery someday. But until then, it’s a good idea to have some excuses to avoid drinking ready to go just in case.