No Thank You - No Green Beer For Me

St. Patrick's Day is almost upon us!

A lot of people, Irish or not, celebrate this special day by having a few drinks.

What's more - pubs and restaurants put colouring into the beer to make it GREEN, the obvious colour dedicated to St. Patrick's Day items.

On St. Patrick's Day, once it fully rrrrrrrrolls around, I will be having a couple of cups of Green Tea, instead of Green-spiked alcoholic beverages and beer.

Although some people don't make too big a deal out of this festive day, a whole lot of people do, and for many, St. Patrick's Day celebrations don't happen WITHOUT alcohol being present. For this reason, St. Patty's Day is often a difficult time for recovering addicts. Many of their friends and family members will probably still celebrate by drinking green beer or green cocktails, and recovering addicts will do well to steer clear of festive individuals if this is possible, unless a safety plan is enacted.

There are a couple of posts already on this blog about "safety planning," so if you don't normally plan ahead and you're a recovering addict who has wondered how to deal with celebrations (I mean, you can't tell all people that they can't drink because YOU no longer drink, right?), scroll around a bit. If you've been trying to figure out how to get through festive events and occasions more smoothly, where alcohol will be present, just remember that you can plan ahead and be prepared for the fact that alcohol might literally be placed in your face during holiday and celebratory situations.

There is still no need to drink/do drugs, no matter how much people coax that you share in the celebration.

Just say, "No Thank You - No Green Beer For Me."

If this will be difficult - practice before the day hits!