Christmastime brings different problems for different people, but it can be a particularly difficult time for someone who is in the early stages of recovering from alcohol misuse. The Christmas period brings about extra challenges for someone who has accepted that their life has become intolerable with alcohol in it, and they are doing their best to become a sober member of society.
Embracing sobriety can feel like being an outcast among friends, or exclusion from the usual family activities. It can feel like self-inflicted loneliness for some.
Unfortunately, there are people who encourage them to have a drink. Sometimes it is by an alcoholic who has been unable to quit, and sometimes it is by someone who genuinely thinks that “just one or two won’t do any harm”.
Just one drink can do a great deal of harm to someone who has been working at total abstinence. It is like a game of Snakes and Ladders; one drink is the equivalent of landing on a snake and going back to Square 1. All the previous hard work, and it is hard work, will be undone.
In cultures where alcohol is socially acceptable and is encouraged at Christmas and New Year, it is fine for people who can drink without experiencing problems. For someone who is embarking on a journey of total abstinence, it can be the most difficult time of the whole year.
If you know someone who has chosen to give up alcohol, please give them praise and encouragement, it goes a long way in helping them to succeed, in what can be the one of the most difficult times of their life.
Alcoholism is not a choice; it is an illness.
Ronnie's Blog 
Everything you say is so “spot on!!! It IS a disease! My father, his father and my brother were all alcoholics. In some respects, I dreaded the Christmas season though also loving it, because it is a season where drinking abounds and is encouraged. Thank you for posting!
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It has often been said, that if alcohol was introduced to society today, it would be categorised as a “Class A” drug.
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Yes, it should be. You’re right!
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It causes more destruction, directly and indirectly, than any other drug in the world.
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Totally in agreement!
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It’s a very important topic and issue you raised in this post, I wonder why alcohol is not considered as harm as drugs…I knew people that lost their health completely because of alcohol and yet it is in the core of our culture and traditions. I wish you a great year full of good health and joy
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Thank you.
The “demon drink” has been a pleasure and a curse on western society for a long time. The UK government did not like their chief drug adviser, Professor David Nutt, telling them that alcohol and tobacco were more harmful than many illegal drugs, including LSD, ecstasy and cannabis, so they sacked him.
There are vast revenues made from the sale of alcoholic drinks.
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and then people wonder why we have all these diseases…In this world, if you don’t walk with the flow, you are the one excluded even if you are an angel. people don’t want some dude to ruin their devilish plans
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Alternative substances to alcohol have been popular with younger people in the past, because there are a lot of people who want to have a buzz, but without using alcohol. There was a progressive New Zealand government some years back, who brought out the Drug Harm Minimisation Program, because they accepted that young people will always want to party and take something to get high.
They decided best thing they could do was regulate Legal Highs and insist they contained vitamins. The result was Party Pills that were made from a non-addictive substance, which did not cause a hang-over the following day.
In the UK, the government banned Legal Highs, which had been tried and tested for years, without any negative reports. Due to the ban, the popular products were taken off the market which resulted in a lot of dodgy products replacing them, and people ending up in hospital. The choice is either alcohol or illegal drugs. Taking a substance that causes relatively little harm, is not on the menu.
One of the common false justifications put forward by politicians against alternative substances is the Gateway Drug hypotheses, which claims that one substance leads on to another more harmful one. This type of rhetoric is convenient for prohibition of alternative substances, particularly cannabis, but has no validity in substance addiction.
There are plenty of people in the world who know of, at least one person with an alcohol problem. Contrary to what a lot of misguided people think, governments do not usually have their citizens best interest at heart.
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No wonder New Zealand is from the best countries, the government is doing a good job unlike most of the world. I believe when the decisions are free from politicians interests and games and more, they will always be good. But we are not that lucky I guess. thank you for this beneficial information
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