I’m working with the stop overdrinking program. I’m trying to grapple with how to think about the social aspect of not going out to my local watering holes for happy hour after work. I live alone and sometimes work from home, so there are days when this (besides an hour at the gym) is my only time to socialize in person with others. I’ve lived in the area for several years and have gotten to know many people that I can converse with and by heading out for happy hour it helps me not to feel quite so lonely. I would miss this aspect of my day. I can think of a few solutions for handling this. I could go anyway and then order something non-alcoholic and hang out for a bit. I don’t think the not drinking part would be an issue for me but I wonder whether taking up a non-revenue generating seat at the bar would be ok. Secondly, I could work on developing more non-drinking social outlets through Meetups or some other venues. That would be ok too. In the summer, I hike after work with several different groups and it’s fun. But we’re in the dark season here now and there aren’t as many events like that during the winter on weekday evenings. Thoughts on how you would work through this?