You can’t bargain with addiction. Thinking you can control your drinking or using by limiting usage to certain “safe” situations is dangerous. This overconfidence can lead to a miscalculation of addiction’s grip. Minimizing the risk can quickly make old patterns surface.

And who decides if an occasion is special? Such a decision is based on emotional judgment. Usually, it is predicated on how much you want to drink at that particular time. Perhaps your birthday is a “special occasion,” but maybe you decide Columbus Day deserves a night of debauchery, too. Where is the line on special?

I once knew a guy who said he drinks only on special occasions: days that end in the letter Y. That fellow is dead now; he died at 44 years old from liver cancer. Addiction has deleterious eventual outcomes.

If “up” and “down” days tempt sobriety, then start working a program because you’re close to relapsing. There are no excuses to drink. Take the privilege away from yourself.

Each day you don’t drink is a special occasion. Know that your future is brighter because you’re abstaining from something that took a lot from you. You don’t need it anymore, not now, or not on any occasion