Thoughts on hosting a "soberversary" party or gathering?

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If I do anything at all it’s typically a dinner after the meeting with friends after I’ve picked up a chip.

It’s definitely a weird gray zone though; how to balance celebration with humility…

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Best to try a virtual party. Playing games and such with friends and enjoying time together to celebrate but often it's social gatherings that people end up slipping up at. This way people can be apart of it if they want to or at least join in and leave their avatar in the party as a sign of support and congratulations. It's also a way to avoid social anxiety, possible peer pressure (mostly flash backs to peer pressure and social "norms"), and to not feel obligated.

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My wife did it for my 1 and 5 year sobriety birthdays. It was a lot of fun.

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I’ve done it, my first year was full of important milestones but I’m not feeling the need to do it again. My life is a sober life, the celebration is daily. The rewards are everywhere.

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This is an interesting idea. I can see why doing so might be beneficial for some people - sobriety is a big accomplishment and one that I can understand wanting to celebrate. I don't think I'd personally ever want to hold one, though. I'm not big on celebrating myself to begin with and would rather just reflect on the accomplishment on my own.

To each their own. Sobriety and how we do it is a bit like snowflakes. For me, personally, it would feel presumptive, as in it infers and creates a sense of soberness as "I've done it, I'm solid, there is no chance of relapse". I like humility in my program and avoiding victory laps, other than getting a coin and telling close friends and family that I've reached the milestone via text. But just because I've reached year 2 for example, I have zero guarantee year 3 is a given. Day at a time. Be in the present. Work my program. It's not about me, it's about my sobriety.

It would highlight to those you care about the journey you’ve been on and reinforce the journey you will continue

Wow count me in my wife just celebrated 14yrs and I well I am at a month starting fresh and feel great

I don’t understand the humility talk here. You could make the argument then that nothing can have a party. 10yr wedding anniversary? Nah saying you made it so it’ll all fall apart now.

A party or celebration doesn’t have to remotely be about having “made it” or lack humility. It can be about recognizing an important event/time passing and many times it’s about bringing together people who have been around you during /for that event. Birthday parties being a prime example of zero “achievement” basis and more about the community and marking the passing of time. Whys does this have to be different than a bday party?

Look if you want to celebrate cuz you think you have this all figured out. Yeah that’s clearly not great. Which I suspect you know. If this is for any other host of reasons that are very reasonable, it seems fine to me.

It be nice to make friends that are working on being sober... A lot of old friends of mine still are not and it makes it difficult to hang out...

I thnk that is such a great Idea OP and it absolutely deserves to be celebrated. I think we should celebrate more than just birthdays, weddings and babies. Anything that is important to you deserves to be celebrated.

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