The Challenges of Summer Vacations

Sometimes the challenges of summer vacations are due to simply changing your schedule – you might be out of town for a week or two, or even longer. You no longer have your usual support network at your fingertips, especially if you travel abroad.  However, there are some things you can do to prepare for this, and these are especially critical if you are in early recovery and still building a foundation.

First thing to do is find out where the meetings are in the place where you are traveling. Frankly, you have to go someplace pretty darn rural and off the beaten track to not be able to find a meeting.  If you are going overseas to a place where you don’t speak the language, investigate where English-speaking groups meet. They are EVERYwhere.  Americans living abroad have built quite a nice network of 12-step meetings, especially in popular destination cities such as Paris and Rome.

It can be pretty fun to go to a meeting in some of these countries. Back in the early 90s I went to a meeting in Dublin and they asked me to speak.  Now there are some language differences even though we all speak English.  I remember speaking about drinking a pint  a day and I wondered why people were looking at me funny.  Truth is, they couldn’t understand why I was in AA if I only drank a pint a day (they consider that one beer).  I didn’t think to clarify that it was a pint of Vodka.  It was pretty hilarious to find this out after the meeting.  I’m sure many left thinking, “Those Americans sure are lightweights! If I could keep myself to a pint of lager a day I sure as heck wouldn’t be in this meeting!”

I’m not sure what meetings are like in Scotland these days – back in the early 90s they were a far cry from American meetings. First off – everyone seemed either depressed or pissed off that they were at a meeting. They sat in a big circle quietly brooding with sullen looks on their faces.  This was very different from my meetings in NYC where laughter and comaraderie were the usual staples of a meeting.  I’m hoping over the last 10 years things have gotten a bit more sunny in those rooms.

There are quite a few English-speaking meetings in Paris because it’s filled with ex-pats.  The people in them are very friendly and helpful.

Remember that pre-planning is important – you don’t want to be in a country trying to communicate you need to find a meeting in pidgen French!

When you are planning a vacation, when considering your choices also consider your sobriety. If you are 1 year sober, a cruise is probably going to be more challenging than a trip to Disneyworld. Face it, cruises are giant booze parties in most cases. You are trapped on a giant floating bar.  Might not be the best place to be if you are still on shaky legs.

If you are going someplace rural – camping or hiking – make sure you bring along your paperback Big Book or daily meditations to help. Fortunately, unless you are camping with a bunch of boozers, you won’t have many temptations in the back woods.  The bigger temptations can come in countries where alcohol has a strong presence everywhere.   Sometimes people do not understand why you won’t have just one glass – so be prepared to defend your right not to drink.  Generally the easiest thing to say is I’m allergic – or I have a medical condition and the doctor said alcohol could kill me.  Whatever it takes to get the person to back off!

There aren’t any hard and fast rules on traveling in recovery – the best thing to do is plan in advance for any issues you think might arise.  If you are planning to travel with other people who will be drinking, it could be a good idea to have at least one person who knows you are and can be a sounding board should things get stressful.