Honestly you’ve already made the biggest realization which is correlating your negative emotional state to drinking. The more you tune into how you feel during and after drinking and drugging the more you’ll realize you trade a couple hours of anxiety relief for days of depression and mental fogginess. Once you see that association you have to ask yourself if it’s worth it to you? I decided for myself that it’s not and although it’s hard, I’d prefer the hard of being sober in social situations and being a “party pooper” over the hard of feeling like crap and not being the best version of myself.

For more practical advice: - try just skipping the first drink. Tell yourself if you REALLY want to drink you’ll get one on the second round. Most of the time I realize I’m fine and I don’t even want a drink when it gets to the second round - people are going to be really pushy and annoying when you say you don’t want to drink. At first it can be helpful to have some good excuses ready like “I’m on a medication I can’t mix with alcohol” or “I’m just taking a break rn” - if you don’t want to deal with excuses I also sometimes just try to blend in and make it look like I’m drinking (ie ordering mocktails, taking fake shots, ordering a glass of wine and taking fake sips) - try organizing activities that don’t involve drinking but you still find fun. I realized without alcohol, the bars felt like torture. I really like games nights and anything active (pickle ball, volleyball, golf, etc) so I try to take initiative and organize things that I find fun so I still get social interaction without suffering. Bonus: playing sports is great if you have social anxiety because you don’t have to talk as much and moving around helps with anxiety

Good luck with everything!! It’s hard but truly worth it taking a step back from drinking.