Cocktails, wine, and beer are as ubiquitous as street-corner Santas during the holidays, and it can be hard to resist the peer pressure when Girls Night Out turns into Girls Gone Wild. Try these sneaky tricks when you’ve had enough, says David Hanson, PhD, an alcohol expert from the State University of New York at Potsdam:
Carry around a drink that looks like alcohol, such as tomato juice, lemonade, or water with ice. Or pretend your Diet Coke is spiked with rum.
Conveniently lose the drink. If someone presses a drink on you, after she leaves just set it down and walk away.
Use humor, like a funny turndown: “I can’t tonight—I’m performing neurosurgery in the morning.”
Practice smiling and saying, “No thanks.” The more you do it, Hanson says, the easier it gets.
