Totally anecdotal, YMMV - but in my late 20s I drank an awful lot. (Probably) Not problem drinking, but we'd go out 3 or 4 times a week and I'd get pretty drunk

Totally anecdotal, YMMV - but in my late 20s I drank an awful lot. (Probably) Not problem drinking, but we'd go out 3 or 4 times a week and I'd get pretty drunk on most of them. I also enjoyed (and still do!) a casual drink - particularly back then just sitting in a pub with a book while I had a few pints. From time to time I went through phases where I challenged myself to just cut booze completely for a month. Often I liked how I felt at the end of the month, so it would roll for a few more weeks, until (usually something like) I was having dinner with someone and thought "I'll have a glass of wine". Assuming you have no actual addiction to alcohol, it felt to me like I couldn't have fun for about 2 weeks, especially if everyone else was drinking. Then I realised that I could have fun and I was just self conscious. And then I'd either let myself go a bit and enjoy the evening, or realise that really drunk people are borderline intolerable and go home. Either way worked and no one cares in the morning. Basically what I'm saying is you don't need to 'replace' anything, you just need to power through with not drinking for a few weeks - if you're used to doing something - going out and drinking, then going out without drinking will feel weird so you have to learn to enjoy it differently. As an aside, "I'm on antibiotics so I can't drink but still wanted to come out" is an easy get out clause in the first few weeks if your friends are hassling you to 'get on it'.