I stopped drinking alcohol some years ago. Before that I hardly consumed any alcohol at all for many years, but in my college years and maybe some years after that, I drank socially like “everybody else”. But I gradually kind of got tired of dealing with the bad feelings (physical and emotional), so I drank less and less.
And maybe because I drank less and less, even one beer often just made me feel kind of bad, so then I just stopped altogether. Anyway, I’m curious if this has happened to anyone else? And how do you go by it socially? What do you order at a bar? Maybe I’m a little afraid to go to places that has an “alcohol culture”, even if there are some places I would like to go. I don’t want to drink, but at the same time I don’t want to appear weird about it either.
Any adult pushing you to drink alkohol is weird (when not yet drank any, I shall prepend).
The coolest thing to do is your own thing. So just pass with a smirk and tell them right out:
I don’t need a drink to think you are fun!
With all the health implications of alcohol that’s not a bad problem to have. Might be worth remembering that any time you do go somewhere that’s heavily “alcohol culture” there’s a lot of people there wishing they were you.
I don’t drink nearly as much as I used to. Not that I ever did a lot anyway. But after having my child I noticed drinking made me way more impatient instead of relaxing me. Now I really only drink when my wife and I go on a date. I do partake in a good THC gummy fairly frequently now though. They are quick and easy to make you feel good and I don’t get that impatience from it. But I normally take it after my child goes to bed anyway. Helps me sleep and doesn’t make me feel bad the next day.
Same here. I bought a big bottle of gummies and cut them up into smaller cubes. Now I can just pop a cube or three for however much I want to feel that day.
I don’t drink any more for the same reasons. There’s plenty of people who don’t drink at all due to whatever choices like religion, health, etc.
If people ask I just say “nah I don’t drink because of health complications” 99.9% of people don’t push any further. I just order water or a soda if I’m feeling it. What im drinking isn’t anyone’s concern.
The weird part is thinking you’re appearing weird. Literally noone cares. Go have fun.
Yeah, I think this is how it is. I think I’m appearing weird even though people probably cares less than I think. I guess it is why I wrote this question. I’d like to know how people got over this phase and stopped worrying. Blaming health complications feels somehow dramatic… but maybe I’ll use that one if someone really pushes and it’s half true in my case anyway.
The number of times I think “A drink sounds good” is zero, and always has been. It doesn’t relax me or reduce my inhibitions. My wife likes to drink though, and it does those things for her. She definitely enjoys it more when I drink with her, so I do sometimes. I actually kind of enjoy the taste of a good tequila, but would pretty much always prefer a good root beer.
So I drink as much as ever, but if I lived alone it would be pretty much never.
This is so interesting. I’m not in a relationship now, but if I was and my partner would like to drink, what would I do? I don’t know. I don’t really want to rule out potential partners if they enjoy some drinking. So did me being alone this time make me go from one beer to zero, or would I have gone to zero anyway.
Yeah, I for sure understand. And to be clear, there’s zero peer pressure for me, it’s just I know it enhances her enjoyment. And it’s not really much of a negative. I mean, if I drink too much I get the swimmy head and stuff, but I just stop short of that.
I sort of envy people who get the buzz, relaxation, reduced inhibitions, and whatever. I just don’t.
I tapered right off and didn’t drink anything for about two years. Covid lockdowns and everything being closed made me romanticise the idea of going to a pub and having a nice cold beer. Once I was able to again it was glorious.
Now I drink occasionally but it’s mainly either one or two with a meal or socially. Importantly I drink when I want to and I don’t want to - I won’t.
When I wasn’t drinking, I didn’t really have any issues. Most of my friends don’t drink much which helps. Soft drink or alcohol free beer are good options. Or water. Or coffee. Whatever. I once ordered a cup of tea while everyone else was drinking alcohol. It was great.
It helps if you’ve got a driving purpose for not drinking. Mine was weight loss. Drinking was counter-productive to weight loss so it seemed like a backwards option.
Simple by changing how I interact with the world. With alcohol I also leave disco and pubs because that places working on that. Living healthy by preferring doing sports, if this mean become a weirdo I don’t give a fuck.
When I was younger drank like a fish, full bottle of whiskey, vodka, rum, at a time. I’m turning 45 in a few days and last drink I had was 3 weeks ago. Last time before that was several months. I’ve gotten to the point where I’d much rather just have water.
This happened to me. I stopped enjoying the way alcohol made me feel and alcohol consumption is not generally a good idea when mixed with mental health medications. So I think my alcohol consumption went down steadily until I didn’t drink anymore. I really enjoy non-alcoholic beers. There are some excellent craft ones that have sprung up in recent years.
Me too! I was drinking 0% beer while writing this post. Some are really good. And now that I haven’t drank in years, I actually often double check the label if the beer really is 0%. It’s weird.
Most of the NAs contain a very tiny amount of alcohol, statistically negligible. I think it’s something like 0.001% or some thing like that. Anyways, I digress - the NAs do taste like the real thing. The one thing I notice however is that you have to drink them faster once opened because they tend to go bad quickly.
I have shifted the occasional cocktail or two after work to a vaporizer bag of home grown indica. Still a crutch, but I won’t feel like death the entire next day.
Your replacement sounds amazing
Sativa for me. Give me a good, smooth sativa and I’ll clean my entire apartment and catch up on my chores.
The exact same thing has happened to me. I still have a beer every now and then (like once every two months or so). I pretty much can honestly say that if I drank any less, I wouldn’t drink at all.
I’ve never been that much of a drinker, but once I reached my forties, having a beer or two would invariably mean that I would need to take a nap a few hours later, and I just don’t need that interfering with my day. And I am cognizant of the recent studies have shown that there is no health benefits, only detriments, to any amount of alcohol at all. And add that I would pretty much always prefer the taste of a diet soda to a beer on almost any occasion, I’ve pretty much almost completely phased out alcohol in my life.
It helps a lot when most of your friends don’t drink much, either. That said, does any one else really care whether you drink or not?
My friend circles do not really care, or at least I hope they don’t. Most of my friends drink very little as well. There was some semi-awkward discussions about alcohol politics at some small parties when I decided to stop altogether, but I think that was that.
I’d quit cold turkey after I had a couple concerned buds spoke to me
I intentionally stopped drinking about 10 years ago. I found that post divorce me was drinking more that I was comfortable with. So I stopped.
I do not think I was an alcoholic, but there seem to be many definitions for that word. I may start drinking again someday. But we will see, no plans now to start again.
I am not at all opposed to people drinking. I will even go with you and be the designated driver. But many bars really do not even try to accommodate non drinkers. I have had some fucking awful spicy virgin marys.
I do think that THC gummies are healthier than drinking. But I have really slowed my use of them because I think they were affecting my already bad memory.
I went from drinking mid week and weekends. Then to just weekends. Then to every other weekend. Eventually I just stopped. It takes a lot to get me feeling drunk enough to call it worth it, and by that point I feel gross, so really it’s not worth it.
I stopped drinking about 35 years ago. I wasn’t a big drinker. I was living in London and after a night out preferred to drive home rather than get the night bus or a cab so I just stopped. I would have a glass of lemonade or a coke when out with friends. It only took about 5 years for my friends to stop trying to cajole me into having a drink.
