People who don't drink- why don't you?

Our relationship wasn't healthy so I broke it off.

I quit 31 years ago (at age 43) because once I started drinking, no matter what it was, I didn't stop until I was drunk. Not a good situation.

To my surprise, not a single person ever gave me any crap, probably because I'm not judgmental about anyone else's drinking. I can be around people drinking. It's fine. When they get drunk and stupid, I don't give them crap; I just leave.

Navigating college? I drank in college. To excess.

I do not drink and never have. I have tasted it before but have never had more than a few sips. There are three reasons: 1) I don't like the taste, 2) I don't have the desire to ever not be in control if myself, and 3) my grandfather did not drink, and he is the one person In the world I admired the most. So I grew up seeing that it is OK not to drink.

I was never really given a hard time about not drinking. I would get the occasional question as to why or how do I stand being around drunk people. But no one ever really said anything negative about it, at least to my face. Occasionally, people expressed admiration, especially girls, and especially ones who had a family member that was an alcoholic.

I believe that the key to navigating a place like college, where drinking is an obsession with some people and a social focal point for most is twofold: 1) Being confident in who you are. I never felt weird telling someone I didn't drink. Subconsciously people can sense confidence, and are more willing to afford respect to someone they sense is just being who they are. 2) Never acting or saying anything to imply that not drinking is better than drinking, and never encouraging someone not to drink (outside of driving situations). I had a fake ID to get into bars, if I threw a party I always had plenty of alcohol for guests, I would encourage a date to order wine. If my friends had a good time by getting drunk, that's great. I want my friends to have a good time.

I wound up marrying a girl whom I met while she was bartending. Bartenders get hit on by drunk guys all night. It helps being sober.

liverlover wrote:

Also, how much crap do you get from colleagues, co-workers, friends, etc. for not drinking? How'd you navigate college as a teetotaler?

I do not imbibe the devil's nectar...........

That was a bad attempt at a joke.

That said, I do not take alcohol AT ALL!

As a college student in KEnya, I tried to drink beer (TUSKER) but gave up.

Reason?

I hated the taste!

I can't stand the taste of beer. I also hate being tipsy. The fact that I don't like the taste of beer makes me very umcomfortable taking beer. It takes me (or used to take me) over 2 hours to down two bottles of beer (1 litre).

I also don't like liquours, spirits and all that crap. I can't stand it.

I am a tea guy. I drink lots and lots and lots of tea..............and coke.

It's now 13 months and few days since drinking last time. I was 35 yrs old then, so I was over when drinking was REALLY fun and the hangovers were not that bad. I started to almost hate the feeling when drunk, or even if I only took a couple of beers, not to mention the feeling of the next day if I took my usual max amount of about 6-8 beers. Never was a heavy drinker. My daughter was also growing to a point where she would've started to notice the transform of a nice, normal dad to a drunk weirdo with slurred speech.

Drinking really can have an effect on your personality even in the days when you don't drink, and I want to be me all the time.

stop the trolling wrote:

I still can't decide if you are a troll or one of the most insufferably pedantic aholes of all time. Probably both.

Having tried heroin, coke, lsd, shrooms, mdma, weed and meth, I can tell you that alcohol is not even close to being the strongest drug. Stop spouting off about crap that you don't understand.

Bad Wigins wrote:

College kids are hog wild over alcohol as it is their first chance at unrestricted drug use and it's the easiest to get. And really it is the most powerful drug out there. But it's not long-lasting in terms of euphoria, because of how it's metabolized, so it should get old after a few years of experience and seem pointless.

You're just a self-righteous idiot. If you knew half as much about drugs as you think you do, you wouldn't assume your experience was unique, let alone act proud of it.

I'd explain why alcohol is so strong, but all you're worth is insults. Get a life, if you can.

NativeSon wrote:

I hated the taste!

I can't stand the taste of beer.

It is truly disgusting, as are all foods derived from grass. It also smells terrible and the smell lingers.

Wine is ok, but lingering drunk is still an awful smell no matter the source.

Weight is everything when it comes to good running. Booze makes you fat.

After constantly getting violently ill from the stuff (and obviously over-indulging) during high school just cuz that was "expected", I realized I wasn't using it as a social lubricant or anything- so what was the point in making myself sick and depressed with something meant to be recreational? Freshman year of college was a little awkward saying no all the time but it was just a matter of finding the right friends. Now ironically I'm a professional musician, am in bars/around alcohol and alcoholics constantly, but nobody really cares that I don't drink. It also makes me a farrrrr worse musician. Most people take it as one of my eccentricities that I refuse the booze.

Alcohol kept me from my goals and aspirations. I was not doing well in school, running or enhancing my relationships with my friends in college. I looked down the road and I saw no good things coming from it.

Now in my 20s and it's coming up on 6 years without a beer or drink. I only regret it in the context of social schmoozing with work friends. It is hard to say what impact it's made on my life. Running has been mixed for me. At the very least I've not had any difficulty maintaining racing weight and I eat like a horse whether I'm training or not.

I am still very rich in close friends and regularly attend social events where alcohol is abound and no one makes me feel badly about it.

My perhaps contentious bottom line is that if alcohol is hurting you at work, school, socially, fiscally, or physically and athletically, then you have a problem. I have had several friends in their early 20s come forward to recognize they had problems and plenty more or continue down destructive paths. You can have an issue without a chemical addiction.

Why not drink?

$$$ Expensive

Fat inducing

Beer belly women

Democrats steal my tax money that would otherwise be Beer Money.

Unless you have a mental illness like Bipolar, PTSD, BPD, Schizophrenia and such then there is absolutely no excuse for drinking. Some people in desperation medicate themselves with alcohol.

It's curious to see so many people that seem to be unable to have any control when it comes to alcohol.

How is one not able to just have a nice beer after a trail run, or mowing the lawn, or at a ball game? You can't stop at one or two? You must have eight+? Do you eat five pizzas? Two dozen donuts? Drink a case of Pepsi?

For me, it's not even self control. After two I don't really want anymore. More is not better. The same as eating 20 slices of pizza. I don't want to eat 20 slices of pizza.

Beer, wine and other are essentially types of spoiled grains and fruits. They are acquired tastes. I would much rather eat a fresh sweet grape than a spoiled one.

I do not feel a need to alter my reality by using drugs like alcohol. Real life non-fiction is interesting and crazy enough.

There are a million real life things to do that do not center around drinking alcohol. I found it odd that people would have a party where the main focus was a keg. I have more fun doing things where alcohol is not the center of attention.

I gravitate towards people that do not judge me because I do not drink. Those who give others crap for not drinking tend to obsess about drinking too much for my tastes, so I do not hang around with them. Lots of other people out there who do not put such a big emphasis on drinking, so I hang out with those.

It would be shallow and prejudiced to judge people, and give them crap, for not running. Even as a serious runner (maybe somewhat obsessed) I would never give anyone crap for not running.

John utah wrote:

It's curious to see so many people that seem to be unable to have any control when it comes to alcohol.

How is one not able to just have a nice beer after a trail run, or mowing the lawn, or at a ball game? You can't stop at one or two? You must have eight+? Do you eat five pizzas? Two dozen donuts? Drink a case of Pepsi?

For me, it's not even self control. After two I don't really want anymore. More is not better. The same as eating 20 slices of pizza. I don't want to eat 20 slices of pizza.

Your analogy is not that goood. Pizza is not a drug. Alcohol is. I cannot blackout the past or present or whatever your issue is by eating more pizza. You see.

this and this wrote:

Beer, wine and other are essentially types of spoiled grains and fruits. They are acquired tastes. I would much rather eat a fresh sweet grape than a spoiled one.

Dumbest reply on the entire thread.

So you also don't eat bread, anything pickled, most cheeses, yogurt, miso, soy sauce, anything with vinegar, any kind of dry-aged beef, black tea, vanilla, chocolate, or any other product made with the help of yeast or bacterium?

Right.

klubkip1 wrote:

Unless you have a mental illness like Bipolar, PTSD, BPD, Schizophrenia and such then there is absolutely no excuse for drinking. Some people in desperation medicate themselves with alcohol.

Yea I have pretty big issues with mental illness. I was self-medicating and one day looked at all the bottles on my desk and decided that I needed to quit. I'm very glad I did.

waste of $$$

get laid, a lot, without it

klubkip1 wrote:

John utah wrote:

It's curious to see so many people that seem to be unable to have any control when it comes to alcohol.

How is one not able to just have a nice beer after a trail run, or mowing the lawn, or at a ball game? You can't stop at one or two? You must have eight+? Do you eat five pizzas? Two dozen donuts? Drink a case of Pepsi?

For me, it's not even self control. After two I don't really want anymore. More is not better. The same as eating 20 slices of pizza. I don't want to eat 20 slices of pizza.

Your analogy is not that goood. Pizza is not a drug. Alcohol is. I cannot blackout the past or present or whatever your issue is by eating more pizza. You see.

Not sure if that's true. Most people who have weight problems say they eat to feel emotionally better. You know, "eat your feelings" and all that.