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.
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.