havent had an alcoholic drink since my 18th birthday part which was over a decade ago now (which makes me feel ancient 🙁 )

I may be drink 2-3 times a year and probably no more than 1 or 2 bottles of beer or a glass or two of wine. I was a big drinker in the past – gave up about 10 years ago. Age caught up with me, but I can’t say that I miss it.

I stopped in January this year when I decided that being fat at 16 and half stone wasnt good for me.

Hence getting back into bikes and this mornigns weigh in was 11st 12lb and 32in jeans down from 40in so it must be better for me.

I’ve never been able to stand the taste of anything alcoholic. And now I’m beginning to suspect I lack the gene to process it, since even half a measure of whiskey or similar gives me a terrible headache right at the front of my head within a few minutes of drinking, without any symptoms of inebriation, then it goes after about half an hour.

Not drink alcohol, no not going to try that one thanks.

Very rarely drink pints – maybe one pint at pub quiz night or something but that’s it. Can’t drink proper beer/ale either so I have to resort to lager which just means all the proper beer drinkers take the piss. 😳 I’d much rather have a good coffee to be honest.

I like red wine though, will have a glass or three with dinner when I’m with friends. And I like whisky mac too, it’s a nice winter drink after an evenings fell run or ride sitting by a nice pub fire.

I drink when I go out with friends. That is it. I have no intention of making booze necessary for having a nice relaxing evening at home though. I just don’t see the point. Biking is my booze :p

i stopped on new year’s day, 1988.
if i hadn’t, i’d be dead by now.

Only a couple of times a year for me when out with mates. Don’t really like the taste of it anymore.

i stopped on new year’s day, 1988.
if i hadn’t, i’d be dead by now.

Props to you.

I sometimes wander if we’ll look back in 20 to 30 years and think the same way about booze as most people do now about smoking. Jesus H! people really did that to themselves? They paid through the nose for a substance that damages them.

I havent had alcohol in over 8years & dont miss it.

mrs_oab has not drunk in years – just does not agree with her and makes her feel ill.
Both of us are light drinkers – I love a good beer, or whisky now and again. I probably have an alcoholic drink once a fortnight.

I never really got into drinking, tried a few flavours of beer/wine 1 glass normally never liked the taste and it made me very ill, so I just dont bother

Median weekly alcohol consumption is zero, but I have the occasional beer or wine. I don’t get drunk.

Is there anyone on this thread who’s never drunk alcohol in any significant amount?

I am not a none drinker, however i used to drink heavely at uni and the year or so after i would be out every monday, Wednesday Friday and saturday, occasionally the days between too.

I have cut back and only drink very occasionaly now christmas, birthdays, new year,and the od drink with the family probably no more than 7 or 8 days a year.

No reason for it just don’t fancy it. It never had an effect onmy life i was always fit and healthy and i haven’t lost weight or got any fitter since stopping.

Yes Molgrips 4 years at Uni boy did I drink! that’s probably why I don’t so much anymore, don’t really like thep erson it turned me into.

I have to resort to lager which just means all the proper beer drinkers take the piss.

That’s terrible, I’d never do that. 😉

I was hammered last night and could do with cutting down.

Don’t drink at all. Anything alcoholic tastes bloody awful. Plus I wouldn’t drink anyhow as I hate to feel rough and I have two small kids so the last thing I’d want them to have to see is dad drunk frequently or with a hangover.

Lived in Ibiza for years and was drunk and coked up every single day, just got bored of it and kids are way more important.

Good beer, wine and whisky.

Not a lot of it though, you’ll rarely see me drunk.

That said, I could do without alcohol, I have no love for it.

Hmmmm, just need to figure out a way of extracting it from fine wine and beer 😉

Only during the week (I don’t drink). It’s a very easy “rule” to implement, it has clearly definable boundaries etc. Also if I’ve had a really bad day it’s easy to make the logical jump to “Having a drink tonight is solely for use as a crutch which is a Bad Thing so don’t do it”.

However I have found that tends to mean drinking less at the weekend too. Winner all round. I can now fill in those medical things and genuinely tick the lower ranges without any “adjustments”.

I drank for the first time on Saturday since August ’11 because I lost a bet. Didn’t add anything to the night and wrote the day after off.

Back to not drinking again for a far better net result at life.

I was teetotal for a few years but started again a few years back. But I rarely drink still, a month can go by without easily and then it’ll tend to be a couple of ales followed by a couple of whiskeys rather than a real session. Occasionaly I’ll pick up a couple of bottles of something in the supermarket if I’m in the mood but generally we don’t have much alcohol in the house.

As someone said above, nothing wrong with anything in moderation.

you don’t drink?

What a terrible idea. I’ve been drunk for nearly two months.

Ok, you’ve convinced me. I’ll give it a go this week.

Off the sauce until the weekend….

BTW, what can I expect to happen during a week of sobery-ness ?.

Is there anyone on this thread who’s never drunk alcohol in any significant amount?

I’m interested in this too – and er, why*?

* I’ve never done any drugs, just scared of the out-of-controlness-and-trusting-someone-whose-making-mind-altering-chemicals-for-me really, so am wondering if its for the same reasons

I never really drank much at all.

As a student at the start of my last term in my final year we went to the art college bar flush with a grant cheque.

I drank in moderation but someone must have spiked my beer. I was seriously drunk, my friends put me in a taxi, there was no hope of me riding home.

I lived in an Edinburgh New Town basement. The coal bunker door was immediatly opposite the house door. Somehow I confused the two and ended up in the coal bunker……butt naked.

I awoke freezing at dawn with no idea where I was or how I got home.

Worst of all the taxi driver had stolen all the cash I had.

As I said, I didnt drink much before then, I seldom ever drink now.

I drank in moderation but someone must have spiked my beer.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

I haven’t drunk for over two years. I used to enjoy it, and drank most weekends, but the hangovers got worse and worse and I got sick of wasting my weekends nursing a hangover. No drink means more time for getting out on the bike, and more money to spend on new shiny bits for it!

I only ever intended to give up for a few weeks, but the extra energy, money and time I gained seemed to make sense, so I never started again.

I still go out to the pub with drinking friends on occasion, and the view of drunk people as a sober person is really something everyone should experience at least once. A bit like a window onto your own past behaviour.

Some people can enjoy a few pints and enjoy their night, but most drinkers have had at least one night where they overdid it. For me abstinence is the easiest way of avoiding that happening again. You do have to modify your social life to adapt though – staying in a club until 4am is not as appealing when you aren’t looking through the ‘goggles’.

One huge benefit is being able to drive everywhere. I can travel to clubs and gigs much further away and not have to worry about accommodation or transport. If a party gets out of hand, you can always jump in your car and escape 🙂

Each to their own – I certainly don’t have a problem with others drinking, but I also think as a society we put far too much emphasis on drinking and pubs, and it’s sad that not drinking is seen as ‘weird’ or ‘alternative’. I might have given up a lot earlier had I known anyone else who had done the same – you feel a bit outcast at first.

I probably have a drink every couple of months, I had two bottles of cider at a works do last week then switched to coke.
I’ve been properly drunk once this year.
I’ve gone a couple of years before without having a drink. It just doesn’t bother me – I used to drink quite a lot in my 20’s but guess I just grew out of it.
Given the choice I’d rather drive on a night out than drink.

I haven’t had a drink for 19 odd years now. I don’t like the taste of alcohol and stopped drinking it when i was 17 (so when most were just getting started). I discovered that i could have more fun sober and it ment that I never had to worry about getting home. It also meens that you can remmeber all the embarassing things that others have done.

Each to their own – I certainly don’t have a problem with others drinking, but I also think as a society we put far too much emphasis on drinking and pubs, and it’s sad that not drinking is seen as ‘weird’ or ‘alternative’. I might have given up a lot earlier had I known anyone else who had done the same – you feel a bit outcast at first.

agreed, although in my experience you never really stop feeling somewhat on the outside of things at times due to how all-pervasive alcohol tends to be in our socialising. you just learn to accept that there’s going to be times you will feel like you’re a total alien, to be honest!

Like a lot of people here, I’m not tee total but instead a very occasional drinker, happy to take it or leave it and never more than a couple of pints at a time.

The common theme among the posters here seems to be the lack of importance that they place on drink. I don’t regard it as a big deal but friends and colleagues think it is an essential element of any social event. This is proven by the lengths and expense they go to with taxi’s etc just so they have have a drink and therefore ‘have a good time’.

I usually offer to drive because I’m not bothered about drinking, this is always met with the ‘don’t you want to have a good time?’ argument. That makes me want to drink even less!

agreed, although in my experience you never really stop feeling somewhat on the outside of things at times due to how all-pervasive alcohol tends to be in our socialising. you just learn to accept that there’s going to be times you will feel like you’re a total alien, to be honest!

Absolutely. I’m fairly sure when I was drinking I would have viewed teetotalers with the same suspicion. It seems to be such an uncommon thing when you’re in a pub full of drinkers, but the point is exactly that – the people who don’t drink are off doing other things. It’s finding those other things (and people) that is the hard part, at first.

I imagine it’s much easier to have never drunk, as your social circle would likely have more people in it that don’t default to ‘pub at weekend’. Coming from a more party/pub-orientated youth means you’ve naturally acquired more drinking friends than non-drinking.

I totally agree that socialising can be harder though – the UK in particular seems to focus all social activities around drinking. Not drinking at something like a stag-do is met with some bewildered looks. However, not being hungover the following day, or waking up to bizarre photos you don’t even remember being taken do make up for it somewhat 🙂

’tis interesting what Franks says ^^.

I’ve been confronted by a whole list of “good ideas” from my work colleagues about how to get home, how to organise my time, and indeed, how to have a good time at the office Christmas Party (including eye fluttering young ladies), becuase apparantly thats a good time for me to “fall off the wagon early”.

Frankly, that whole “here’s how inconvienient it would be” reminder, plus the anticipated hangover / wandering around cold in town has put me right off.

I shall turn up and do my duty with a couple of glasses of / Coke Zero and make my way home.

I shall then in the morning have an inner smirk at the stories of those that have shamed themselves, and those with banging headaches.

‘don’t you want to have a good time?’ argument

This is what people who have never grown up say, hence the immature mentality towards drinking*

Mature adults couldn’t really give a monkeys if you drink or not.

(* or, they don’t really like you / each other & are basically saying “I can’t tolerate spending time with you unless I’m drunk”)

I got bored of feeling shit and making a **** out of myself so gave up for a few years. Now I have a few every few months, but even then I shouldn’t as the thought of a few beers is much better than the reality.

For me there is no where to go after 2 pints – stop drinking and soon feel a bit tired and rough OR keep drinking and it all gets messy.

5 pints and I’m leathered, then it’s 3 days before I feel right again…a heavy price to pay for something not that great.

you can drink and not have a hangover you know.
you can still ride your bike as much

everything in moderation!

you can drink and not have a hangover you know.

I can drink quite a lot and not have a hangover, this I see as a problem.

There seems to be quite a lot of people who don’t drink at all.

Do you not like enjoying a nice wine or beer? If not, fair enough. if you do, is it not possible for you to just have one or two (ex alcoholics excluded)?

I’m not a fan of getting drunk, but to never taste a fine wine or tasty ale just seems a bit much.

On the ability to appreciate certain drinks/cost to health:

Heaving drinking = lose/lose
Zero drinking = lose/win
Limited/moderated drinking = win/win

?