After two years of not drinking any alcohol, I don’t really think about it that much anymore, until it comes up and someone says, sometimes sheepishly, that they have cut back on their drinking too. It’s almost like a secret that, once revealed, everyone starts talking about as if it was the standard all this time.
Thanks to mocktails and a desire to broaden the customer base, bartenders and restaurants have wizened up to offer much more of a selection of non-alcoholic drinks. I’m not one of those people who demands that the world bend and bow to my lifestyle, so if a bar or restaurant doesn’t offer specific non-alcoholic choices on the menu, it’s not a big deal. Same thing with being around people who drink – I’m not the sort who requires everyone or anyone around me to abstain, and I’m perfectly comfortable being the only person in a sea of hundreds who’s not drinking. That’s getting further and further from the norm, however, and every day it seems I hear from someone else who has stopped drinking.
There are more of us out here than we may realize, and while such numbers don’t always make a difference, sometimes they do. It may be that the people you’re with are waiting for someone else not to partake in imbibing. I didn’t realize how strong social pressure could be for others, as that is, unlikely as it may seem, not something that ever influenced my drinking. As a grown adult, I’ve always made my own decisions and have rarely been swayed by public opinion. The only pressure I felt to drink was doled out by myself, and once I took that out, stopping wasn’t such a big deal.
For others, though, who find comfort in having a drink in hand and the social-inhibition blunting of a stiff cocktail running through their blood, drinking may be a comfortable way of blending in and not standing out. In certain situations it’s just easier to take the damn shot than make a scene, even the most minor of scenes, of switching it out. When you become known as a non-drinker, it’s less of an issue.
For all those who are cutting back, or doing a Dry January, or simply saying no to one drink at a time, this is a friendly reminder that you’re not alone.
