social pressure doesn’t count if you don’t give a fuck what others think about you.
Paywall article..
Ive had this issue my whole life, everywhere i went i was the odd one out because i didnt get plastered every weekend.
I drink alcohol maybe 6x a year
I’m a very occasional drinker (most of the time I drink one or two glasses of alcohol in a week) and I hate it when I’m not into drinking alcohol, asking for a soft and getting weird looks and stupid remarks like “oh shit, are you sick mate?”
Ha, plebians, I had my first and last (half) pint at 14. Hated the taste, never bothered “learning to drink it”.
Social pressure? What kind of environment do you live in to have pressure to drink in 2023? Nobody ever bothered me about it. When everyone takes a beer I ask a coke zero. Nobody batted an eye. Not the first time, and especially not now when I’m 32.
Nonsense article. I never even tried alcohol once. Really. Never. Not one sip. There isn’t any form of peer pressure to start drinking. It was my own choice. No I don’t have a family of alcoholics, no I’m not religious.
Whenever people offer me alcohol I kindly decline and say I don’t drink. That’s not peer pressure.
I don’t care what others do. My wife enjoys of glass of wine sometimes. Good for her. I don’t.
What social pressure?
I stopped drinking once my gf stopped smoking when we tried for a kid.
Two months in I realised I used to drink too much. It took me a full stop to realise how bad it got. It’s not just that it’s regarded an achievement to stop drinking…
The main reason (for me) is that alcohol is deemed a vital part in the Belgian culture that it’s allowed to show ads for strong beers and whatnot while ads for tobacco related products are prohibited. Not judging people who drink though, but I do judge the way that alcohol is not condemned like tobacco. It should be, or at least the ads should stop. Things like drunk driving are a menace to society.
I don’t drink, never have. Never encountered any form of social pressure despite going to a cafe multiple times a week.
I once was black-out drunk, and questioned what the fun of it was. If I can’t remember that I had a good time, did I have a good time? And was being drunk essential to having a good evening?
I concluded that experiencing a fun evening that I remember was more important.
I basicly stopped drinking at that time.
As I started to decline drinks, it also made me realise how problematic alcohol is in general.
People literally think you have to drink before you can have fun, which is sort of sad if you think about it.
There’s 2 main reasons;
1) to lower inhibitions (“I need it to get loose”, …) – which basicly means you’re too stuckup in your normal life.
2) as an excuse for consequences (“I was drunk, I didn’t know what i was doing”), which is obviously bad as well.
Drinking is most definetly considered the norm, and people will at least make a comment about it.
Even if you drink for the occassion, people will still go “op 1 been kunt ge niet staan”, “de fles moet op”, etc
I’ve been “geheelonthouder” for 32 years. It helps that my usual gang of friends aren’t drankorgels either so I don’t really feel any social pressure to drink at all.
But it does get annoying that the default gift for any occasion is a bottle of wine or something.
That quote from the article, from the server who poisoned the mocktail, that’ll stay with me.
I love that there are more and more good mocktails, but they are most of the time overpriced (€6 for the mocktail and €8 for a cocktail), it would help if they’d become cheaper because I like this more than soda and for me it takes no effort to decline alcohol and to opt for a mocktail instead of a cocktail (okay it’s not summer now but you get the point)
My partner and I got in a bad habit of drinking something alcoholic every day during the last lockdown. We then decided to try a month without alcohol and we haven’t started again since. Well, especially my partner stopped almost completely. I continued drinking on social occasions, but I started noticing how it impacted my energy and even after one or two beers I would feel I’d slept less well. Now I still drink a glass every 2 or 3 weeks, usually a special beer, but most of the time I’ll go for water, tea or mocktails. My peers seem to be doing the same, so there’s no pressure to drink there. I did quit sodas completely, so together with drinking way less alcohol it became easier to keep a steady weight and my dentist visits aren’t too unpleasant anymore.
I drink beer when I play D&D and when I play boardgames, but usually 1 or 2 tripples and thats it. Wine I drink on very cold winter evenings or at a special dinner. Liquor gives me massive stomache acid, so no thanks.
Personally when I go drink with my collegues on rare occasions I do notice a certain pressure.I’m usually sipping my beer and before it’s half empty a new one is allready there, and this happens several times, Or the classic “Nog eentje, nog eeeeentje” “Eeeeeentje maar” It’s really unhealthy toxic shit that I’m not fond off at all.
So I’ve switched to just starting out with water and at the end when the rest is already fucking plastered and it’s the last round I drink one beer if I feel like it.
No social pressure at all. Drinking alcohol is not cool or anything. It would be better to drink less anyway. I personally feel a lot better when not drinking for a few days and I drink very little to begin with
From my experience there isn’t a lot of social pressure to drink in casual situations. I don’t see people forcing you to drink after sports or when you go out to a restaurant.
If you have the right friends, there also isn’t any pressure when going clubbing (let’s call it that). However I’ve always found those evenings horrible if you don’t drink, being surrounded by the stink of sweat and puke, listening to terrible music and seeing people do stupid things.
I think you’re only being forced to drink when you’re surrounded by toxic people, the wrong kind of friends and student fraternities come to mind.
Look at me i don’t drink, going against the norm!!!!
Stop lol, no one cares, yeah sure the culture here accepts drinking, but who cares, your free to drink, or not to. I know 100% sure these types of people condemn others for drinking, while parading their ideals as being “accepting”.
At band rehearsal we all just drink Jupiler 0.0% because one bandmember is strictly against drinking alcohol and TBH it never bothered me.
No pressure, but when someone states “he or she doesnt drink” I do ask if there is a particular reason, out of intrest
going against the norm usually has a reason, so I just ask why
there is a whole world of flavours you are missing out, not need to be shitfaced to enjoy a good beer, whine or spirit
Having a good drink is fun. It is one of our best products and there is nothing wrong with having a good ale after a working day and enjoying your last hour before chores. It is good that there is awareness now and also about driving drunk, but I hate this period of December and januari in which all media seem to post “shaming”-articles about enjoying a drinks . New strategy: “young cool people drink nothing”
Seems like the Christian style of denying yourself things is still popular…now overtaken by some InFlUeNcERs
I never learned how to drink regularly. Since the first time I tried alcoholic beverages, I never liked the taste. Occasionally I would say yes because I wanted to try but I never enjoyed it. And I didn’t want to learn how to like it. To me alcohol is like any other drug. I think this social pressure trope is very exaggerated. Sure my friends offered me drinks from time to time but when I said “no” once they didn’t insist. And after a while they knew I don’t drink alcohol and never asked me again. The social pressure is what you yourself make of it or you have terrible friends.
So many comments here saying they’ve never had peer pressure when not drinking, I don’t understand.
I did tournee minerale a couple years ago and it was frikking hard ONLY because of the peer pressure. Family, friends, work. Everywhere I had to explain and defend myself. To the point where I’d drink just to make them happy (I didn’t).
A few times I was bob for going to a party a bit further away. Once I drank 2 beers when I arrived (cause I was thristy and intje is gintje) knowing we’d be there for a few hours. The amount of people that kept offering me beers for the rest of the evening was insane. Standing around with a cola or ice-tea is an invitation for people to hassle you and no excuse seems to be good enough, not even having to drive 30mins home with a full car of friends.
I do feel like it has changed a lot in recent years, but when people say they had nothing but possitive reactions, I don’t really understand.
I do drink myself, but personally I hate the Tournée Minerale as I drink in moderation. I don’t mind people that do it, but I see a lot of people do it for the wrong reason. 11 out of 12 months they drink way too much and too frequent and then think they can make up for it by not drinking 1 month… and then just continuing as before.
As an avid padel player, the most problematic drinking i see is at my padel club and it isn’t age related. People there tend to drink way too much and the older ones will then still drive (even when offered a ride) where the younger ones will ride a bike home or walk.
I only drink on dates and special occasions like new years, birthdays,… people I hang out with know this and don’t give me a hard time about it. If someone does I don’t need them in my life.
Tournee mineral is just an excuse for a lot of people to keep on drinking when it’s over. A beer or glass of wine here and there won’t hurt you, but drinking because it’s a habit is just as destructive as smoking or doing drugs.
MODERATION is the key word here. If stoners or other drug users get stigmatised, so should daily alcohol users.
Me and my husband almost never drink when we go out. Yet everytime it’s a holiday (Christmas) my husband gets a cola without anything and I have to defend why I don’t drink (insinuating pregnancy)
I always say I need to take medication, that usually shuts them up. No problems amongst friends tho
Glad that as an aspie the idea of social pressure never made sense to me.
Couldn’t give 2 shits what others thought. I like my orange juice.
I can enjoy a beer on a hot summer night or the occasional cocktail on holiday in the evening but I’ve never been black out drunk or even had a hangover and I’ll keep it that way.
Though honestly, even if I did enjoy alcohol more I’ll tell you right now I’m too much of a cheapskate (no seriously, to an unhealthy degree) to buy a lot of alcohol in the first place.
Should be a personal decision. I drink myself tipsy/drunk once every weekend and I only have lots of fun that makes switch of from the stressful week. I do it now for -+/- 20years and don’t feel any discomforts or health issues. It rather gives me benefits of joy and keeps me going.
Growing up with an alcoholist makes it that I definitely cannot see the joy of anything alcoholic.
I don’t drink. Maybe 10 units in a year. I do smoke hella weed though, words cannot express how much better that is
Quite funny to see that the people that feel the social pressure of not drinking also seem to be less tolerant towards people that drink alcohol.
I totally get that being asked every time about it can feel annoying but most of the time it’s an innocent question, like knowing more about you but also knowing if it’s a permanent or temporary choice.
I rarely drink alcohol but have learned to really love wine. Besides wine I don’t drink at all. The so called social pressure to me would apply to hard liquors, beer etc. I view it like when you are stuck with kids smoking when you are younger. There is no so called social pressure as long as you do not give a fck because you don’t feel the envy to give it a shot.
I stopped drinking when I was 17. I’m 40 now and people still ask me why I don’t drink.
​
Sometimes I like to just joke around and tell them I only have 40% of my liver left after extensive drinking. No more questions asked.
I experienced both ends of the sword. Throughout my student carreer I became a severe alcoholic. For a couple of years I laughed off my behaviour as being a “high functioning alcoholic”.
Ofcourse after a while it all came crashing down. Dropped into a burn-out, depression and went into severe withdrawal cold turkey.
I quit entirely for a couple of months. I got the same backlash as everyone in the comments here.
I still struggle with it to this day. Sometimes I still drink too much and lose control, but mostly I manage fine.
It’s the guilt, the mental repercussions and the rebuilding of a life that is a big struggle.
Interesting to see that so many comments (ofc legitimately) mention the peer pressure and “getting drunk” side of alcohol without mentioning the purely gastronomical, liking-the-taste side of it.
I obviously knew people who just wanted to get hammered (and myself ocasionnaly do so if with the right people and in the right mood), but nowadays I feel like being way more around people who like the taste of it, like drinking different alcohols because they want to see what it tastes like, etc. Being drunk is seen as a positive side effect if controlled because it gets everyone jollier, negative if you’re definitely blacking out.
Not that liking the taste isn’t also a reason why people could become alcoholic, but it’s interesting to see nobody mention that as this is the prime reason behind small businesses or old traditional ones remaining so up-to-date and willing to create beers (money being part of it as well, but I like to think not everyone is in it just for that)
34 comments
social pressure doesn’t count if you don’t give a fuck what others think about you.
Paywall article..
Ive had this issue my whole life, everywhere i went i was the odd one out because i didnt get plastered every weekend.
I drink alcohol maybe 6x a year
I’m a very occasional drinker (most of the time I drink one or two glasses of alcohol in a week) and I hate it when I’m not into drinking alcohol, asking for a soft and getting weird looks and stupid remarks like “oh shit, are you sick mate?”
Ha, plebians, I had my first and last (half) pint at 14. Hated the taste, never bothered “learning to drink it”.
Social pressure? What kind of environment do you live in to have pressure to drink in 2023? Nobody ever bothered me about it. When everyone takes a beer I ask a coke zero. Nobody batted an eye. Not the first time, and especially not now when I’m 32.
Nonsense article. I never even tried alcohol once. Really. Never. Not one sip. There isn’t any form of peer pressure to start drinking. It was my own choice. No I don’t have a family of alcoholics, no I’m not religious.
Whenever people offer me alcohol I kindly decline and say I don’t drink. That’s not peer pressure.
I don’t care what others do. My wife enjoys of glass of wine sometimes. Good for her. I don’t.
What social pressure?
I stopped drinking once my gf stopped smoking when we tried for a kid.
Two months in I realised I used to drink too much. It took me a full stop to realise how bad it got. It’s not just that it’s regarded an achievement to stop drinking…
The main reason (for me) is that alcohol is deemed a vital part in the Belgian culture that it’s allowed to show ads for strong beers and whatnot while ads for tobacco related products are prohibited. Not judging people who drink though, but I do judge the way that alcohol is not condemned like tobacco. It should be, or at least the ads should stop. Things like drunk driving are a menace to society.
I don’t drink, never have. Never encountered any form of social pressure despite going to a cafe multiple times a week.
I once was black-out drunk, and questioned what the fun of it was. If I can’t remember that I had a good time, did I have a good time? And was being drunk essential to having a good evening?
I concluded that experiencing a fun evening that I remember was more important.
I basicly stopped drinking at that time.
As I started to decline drinks, it also made me realise how problematic alcohol is in general.
People literally think you have to drink before you can have fun, which is sort of sad if you think about it.
There’s 2 main reasons;
1) to lower inhibitions (“I need it to get loose”, …) – which basicly means you’re too stuckup in your normal life.
2) as an excuse for consequences (“I was drunk, I didn’t know what i was doing”), which is obviously bad as well.
Drinking is most definetly considered the norm, and people will at least make a comment about it.
Even if you drink for the occassion, people will still go “op 1 been kunt ge niet staan”, “de fles moet op”, etc
I’ve been “geheelonthouder” for 32 years. It helps that my usual gang of friends aren’t drankorgels either so I don’t really feel any social pressure to drink at all.
But it does get annoying that the default gift for any occasion is a bottle of wine or something.
That quote from the article, from the server who poisoned the mocktail, that’ll stay with me.
I love that there are more and more good mocktails, but they are most of the time overpriced (€6 for the mocktail and €8 for a cocktail), it would help if they’d become cheaper because I like this more than soda and for me it takes no effort to decline alcohol and to opt for a mocktail instead of a cocktail (okay it’s not summer now but you get the point)
My partner and I got in a bad habit of drinking something alcoholic every day during the last lockdown. We then decided to try a month without alcohol and we haven’t started again since. Well, especially my partner stopped almost completely. I continued drinking on social occasions, but I started noticing how it impacted my energy and even after one or two beers I would feel I’d slept less well. Now I still drink a glass every 2 or 3 weeks, usually a special beer, but most of the time I’ll go for water, tea or mocktails. My peers seem to be doing the same, so there’s no pressure to drink there. I did quit sodas completely, so together with drinking way less alcohol it became easier to keep a steady weight and my dentist visits aren’t too unpleasant anymore.
I drink beer when I play D&D and when I play boardgames, but usually 1 or 2 tripples and thats it. Wine I drink on very cold winter evenings or at a special dinner. Liquor gives me massive stomache acid, so no thanks.
Personally when I go drink with my collegues on rare occasions I do notice a certain pressure.I’m usually sipping my beer and before it’s half empty a new one is allready there, and this happens several times, Or the classic “Nog eentje, nog eeeeentje” “Eeeeeentje maar” It’s really unhealthy toxic shit that I’m not fond off at all.
So I’ve switched to just starting out with water and at the end when the rest is already fucking plastered and it’s the last round I drink one beer if I feel like it.
No social pressure at all. Drinking alcohol is not cool or anything. It would be better to drink less anyway. I personally feel a lot better when not drinking for a few days and I drink very little to begin with
From my experience there isn’t a lot of social pressure to drink in casual situations. I don’t see people forcing you to drink after sports or when you go out to a restaurant.
If you have the right friends, there also isn’t any pressure when going clubbing (let’s call it that). However I’ve always found those evenings horrible if you don’t drink, being surrounded by the stink of sweat and puke, listening to terrible music and seeing people do stupid things.
I think you’re only being forced to drink when you’re surrounded by toxic people, the wrong kind of friends and student fraternities come to mind.
Look at me i don’t drink, going against the norm!!!!
Stop lol, no one cares, yeah sure the culture here accepts drinking, but who cares, your free to drink, or not to. I know 100% sure these types of people condemn others for drinking, while parading their ideals as being “accepting”.
At band rehearsal we all just drink Jupiler 0.0% because one bandmember is strictly against drinking alcohol and TBH it never bothered me.
No pressure, but when someone states “he or she doesnt drink” I do ask if there is a particular reason, out of intrest
going against the norm usually has a reason, so I just ask why
there is a whole world of flavours you are missing out, not need to be shitfaced to enjoy a good beer, whine or spirit
Having a good drink is fun. It is one of our best products and there is nothing wrong with having a good ale after a working day and enjoying your last hour before chores. It is good that there is awareness now and also about driving drunk, but I hate this period of December and januari in which all media seem to post “shaming”-articles about enjoying a drinks . New strategy: “young cool people drink nothing”
Seems like the Christian style of denying yourself things is still popular…now overtaken by some InFlUeNcERs
I never learned how to drink regularly. Since the first time I tried alcoholic beverages, I never liked the taste. Occasionally I would say yes because I wanted to try but I never enjoyed it. And I didn’t want to learn how to like it. To me alcohol is like any other drug. I think this social pressure trope is very exaggerated. Sure my friends offered me drinks from time to time but when I said “no” once they didn’t insist. And after a while they knew I don’t drink alcohol and never asked me again. The social pressure is what you yourself make of it or you have terrible friends.
So many comments here saying they’ve never had peer pressure when not drinking, I don’t understand.
I did tournee minerale a couple years ago and it was frikking hard ONLY because of the peer pressure. Family, friends, work. Everywhere I had to explain and defend myself. To the point where I’d drink just to make them happy (I didn’t).
A few times I was bob for going to a party a bit further away. Once I drank 2 beers when I arrived (cause I was thristy and intje is gintje) knowing we’d be there for a few hours. The amount of people that kept offering me beers for the rest of the evening was insane. Standing around with a cola or ice-tea is an invitation for people to hassle you and no excuse seems to be good enough, not even having to drive 30mins home with a full car of friends.
I do feel like it has changed a lot in recent years, but when people say they had nothing but possitive reactions, I don’t really understand.
I do drink myself, but personally I hate the Tournée Minerale as I drink in moderation. I don’t mind people that do it, but I see a lot of people do it for the wrong reason. 11 out of 12 months they drink way too much and too frequent and then think they can make up for it by not drinking 1 month… and then just continuing as before.
As an avid padel player, the most problematic drinking i see is at my padel club and it isn’t age related. People there tend to drink way too much and the older ones will then still drive (even when offered a ride) where the younger ones will ride a bike home or walk.
I only drink on dates and special occasions like new years, birthdays,… people I hang out with know this and don’t give me a hard time about it. If someone does I don’t need them in my life.
Tournee mineral is just an excuse for a lot of people to keep on drinking when it’s over. A beer or glass of wine here and there won’t hurt you, but drinking because it’s a habit is just as destructive as smoking or doing drugs.
MODERATION is the key word here. If stoners or other drug users get stigmatised, so should daily alcohol users.
Me and my husband almost never drink when we go out. Yet everytime it’s a holiday (Christmas) my husband gets a cola without anything and I have to defend why I don’t drink (insinuating pregnancy)
I always say I need to take medication, that usually shuts them up. No problems amongst friends tho
Glad that as an aspie the idea of social pressure never made sense to me.
Couldn’t give 2 shits what others thought. I like my orange juice.
I can enjoy a beer on a hot summer night or the occasional cocktail on holiday in the evening but I’ve never been black out drunk or even had a hangover and I’ll keep it that way.
Though honestly, even if I did enjoy alcohol more I’ll tell you right now I’m too much of a cheapskate (no seriously, to an unhealthy degree) to buy a lot of alcohol in the first place.
Should be a personal decision. I drink myself tipsy/drunk once every weekend and I only have lots of fun that makes switch of from the stressful week. I do it now for -+/- 20years and don’t feel any discomforts or health issues. It rather gives me benefits of joy and keeps me going.
Growing up with an alcoholist makes it that I definitely cannot see the joy of anything alcoholic.
I don’t drink. Maybe 10 units in a year. I do smoke hella weed though, words cannot express how much better that is
Quite funny to see that the people that feel the social pressure of not drinking also seem to be less tolerant towards people that drink alcohol.
I totally get that being asked every time about it can feel annoying but most of the time it’s an innocent question, like knowing more about you but also knowing if it’s a permanent or temporary choice.
I rarely drink alcohol but have learned to really love wine. Besides wine I don’t drink at all. The so called social pressure to me would apply to hard liquors, beer etc. I view it like when you are stuck with kids smoking when you are younger. There is no so called social pressure as long as you do not give a fck because you don’t feel the envy to give it a shot.
I stopped drinking when I was 17. I’m 40 now and people still ask me why I don’t drink.
​
Sometimes I like to just joke around and tell them I only have 40% of my liver left after extensive drinking. No more questions asked.
I experienced both ends of the sword. Throughout my student carreer I became a severe alcoholic. For a couple of years I laughed off my behaviour as being a “high functioning alcoholic”.
Ofcourse after a while it all came crashing down. Dropped into a burn-out, depression and went into severe withdrawal cold turkey.
I quit entirely for a couple of months. I got the same backlash as everyone in the comments here.
I still struggle with it to this day. Sometimes I still drink too much and lose control, but mostly I manage fine.
It’s the guilt, the mental repercussions and the rebuilding of a life that is a big struggle.
Interesting to see that so many comments (ofc legitimately) mention the peer pressure and “getting drunk” side of alcohol without mentioning the purely gastronomical, liking-the-taste side of it.
I obviously knew people who just wanted to get hammered (and myself ocasionnaly do so if with the right people and in the right mood), but nowadays I feel like being way more around people who like the taste of it, like drinking different alcohols because they want to see what it tastes like, etc. Being drunk is seen as a positive side effect if controlled because it gets everyone jollier, negative if you’re definitely blacking out.
Not that liking the taste isn’t also a reason why people could become alcoholic, but it’s interesting to see nobody mention that as this is the prime reason behind small businesses or old traditional ones remaining so up-to-date and willing to create beers (money being part of it as well, but I like to think not everyone is in it just for that)