OpenYourEyes

If anybody else follows a no junkfood/alcohol diet, do you have any advice on how to stay off those substances even when all your friends getting drunk or eating McDonald's? I can do it most of the time but I still feel left out and a little...Showoffy? Help please.

chillaplata

I had a good friend some years ago who loved to go out to bars and clubs, but never drank alcohol. He'd just have a glass of club soda in his hand all night, so most people didn't even realize he wasn't drinking. If the subject came up -- if someone was buying a round of drinks and asked what he was having, for example -- he just said, "No thanks, I don't drink" and left it at that.

No one ever hassled or teased him about it. I knew his parents owned a pub, so I always assumed that either he had an alcohol problem or he just had so much firsthand experience of the effects of alcoholism that he decided not to drink. I never asked him, though.

Try that approach with your friends. If they give you a hard time or make you feel uncomfortable, maybe you should find a new circle of friends -- or at least spend less time with the "friends" who are trying to make you conform to their notion of having fun.

chillaplata

Another approach is just to tell people that you are taking a break from drinking because (i) you've been drinking too much recently or (ii) you're trying to get in better shape. A couple of times over the past few years I've given up alcohol for a month or two -- usually because I'd been drinking WAY too much for months and months -- and I often just said as much when people commented on my not drinking (very unusually for me). You don't really owe anyone an explanation for why you are not drinking, but if you want to explain yourself I always found it easiest to just be open and candid about it.

I understand what you mean about not wanting to seem "showoffy" -- you don't want to come across as some kind of health nut or goody two-shoes -- but as long as you avoid being ostentatious or sanctimonious about it people should respect your decisions and not think of you any differently because you're not drinking.

Macy13

Peer pressure has always been there.Generally,it starts during middle school as it can start a bit earlier or a bit older. It starts mostly in middle school because that is when the mind starts wondering.You become more curious about your body and its functions and trying new things as well as wanting to be an adult.



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