Am I the only non-drinker on the planet?

[Jeebo]

Am I the only one?

I read, watch TV and movies, attend operas and plays, and work with a lot of college students, and I constantly wonder, WHERE are the 20 to 25 percent of the general population who don't drink alcohol? It often seems to me as if those demographics are completely bogus and I am in fact the only one.

When I was a kid I was subjected to all the same peer-pressure influences to drink that we all are. Inevitably, as an adolescent, I responded to that peer pressure by trying to drink. And yet, unlike my peers, I just could not stand the stuff. To me, it was vile, putrid and made me physically ill. I NEVER got anything positive out of it, only misery. I tried beer, wine, hard liquor and mixed drinks. I tried the "good" or expensive stuff as well as the "cheap" stuff, and I couldn't tell the difference. It was all equally foul and uniformly putrid to me.

Finally, when I was about 25, I came to my senses and realized, "Hey, I just can't stand this stuff. Just because everybody else seems to like it doesn't mean I have to." In almost 30 years since then, I have not touched a drop of alcohol, except for two times when I was with some friends over dinner who were drinking wine and curiosity impelled me to ask for about an ounce of it. Nothing had changed; the stuff was still vile and putrid to me and I gagged and choked on it.

I am posting this in an attempt to discover if there is ANYBODY out there in the whole wide world who is like me. Because in my 54 and one-half years on this planet, I have never seen any indication that there is.

Ron

P.S. -- Please don't call me a "tee-totaler." I have looked up the definition of this term in several dictionaries, and they all use words like "abstain" or "refrain" to define the term. This definition does not describe me. I do not "abstain" or "refrain" from alcohol in the same sense that I do not "abstain" or "refrain" from self-flagellation or self-immolation. That I never drink, flagellate myself or immolate myself is not because I am "abstaining" or "refraining" or resisting some inclination to do so, but because I have no desire or inclination to do so. So please call me a "non-drinker," not a "tee-totaler."

[ForrestGump]

1. Here I am

:D

Just not my thing, alcohol.

[Ernesto]

2. To each his own

Party on dude!

[angryinoville]

3. I don't drink either...

I stopped pretty much when it became legal for me to drink (really around 22). Beer is made to keep Americans stupid. Just look at their commercials.

[SoDesuKa]

4. You're Lucky

If you don't like booze, count yourself lucky. Personally, I don't like television. Never watch it! When people get mad at Tim Russert, all I can say is, he never bothers me.

Occasionally when the TV is on at the laundromat, or some similar public place, I'll get involved in whatever silly thing is on at the time. Watching Donny Osmond host "Password" is my TV quota for several months at least.

[Mattforclark]

5. 'Sup

My family history has problems with alcohol. Therefore I don't drink and never will. Simple, and I'm happy with it :)

[ikojo]

6. Non drinker here

I've never been drunk in my life.

[Mattforclark]

7. yeah!

:toast:

:beer: - that's coke, btw

[amazona]

8. there are a few but...

I think it goes along with what a friend observed a few years ago, "Non smokers are in the majority but whenever you actually go anywhere or do anything outside the house, the smokers are always in the majority." I'm sorry to say so, but a large proportion of nondrinkers/nonsmokers are involved in life-negating religions centered on negative, hate-filled, fundamentalist type religious movements, and they tend to isolate themselves. As a life-affirming, positive, liberal person, you are not going to move in those circles, so that takes huge numbers of nondrinkers out of your possible contacts. This is probably why it seems to you that "everybody" drinks except you. Most of the liberal, kind, decent nondrinkers I know are coming at it from the recovery movement, which is a completely different issue from being a person who never drank at all. We're all different in some way, I wouldn't worry about it.

[DAGDA56]

9. What a fantastic response!

here I was gonna try and come up with something snarky, but I liked your approach so much better.

[phaseolus]

11. I was gonna mention Mormons

That's where you'll find a big chunk of non-drinkers.

I drink very seldom, myself. I don't keep any alcohol in the house -- like the first poster said, it just doesn't do anything for me. I like my brother-in-law's homebrew, which actually tastes good, and I'll have the occasional beer or glass of wine when I'm forced to socialize during business travel. But people still look at me funny sometimes when I switch to club soda after my one drink...

[ikojo]

17. I am Jewish and have chosen NOT to drink due to

a family history of alcoholism (dad was an alcoholic as were many if not all of his siblings, of which there were 12).

With those genetics I didn't think it wise to indulge. It has only been within the last year or so that I took a sip of a beer to see what it tasted like. I didn't like it.

I'll stick w/Mountain Dew.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

10. I'm drunk right now

And stoned. :smoke: :beer:

[mr blur]

12. Nope

I can't stand the stuff either.

[catmandu57]

13. I gave it up also

At one time, I really enjoyed drinking, a cold beer after a long hot day tasted really good, especially after a hard days labor. When things fell apart, I seriously wanted to drink myself to death, being to chicken to suicide out. So, I drank, and drank, and drank, falling into a quickly descending spiral, I was well on the way to getting my mission accomplished unlike the moron in charge*, when I regained my senses.
I haven't drank anything for 19 years now and I don't want to, I don't care if other people do, that's the perogative. I can't and know it.
Where in mo do you come from? I'm up in the nw corner.

[theoceansnerves]

14. the best thing

is when you go to the doctor with a problem and they run down that list.. "do you smoke? do you drink?" and you say no i don't drink. and they don't believe you! "you don't drink? not even wine? or a beer?" NO i don't drink! the last doctor i saw kept hammering it and then finally asked "are you mormon?" :eyes:

[retread]

15. Like you I don't drink. Like you I tried everything. Unlike you I

liked them all!

[bobthedrummer]

16. I too am 54 years old, Jeebo. I don't drink anymore because I'm an

alcoholic. My drinking ended 6-18-81, my father died of his drinking.
I've had two episodes of drinking since then-one in 1985 and one in 1989 and took appropriate measures to stop both times.

It's weird to play a gig and have a lot of folks want to buy ya a drink because they like your playing...aside from that I'm doing ok without it for me and mine.