I get it. You don't drink. But please shut up about it

[justteanbiscuits]

A friend gave up drinking earlier this year. That's fine and completely her decision.

I rarely drink, and honestly get 'drunk' maybe twice a year - and by drunk I mean just quite tipsy, not Drunk with a capital D. Due to health reasons, I didn't drink at all for five years, and it's only the last two I've started drinking occasionally when out / at a party.

We're off to a mutual friends party in a few weeks. I plan to have a few drinks. The friend has already started with the sanctimonious "you'd enjoy it so much more if sober", people don't need to drink to have fun, you should try not drinking etc etc.

How do I politely tell her to shut the fuck up. Yes, I don't HAVE to drink, but I'm choosing to. I like occasionally getting a bit tipsy.

I'm better than a stalker? I'll try not to let the praise go to my head!😂

Following people around?

Tell her that you need to have a drink to put up with her sancti-sober personality.

😄😄

I hope i haven't offended you, seriously? Your journey sounds a healthy and life improving one x

Drinkers and non drinkers aren’t the problem.

The problem is people who think they have a right to preach to others.

I haven’t drank for 10 years. Personal choice.

I have friends who don’t drink.
friends who have a few.
friends who like to work their way though the cocktail menu one by one 😂

We all manage to have a night out together without what someone’s drinking or not being a hot topic of conversation.

I see some have managed to shoehorn in some vegan bashing ….yawn

As my mil says: There’s no virgin like the reformed tart.

It's also quite amusing when you see a drinker taking the piss out of a non drinker all night, but they're delighted if they're offered a lift home at the end of it.

Not at all. It made me smile.
I'd never in a million years have had myself pegged as a non drinking thin vegan. I spent three decades enjoying a drink and eating animal products and being not thin.
Thing is, I'm 57 now and I want to live a very long time. I've got grandchildren to see grow up and so much left to do and see, and I want to give myself the best chance. Eating this way and not drinking makes me feel I'm doing something towards that. (Though I know the juries out on veganism, it's done me the world of good, so works for me.)

Anyone who feels the need to preach/be sanctimonious about what they are/are not putting in their body are hugely tedious. Unless I am hosting someone I don't need to know any of that information - in the same way that I wouldn't tell them the full list of medication I am taking or how often I get a sausage injection. No one else's business what you do/don't put in your body is it?! Bore off!

Same. I have been asked once but it was because I'd been nominated for and won something. Usually they'd give people bottles of wine or beer

I generally find that most people don't care

The reformed drinkers on here are very boring, I agree.

I couldnt disagree with her more about a party being more fun sober.

I have run/worked in many pubs, and had six full term pregnancies, so I can say without fear of contradiction that drunk people are so BORING when you are sober! The jokes aren't funny, the chats are nonsensical and you want to go home far sooner than they do. As the vast majority of people will be drinking you have a choice......be bored or join in. So I choose to join in, far less painful!

Oh, every time. How do you know someone isn’t vegan? Don’t worry, they’ll tell you.

OP, I’d be tempted to just broach it in terms of ‘Do you realise how much you bring up your sobriety in conversation? Are you struggling with it and need a chat?’ You don’t need to make it sound pass agg, either. You could just frame it like it’s something she talks about a lot, so does she want a proper chat about it so you can set it aside and move on. If she refuses to move on, you’re getting into firmer ‘we’ve exhausted that topic so shall we talk about something else?’ territory. But you don’t have to tolerate her validating herself by sneakily criticising you. You don’t owe her sobriety anymore than she owes you drunkenness.

With people who tend to wax lyrical about their passion of choice I tend to go with "Oh are you teetotal/religious/swingers? You never said!!" Unless they are spectacularly thick, that usually gets the message across.

The only time I ever talk about not being a drinker is when drinkers are tying to insist I should drink.

🙂 x

100%, I think you've done amazingly and rewards will speak for themselves honestly

Oh, every time. How do you know someone isn’t vegan? Don’t worry, they’ll tell you.

I have lots of vegan friends, I am not. But we all accommodate each other, and dinners tend to be pot luck so everyone is catered for. But there is a certain type of person who frames their whole personality around it. My MOH at my wedding has been vegan since she was 15 and we are now in our 50's. She got REALLY pissed off with the new GF of one of our friends wanging on about her veganism, said it gave everyone else a bad name and I agree with that! I think that most people really dont give a shit either way unless they are not vegan and you are coming for dinner, then they panic!

Romesh Ranganathan is (or used to be, not watched him for years) really bad for this. "Well as a vegan obviously I am very concerned about the decline in teaching standards".

Oh god I agree. A woman I know through work has started a whole bloody Instagram account about her ‘sober journey’ as if anyone GAF.

I'm so impressed with this though, I've tried, I'm weak. A multi pack of prawn cocktail fell into the basket this week...again.

That’s the problem is t it?

not whether someone drinks or doesn’t.

That others think they have a right to force their personal choice onto others.

I don’t drink. My friends have never forced me. In fact if they are on the cocktails and they have one they really like they’ll try and find me a non alcoholic version. Or I drink non alcoholic cider.

Usually the only time who has drank what comes up is them apologising for anything they said drunk because I drive everyone home 😂

'Sausage injection'

👀😏🤭

Its the same with people who are claiming to have MH issues , autism… they always tell you and it’s boring

This.
It’s actually pissed me off this comment.

My daughter is underweight due to a medical problem, she’d do anything to be bigger, she struggling with clothes fitting. She eats ok just can’t put on weight. She’s absolutely tiny.. and she’d rather not be.

shes not the worst ffs

Kinda proving the point here NGL