I stopped drinking alcohol some years ago. Before that I hardly consumed any alcohol at all for many years, but in my college years and maybe some years after that, I drank socially like "everybody else". But I gradually kind of got tired of dealing with the bad feelings (physical and emotional), so I drank less and less.
And maybe because I drank less and less, even one beer often just made me feel kind of bad, so then I just stopped altogether. Anyway, I'm curious if this has happened to anyone else? And how do you go by it socially? What do you order at a bar? Maybe I'm a little afraid to go to places that has an "alcohol culture", even if there are some places I would like to go. I don't want to drink, but at the same time I don't want to appear weird about it either.
The exact same thing has happened to me. I still have a beer every now and then (like once every two months or so). I pretty much can honestly say that if I drank any less, I wouldn't drink at all.
I've never been that much of a drinker, but once I reached my forties, having a beer or two would invariably mean that I would need to take a nap a few hours later, and I just don't need that interfering with my day. And I am cognizant of the recent studies have shown that there is no health benefits, only detriments, to any amount of alcohol at all. And add that I would pretty much always prefer the taste of a diet soda to a beer on almost any occasion, I've pretty much almost completely phased out alcohol in my life.
It helps a lot when most of your friends don't drink much, either. That said, does any one else really care whether you drink or not?