Comment by mc3 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mc3 | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

* All the cliche health benefits and then some! Car analogy: you'll fire up the other 2 cylinders while no longer needing to tow a caravan. Combine with exercise and better diet which will be easier to stick to due to no drugs to sap your will power.

* Ability to drive places. Not worry about being "DUI" the same or next day.

* You'll exercise your ability to say no! In the UK for example it is sacrilegious to not drink unless you have a good excuse, which apart from religion (along with appropriate ethnicity to make that believable) there seems to be no acceptable excuse. So you can say "fuck you, I'm not drinking that shitty poison" and be an outcast for a while, then find people worth hanging out with.

Australia is not as bad because of the sport culture. "My personal trainer said no" is acceptable and most places I have work have had a mild to zero drink culture.

Not sure about the US, but I get the impression that like Australia and unlike UK, Russia, etc. it more acceptable to not drink.

> Australia is not as bad because of the sport culture. "My personal trainer said no" is acceptable and most places I have work have had a mild to zero drink culture.

That's a pretty specific edge case.

If you're sitting at the pub with friends or work colleagues and you're the only one not drinking, you can expect some irritating comments.

I've learned to deal with it. I've figured out the main reason people push a drink on you is to justify their bad choices (e.g if you're at the pub with Bob and he's sinking 12 pints tonight, he doesn't want a reminder that he's killing his body and will have a terrible hangover in a few hours).

When I tried to stop drinking in college, I used to fill empty beer bottles with water to drink at parties. This helped a lot with social pressure. I reckon one could do the same in a pub if the bartender is understanding and discrete, but I never tried it.

Nowadays just get some Topo Chico (carbonated water) or you can drink the Heineken Zero.

> Not sure about the US, but I get the impression that like Australia and unlike UK, Russia, etc. it more acceptable to not drink.

Very acceptable in the US, members of multiple prominent religious groups in the US don't drink.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com