Day 4 and my campaign is running hot! Thanks to everyone who has donated so far!
Here's the next in my series of 31 reasons why I'm doing Dry July. Introverts ahoy!
Happy Independence Day to all my USA whanau!
Day | Tuesday 4th July |
|---|---|
Days without alcohol | 19 |
Funds raised | 1,952.90 |
Badges earned | Top of the world |
I'm feeling | Stoked |
Alcohol and social situations
As a young man I was painfully shy in social situations. Being an introvert by nature I found making small talk difficult and always approached parties and other social events with trepidation. It was easy for me to have a drink thinking it would relax me (it didn't really).
Alcohol has been a social lubricant since prehistoric times. Every culture around the world has its own form of alcohol and some ritual attached to it. In modern Aotearoa a social event without alcohol is unusual.
It was even more so when I was growing up in Ireland, where the pub was an extension of your living room and a visit to the pub was the default social gathering for friends.
A school-friend of mine, who sadly I have lost contact with now, was unusual in that setting in that he never drank alcohol. Because the pub was such a centre of social activity he would still come along with the rest of us but he never ordered anything stronger than a coke.
I remember vividly his response one time when someone quizzed him “you can get drunk on an atmosphere” he said. He was strong enough as a person to be able to resist booze for the sake of fitting in without losing any social currency as a result.
I had a personal experience along the same lines recently when I attended an industry event for work. The organisers provided food and drink at the after-work event just as I’m sure was happening at hundreds of other similar events across the country that same day.
Because I was choosing to not drink alcohol, I selected a zero-alcohol IPA. Just holding something that looks like a beer in your hand seems to be enough to tick the social box (otherwise you would inevitably get the raised eyebrow with the “not drinking?” question). I actually enjoyed it as much as I would have an alcoholic beer, proving that it is as much the taste as the alcohol that I enjoy.
To the sober person in a crowd, it’s really noticeable how the booze gradually affects everyone around you. People think that they are becoming more interesting, eloquent or funny when in fact many are in various ways just making fools of themselves.
It is a literally sobering thought that I must have appeared like that to many people on many occasions in the past. Thank goodness everyone was in the same alcohol-filled boat.
I now know that I don’t need to take that risk, I can be myself with or without a bottle in front of me.
And that’s my fourth reason for doing Dry July.
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