I always felt like Carrie Nation, till I read in Ike’s “name-a-drink” thread that there are other tea-totalers on the Board. Who else doesn’t drink, and why?
I’m violently allergic to the stuff, due to medication I’m on. Till I was 20, I was as big a toss-pot as any of you. But now, even the alcohol in cough syrup or in foods (“cooked-out,” my eye!) will give me nausea and a headache. If I actually down a whole drink, I’ll be woofing up, with chills and pains, for two days.
Whoops! How’d I find myself in here? Where’s the door?
There’s a pork chop in every beer.
Whoo-Hoo! Drink all you want kids! Eve’s designated driver!!!
If knowledge is power, then just call me PEPCO.
I wouldn’t call myself a tee-totaller, but I don’t drink much. I didn’t spend my younger years getting hammered all the time, so I have no resistance. One beer and I’ve got a light buzz, two or more and I’ve got to stop.
I still over-indulge from time to time, but only once, maybe twice a year, if that.
Cristi, Slayer of Peeps
I made my husband join a bridge club. He jumps next Tuesday.
(title & sig courtesy of UncleBeer and WallyM7!)
I’m the designated driver for my crowd. I tend to avoid drinking since it only takes one margarita to have me singing.
Two and you’d better take me someplace private. 
Chrisbar
Too new to know better…
St. Chrisbar: Patron Saint of Newbies who have already caught on to the fact that nothing else matters, as long as your post count is high.
Courtesy of SwimmingRiddles
I drink, but I don’t have a fixation on getting drunk. In fact, I don’t like being drunk. I’m a control freak, and while “repressed” really doesn’t apply to me (I am terribly spontanious and erratic IRL, sober,) not being able to tell what I am going to say from minute to minute bothers me.
Plus, both grandfathers were alchoholics, and I since I have an addictive personality in general, I drink only in VERY moderate doses.
“I go on guilt trips a couple of time a year. Mom books them for me.” A custom made Wally .sig!
My iguana's sick.
He's all floppy. Could he have
Reptile dysfunction?
-Chef Troy, Haiku MasterI drink, but I don’t have a fixation on getting drunk. In fact, I don’t like being drunk. I’m a control freak, and while “repressed” really doesn’t apply to me (I am terribly spontanious and erratic IRL, sober,) not being able to tell what I am going to say from minute to minute bothers me.
Plus, both grandfathers were alchoholics, and I since I have an addictive personality in general, I drink only in VERY moderate doses.
“I go on guilt trips a couple of time a year. Mom books them for me.” A custom made Wally .sig!
My iguana's sick.
He's all floppy. Could he have
Reptile dysfunction?
-Chef Troy, Haiku MasterSo you don’t feel alone, I’m with you, Eve.
I’ve got several good reasons. I could go on about my grandfathers being alcoholics, and family troubles, I could talk about not understanding the mentality of trying to make yourself sick, or losing control, etc, ad nauseum.
But I have a more practical reason. All alcohol tastes like gasoline to me. Really. And I should know, having had some gasoline spurted in my mouth trying to siphon some as a kid - I needed it for the lawnmower. Yummy stuff.
It tastes awful, and the more I drink, the worse it tastes.
Besides, I don’t have to be drunk to act goofy.
I love to get a good buzz on. I don’t do it like I used to, but the desire’s still there.
Oddly, the speed at which I get drunk is apparently based upon how much talking I’m doing.
Y’know, I got rather a late start as a drinker {chorus of He’s making up for it now!}. I was a teenager in the Glorious '70s, and one of the ones who addleheadedly felt that he was making a Statement about a Brave New Nation by smoking all the dope he could get his hands on. Alcohol was for the jocks and the squares, man.
So I didn’t drink much of anything until my sophomore year in college, around 1980. Couple beers with friends in the afternoon after clesses. Started keeping a fifth of bourbon or gin in my room, and it usually lasted for a month or two.
And for the past few months I’ve been skipping alcohol during the week, and sticking with beer and wine on the weekends.
The weird thing I’ve noticed is that, at every Straight Dope get-together I’ve been to (on the New York/Chicago axis) we’re all TOTALLY TRASHED BY MIDNIGHT. Why is that? Is it our glee at actually being together that lures us on to the Vodka Shampoo? Do we turn into pumpkins otherwise?
I don’t drink, and it’s not because I am not yet 21. I’ve had plenty of chances (parties, countries where it would have been legal, etc.) but I abhore the idea of a chemical changing my personality. My dad was an abusive alcholic, and I use that as an excuse, but it’s not true. He gave me more a fear of being hit than drinking.
I am also very uncomfortable with being around people who are excessively drunk, people who are too young to be drinking, and people who are taking illegal recreational drugs. I tried to explain that here once, but a lot of people seemed rather angry at me for it. I think they just didn’t pay attention to the fact that the friends who I asked not to drink or do drugs around me were 16 and 17 years old.
My fiancé rarely drinks, because he knows how uncomfortable it makes me. He has told me quite a few times that he is happier being sober with me, than being drunk alone.
I would’ve gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for those meddling kids!
Oh yeah, before anyone says “caffiene,” I am trying to give that up. I really hate the idea with a passion, and it’s probably the main reason that I have never taken anti-depressants (though I’ve been advised to).
I would’ve gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for those meddling kids!
I don’t drink, either. I’ve had alcohol one time, and that was when someone at the party slipped amaretto in the punch. Man, I was sick after that. Between that episode of illness and an early childhood spent in a home with an alcoholic family member, I have been turned off to alcohol. My boyfriend and I also had a discussion one night and agreed about one thing: who wants to ingest anything that, over time, changes your personality and can obliterate the memory? Not me.
Christopher Robin Hood - he steals from the rich and gives to the Pooh.
…not…drink… Hmmmm… still trying to put those words together and have them make sence. 
I was sad because I had no shoes, until I saw a snake with no legs.
Well, I’m a recovered alcoholic–in June, it will have been 10 years. My life works a hell of a lot better without booze and drugs, so I’m gonna kep doin’ what I’m doin’!
Cessandra, I meant to ask you something - were you in Europe when you said you had had the opportunity to drink under 21? If so, was it as easy to find water at an equal or close price to wine/liquor? I’m going to France this summer and do not want to drink if I don’t have to. Thanks!
Christopher Robin Hood - he steals from the rich and gives to the Pooh.
I drink occasionally. I’m going to a dinner party at a friend’s house this weekend, so I’ll probably have some wine. The next time will probably be at the Chicago Dope get together next month.
I was never a big drinker. The days of going out and getting totally wasted came and went for me in less than a year when I was about 19. I don’t much like being drunk. I know I act like an idiot when I am. And I am so sick the next day. It’s just not worth it.
I never hate myself in the morning. I sleep till noon.
–Custom sig line courtesy of Wally
Geo, congratulations.
As for myself, I just can’t stand the taste of any kind of alcohol. The moment it touches my lips I just want to gag. Beer? Disgusting! Wine? Barf!
:: running away very fast ::
I have chainmail underwear.
I can’t speak for the young’uns, but my excuse is that I am a goddamn dinosaur.
My main reason for being a teetotaler is that my husband comes from a long line of alcoholics, and has had difficulty with the stuff himself. It’s just a fact that he *can’t * drink; and if he can’t, then I won’t, as a matter of respect.
“There are more things you don’t know than there are things that I do know. I despair of the imbalance.” – Dr. Morgenes, The Dragonbone Chair