Excellent article, Tim, and thanks for writing it!! It’s starkly honest and open, and hopefully it will lead other people into the good life of sobriety. I think it’s cool you learned these truths about alcohol consumption and quit at such an early age… good for you!!! Best of luck to you in living alcohol-free!!

I live in a small town where it seems most people just can’t “do" life without drinking, my manfriend being ones of then. It’s like an essential, integral part of their lives and not up for debate because their brains are literally soaked in the liquid that skews our perceptions. To me it’s a sign of either an addiction or a lack of imagination (or both), because getting drunk tends to be one (is not the ONLY form) of their recreation/literature time. I realize that this type of attitude is passed down from generation to generation; so many of the heavy drinkers I know have kids--or, in some cases grandkids — who are also drinkers (or future drinkers) because their elders set the example that alcohol use/abuse is the "normal" way of living. There’s this whole “drinking culture" here (and I’m sure it exists everywhere, not just in the midwestern US) which says it’s perfectly “normal” to drink — and do it often/at every given opportunity, and often in front of their children (which I find incredibly sad, being a child of an addicted family), and “not normal" to be sober.

Thank heavens I’m not ensnared in that mindset/lifestyle!! Luckily my late mother opened my eyes and mind to this reality when I was quite young, and I did the same for my now-grown son who hasn’t, thankfully, fallen down the alcohol-soaked rabbithole.

I went sober for about 7 years and experienced all that you describe. I found people’s reactions to my not drinking (especially those who knew me “back in the day" when I drank my share) to be amusing. The joys and benefits of not drinking that you describe are all true, I will attest from my own experience.

Once again, thanks for sharing!!