Friends and family actually appreciate that I don't drink (because I get immediate terrible migraines from alcohol), they have an automatic designated driver.
I am not uptight at all, I just don't drink alcohol. It doesn't cross my mind to worry that some drunk asshole thinks I'm uptight because I don't drink.

Anonymous wrote:I don't really drink anymore--after back to back pregnancies, breastfeeding for a long time, and just getting older, my body can't take it. Red wine especially. I need to be able to function and I just feel too lousy after drinking these days.

Me too. And now my family seem to think I'm some kind of up tight prudish non-drinker - they have conveniently forgotten the years in which I used to knock them back along with them. (This is my parents/siblings not my husband).

I'm Asian. When I drink, my face gets flush and I can very quickly get sick. Vomiting after 1/2 beer is no fun for anyone. Then someone has to take me home. And then I'm a wreck for the next 24 hours. So now, some alcohol just isn't worth the side affects for me.

I'm not uptight at parties though and I'm always happy to stand in line with a friend and get a beverage for them. When we go to things like Brew at the Zoo, DH thinks it's great since by default every time we go through the line, he gets 2.

Anonymous wrote:I had a birthday dinner last night with friends and I didn't drink. My husband asked me who goes out to dinner to celebrate their birthday and doesn't drink then he calls me uptight and a square. I'm not a big drinker, but I don't find myself to be uptight either.

Actually, I think the opposite. I see many uptight people drinking to take the edge off all the time. (disclaimer: Not all uptight drink and not all who drink are uptight.)

I think that drinkers who are upset about people not drinking are the ones who are uptight. I'm serious about that.

A new colleague and I talked about getting together for a drink. We met at a bar. I had a coke and he had alcohol. I didn't think much about it one way or another. I found out later that he told another colleague, "Did you know that so-and-so doesn't drink?" She reported it as if it were said with a bit of alarm. Not too long after that he got drunk and had sex with a graduate student in his class. She apparently felt coerced into it and complained to the dean and he was fired in short order. It was clear he definitely had a problem with drinking -- his drinking, not my lack of it.

Anyway, of course, most people who get upset about non-drinkers do not have a drinking problem but they might want to think about how it looks when they are disturbed by non-drinkers in their midst. Why would it bother them if it doesn't bother me to hang out with them?

Oh and FWIW I can dance my ass off all night and do it completely sober, so, no I don't think I'm uptight.

I think they don't like to drink.

[quote=Anonymous]I don't drink, [b]I don't like the taste of alcohol[/b]. I don't think I'm uptight. [/quote]

+1 especially hard liquor by itself. It tastes like how I think lighter fluid might taste like. That stuff is so nasty. I really don't understand why people would drink that unless they wanted to get a buzz very quickly.

I'm not uptight at all, either, especially by DC standards.

I don't drink, I don't like the taste of alcohol. I don't think I'm uptight.

There are lots of reasons people don't drink, some religions teach not to, other people have a family history of alcoholism and choose not to. There are other medical reasons not to. I don't drink both for religious and family history reasons. My dad was analcoholic, drank A LOT every night after work. I've day he collapsed on the kitchen floor and died. He was 48. I can think of more good reasons not to drink than reasons iI should drink.

And some of us, that you would never expect, are recovering alcoholics. Since I got sober in my early adulthood, no one in my life now remembers me back when. And I definitely look clean-cut, not like you might expect an alcoholic to look. But it would throw a buzz kill on the crowd if you badger me about why I don't drink, and I either told you, or avoided answering. So just live and let live, ok?

P. S. To OP-- maybe your husband wanted to drink a lot? And feels in the spotlight if you don't.

No, I don't think that. There are lots of reasons someone may not be drinking. But your husband sounds like a dick.

Anonymous wrote:I definitely think they are lame, unless there is a medical reason.

What are you, 20?

I did when I was in my 20s, but then I grew up.

I definitely think they are lame, unless there is a medical reason.

I don't really drink anymore--after back to back pregnancies, breastfeeding for a long time, and just getting older, my body can't take it. Red wine especially. I need to be able to function and I just feel too lousy after drinking these days.