Reasons young people are choosing sobriety

> Becoming more intentional about one’s relationship with alcohol can only ever be a good thing. “It’s a myth really that you are boring if you’re not drinking,” Misell says. “As anyone who’s ever been sober with a drunk friend will know that when people are drunk, that can be extremely boring too.”

Well, yes. I've been working in a bar (and in charge of it) and drunk people are really annoying.

I always used to drink myself too for that reason (well, also because I liked to), with specific limits because I still needed to maintain order. I found it's actually easier to maintain order while drinking a bit because the interaction with drunk people is more natural and smooth. If you're 'dry' you're too strict and only triggering them more. But maybe that's just me.

Mind you this was in the mid-90s when things weren't as strict as they are now. Our bar was a private club and pretty much a dive and we didn't obey any noise, closing hours, or maximum occupancy regulations either. If we had a big party I'd wear a police scanner sometimes to hear them coming so we could turn the music down :P

I find bars a bit boring in general these days. No smoking, grumpy security goons everywhere, strict opening hours and drinking limits. Not to mention the closing of bars for almost 2 years. I really do feel for the younger people now. Because back then the going out scene was really important in my life too and later in life these things are different.

What the article says about the price increase is a good point though. Our place was extremely cheap and even a round for the whole bar was usually in the range of 20 bucks. These days alcohol is a lot more expensive. However soft drinks are usually in the same price range as beer these days so I don't really see how that would stop people from drinking alcohol.

FWIW I had several periods in my life with extremely heavy party drinking but I've never got addicted. Every time I was able to just drop it when my circumstances changed and right now I drink only once a month or so. I don't regret those periods at all and I wouldn't have wanted to miss them. It did help me socialise and stretch my barriers which I really needed as an adolescent. Because I was a lot more shy than I really wanted to be. It was really an invaluable tool to get 'out of my shell'. Alcohol is not always a bad thing IMO.

Second hand smoke. You can get cancer from just being around people who smoke. Not so much for people who drink.

"I never tried a thing and so it's dumb!"

Big tobacco had a large portion of it's money and power taken away. Politicians probably also know what happened last time with alcohol prohibition and thus just toss it on the pile of things to hard to solve for now.

I always hated alcohol consumption and what it did to me if I abused it. But I'm really starting to see the benefits of alcohol sometimes.

I have issues with anxiety and depression. I have seen a psychiatrist and all the medication he ever prescribed to me had side effects worse than my actual condition. The only thing I noticed that could take the edge off without any major side effects were a couple of pints of beer.

Also, I'm trying to date after a brutal relationship breakup followed and a long dry spell, and Tinder makes me even more miserable and depressed so I deleted it, but I noticed some pubs in my city have lots of girls hanging around and sometimes looking at me. Without alcohol I probably wouldn't have the courage to talk to them as the anxiety would kill me and they probably wouldn't have the courage to stare at me. Alcohol seems to be this lubricant of social interactions. As a good friend of mine put it: "if it weren't for alcohol, half of us wouldn't be born and we wouldn't be here today", and he's right lol.

Us humans have a very long relationship with alcohol from the tribal days. Even animals love getting drunk eating fermented fruit.

Sometimes, if I have to make a very difficult life changing decision that triggers my anxiety like signing the contract of a new job or a lease, I think about it once sober, and once drunk, and if the decision of sober me and drunk me are the same, then it means it's the right decision for me :)

So if some pharma company could make a medicine that does what two pints of beer do, please let me know, as I'd like to invest.

YMMV of course, this is not professional medical or life advice.

And I do see the negative sides as well, where people with mental issues instead of seeking professional help or moderating their consumption, look for the solution at the bottom of a bottle, ending up as addicts and ruining their lives and those of others. To me, Japan, Eastern Europe and Scandinavian countries seem to have a real problem with alcohol abuse.