What to say to persistent people?

StormWarrior

In my teens and early twenties I used to drink, do shrooms and pills etc. Not excessively, I certainly wasn't an addict or anything, but I'd do "something" once or twice a week. At 22 I got bored of that whole lifestyle and totally quit all drugs. At about 23 I had my last drink because I was just bored of that too. I didn't really miss it at all, I guess I just grew out of it. I then lived in Sweden for a while, and my teetotalness was a problem there. Swedes are big social drinkers and the friends I made there really had a problem with me not drinking. They thought I was being antisocial. They just couldn't understand why I wouldn't drink and every time I made a new friend there I'd have the same problem, they would be nagging me to drink and complaining that it was antisocial not to. It got very tiring. I wasn't being antisocial at all, I was still up for all the clubbing, pubs, parties etc, and I had a good time being sober and just talking to people and making new friends. But the Swedes just couldn't accept me not drinking.

This coming Saturday I'm moving to Finland and I understand they have the same alcohol problem, even worse. My friend who lives there already says Finns are too shy to get talking to anyone until they've had a few drinks, so getting drunk on every night out there is just the way things are. I don't want the same situation I had in Sweden, always getting hassled about my lack of drinking. Maybe it won't be like that at all, but I want to be prepared. I don't want to make up stories like I have an illness that means I can't drink. Hmm, I don't know. I have no problems with hanging out with other people when they're drunk, I think it's funny. I just don't need to be drunk myself. Who else has faced this problem and what do you do about it?

kenon

You just need to be insistent when people are being persistent. "No, I dont drink". Try not to get snotty about it, "Did you hear me the first time?! I dont f***in' drink!!! AHHHHH!".

I occasionally give the drink a miss and sometimes I get loads of questions and I just have to keep re-iterating, "Nah, Im not drinkin' tonight.".

Trail_Blazer

Persistancy works.

Though if all else fails, you can always make up said story and say "I'm very allergic to alcohol in all forms, unfortunately!"

Teabag!

i find that when people ask me why i'm not drinking it can go two ways, if i tell them it's a personal choice then they think i am odd/wierd or in need of conversion,

but

if i tell them its because of family history, then it gets dropped immediately.

so my advice is tell them it was a family thing, though this may not work on people who know ya.

thorbarry

Tell them to F*ck Off

luckylucky

I sometimes reply I don't drink because I'm too Irish, brings a bit of humour to it

Theponylady

I say "I'm driving" or, "I just don't drink, never had any interest in it", or "I don't drink, I find too many other ways to get into trouble"(this one combined with a conspiratorial wink). Usually, that's enough. On the rare occasion people INSIST I simply insist "NO, thank you!". It's not that difficult. Really.

I also find it useful when I'm at a niteclub or somewhere like that to carry around a full glass of seven up. I can say "thank you, I already have a drink".

This is something that lessens the older and more accepting your peer group become.
You might well have had the worst of it in Sweden.

I tend to get snotty and probe as to why it is such a big deal for the other person.
I don't need to friends with people who can't accept that I'm entitled to make my own choices in life.