Just what motivates drinkers to peer pressure

libnation

I never drank in school, it was a rare thing for a student but I didn't, I think I did not drink literally because I just did not give a sh*t what people thought of me and it smelt disgusting anyway. I started drinking just before college and partied hard (thought it was a college thing), but when I started work it just got worse.

So I have stopped. To my friends it looked like I did out of the blue, but I had it coming for a while. And when I say I have stopped I literally mean it doesn't even bother me that I have stopped (Allen Carr's book helped with this).

However, what is really bothering me is other people's reactions. I am able to handle their aggresive taunting as I am quite an assertive person, but what is bothering me is that I just physically cannot understand why they want me to drink.

I think its true to say "drinkers feel guilty themselves so they criticise you for not wanting to". BUt there must be more to it.

My theory is that it is that it's a pretty cool thing to alter how you are feeling with drugs. Like the first time I was drunk I thought it was amazing that I felt so spacey. If we were to compare another cool thing in life - say skydiving, I could imagine the one person in the group of friends who wouldn't sky dive to get stick off their friends for not partaking. But ultimately people would respect the fact that this friend is scared of heights.

However, I am now that "one friend" who is scared of hangovers, losing money, losing my health and thinks that I have altered how I have been feeling for 6 and a half years now (which actually caused me way more harm than good, and wasn't so "cool" after all) and want now I want to try actual "cool" things in life. However, nobody respects any of these things.