You basically have to drink alcohol to be a normal adult

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"'bucket of crabs' being particularly big."

Maybe it's a cultural difference? Where I live, there are lots of people who choose not to drink and they are seen as normal and wise people. You certainly don't need to drink to socialize. Probably only groups of uneducated losers would put that sort of unnecessary peer pressure on one another.

I do drink but only when alone at home. Drinking is enjoyable only when there's no one around. I never drink when I'm out. No point.

People seem to take it as an insult if I refuse to drink alcohol with them.

I am no prude, but I just do not feel comfortable with the idea of getting "hammered".

I can't even imagine having to drink to do any of the things I've done. The things I'm into, tend not to involve drinking anyway, so there have always been a number of actual teetotallers in my social world. I had a friend go through a period of wondering if they were an alcoholic, and she realized that she would have to completely re-invent herself socially in order to stop drinking. This is actually kind of foreign to me, because most of the people I'm around are either some kind of drink snob (into artisinal booze, and beer brewing is a special interest to one of my friends) or they just don't drink, and pubs/bars/clubs are just not really a place I hang out.

It is interesting to me how many people in mainstream culture just can't socially function if alcohol is not present. Tried to plan a dry wedding and discovered that dry weddings were actually semi controversial, and when I saw some of the discourse around it, I realized that social anxiety - especially around big, long, socially obligatory events - is actually really common among allistics.

That said, I am a somewhat heavy weed user.

Non-alcoholic spirits suck to high heaven.

I’ll stick to my main vice: diet Coke or Fanta.

I don't drink alcohol. I wouldn't consider myself "normal" though.

Sometimes I am struck by the fact that I have somehow managed to grow up in some kind of a weird social bubble, and all my life have managed to move in this same social bubble wherever I go.

This is one of those times.

When people talk to me about gendered rules for drinking (because apparently, this exists) I am struck by how little I know about what "normal people" do. And when they talk about how boozy the mainstream world apparently is, and somehow, I never noticed.

I only barely drink (occasionally I'll order a glass of something that pairs well with my food at a nice restaurant, it is part of the experience for me.) My partner won't touch the stuff and never has (from an alcoholic family). It always seems like every social space I'm in, has people who are avoiding alcohol, and on the whole, other people don't care or make a big deal out of it.

Somehow, I *always* been in some liminal zone where I only really know people like me, have stayed in this bubble, and have managed not to notice what is going on outside of it.

Curious.

Where I come from everybody seems to drink, even Aspies. So it's no wonder I feel like an alien sometimes. I just don't see the thrill. It seems that most (non-religious) NTs love drunkness and find it amusing, like toddlers watching a Teletubbies show. I find it stupid. I also find it ironic that NTs judge people that don't follow social rules and are afraid of them, yet they value being drunk, which makes you break social rules and act different and unpredictable and weird. Isn't that the opposite of what NTs want people to be?