Drink without drinking

[Cognoscente]

https://theboard.byu.edu/questions/89091

I think Mormons have a misconception about how people who drink alcohol view teetotalers. The submitter might be surprised to find out how understanding most relatively liberal offices are. Lots of different religions proscribe alcohol. And there are lots of valid reasons not to drink, religion included.

Abstention from alcohol, much like abstention from meat, animal products, gluten, carbs in general, processed food, GMOs, or fast food, is a personal choice and should be respected. The professional adults in the room will do that. If there are any childish people who want to mock someone's choice, call them out on it. It might be the only way they'll learn.

[Zedability]

I mean your coworkers aren't going to enjoy your abstentation if you spend the whole time at the bar looking like you're convinced you've found Sodom and Gomorrah, but as long as you're cool about their choices most people will be cool with yours.

[yayfulness]

My alcohol-loving classmates go out of their way to make sure my wife and I always have something non-alcoholic to drink when we get together EVEN THOUGH WE HAVE REPEATEDLY INSISTED THAT WE ONLY DRINK WATER AND DON'T NEED OTHER BEVERAGES.

Grade-school caricatures of peer pressure don't exist in real life. Nobody's going to force you to drink and nobody's going to think less of you for not drinking, as long as you don't obviously think less of them for drinking.

[mic0]

Grade-school caricatures of peer pressure don't exist in real life.

I'll just say they do exist, but they are not the kind of people you really want to be hanging out with anyway. If your coworkers do that, they aren't kind people, and then what's the point of hanging out with them outside work?

Also there are so many reasons not to drink at any given time. The pressure the OP faced is likely them projecting their own fears (and if it was real pressure, then see my first comment!).

[Portia]

This could be a function of age and maturity, as well. It's very different for me now at 29 than at 21. (A disastrous summer camp counselor experience, where I was justifiably stressed about the underage European counselors having a grand ol' time and that potentially reflecting back on me, leads me to believe that 18-22 is the toughest age for this issue.) Communication is hard, but you'll be fine.