New Year's black-out booze
Why abandoning alcohol should be your New Year's Resolution.
Having spent my New Year's Eve hermiting in my cave of a room, I've come to the realisation that I might be a loner. Not as a result of being introverted, nor being gay, but because I don't drink.
Partying as a teenager in Britain cannot be described with words in the English language. Nevertheless, I shall make an attempt: overbearing, eventful, absolute madness.
Teenage house parties in the UK are a unique experience to say the least: a girl splayed on the floor with her knickers on display; another with a lovely stain of chunky vomit on their dress and someone in the corner, holding a knife, whining about how much they miss their ex. Despite this, we still feel compelled to drink more.
We often imagine peer pressure to involve a crowd of kids circling you, grabbing you by the jaw and shoving a bottle of alcohol into your gob. But, sometimes, peer pressure is unintentional; being surrounded by drunk peers whilst you're the only sober one, for example. Nobody but your 'FOMO' is telling you to drink, yet the pressure is just as intense.
From this, a cycle begins. We begin to feel as though we need to drink so as not to exclude ourselves from our peers, causing us to begin drinking at every party. Eventually, we become reliant upon alcohol to keep ourselves sane when partying, as we feel incapable, or at least handicapped, socialising whilst sober.
Admittedly, I am guilty of this faulty thought process. For the last party I attended, I believed I would be anxious and awkward if I didn't drink. Of course, that is wrong. But, having seen so many posts on social media about how alcohol helps you socialise, I thought it'd help. To an extent, it did (although that's likely to have been a placebo effect).
However, this widespread reliance on alcohol to have a 'good time' has plagued British society for too long. Even if drinking helps us socialise that tiny bit more, it's not worth the long-term consequences such as liver disease, chronic diarrhoea and loss of memory. That, alongside many other factors, is why I have pledged to no longer drink alcohol.
If you choose to do the same, there'll be no more hangovers, no more bingeing on copious amount of alcohol and no more embarrassing stories of what you got up to last night.
So, starting today, whilst you're reading this and trying to ignore that throbbing feeling behind your eyes, choose to not drink as your New Year's resolution.