(Beforehand i would like to say that english is my second language so please mind the mistakes)
I’m a 17 year old male who lives in a pretty small town. It’s pretty common to drink here when you turn 15, but i have never drank just a single drop. In the first two years that was pretty easy but lately it has grown harder and harder.
Every time me and my friends go out the only thing done is drinking or discussing what they have drank before and i’m pretty sick of that. I absolutely hate drinking so i always just sit alone zoned out from the rest of the group while they just do drinking games the whole evening. I also hate going to parties because the only thing being done there is(you guessed it) drinking and drinking games.
I really cherish my friend because I have known them for a couple of years now and went to school together, and i really don’t want to lose them. But i would really like some friends who don’t drink too. The problem is i don’t really meet a lot of new people. I don’t go to parties, i do an individual sport and i am overall just socially introverted.
I already tried focusing more on my school and my sport, this helped just a tiny bit with having my mind on other stuff. But really all weekend an while I’m at school it bothers me. I think my friend picked up on it too and take a bit more distance of me. I feel like I’m losing the whole social life i worked 5 years for just because I don’t drink.
It had really taken a hit on my mental health as i started to feel really lonely. Do any of you have ever experienced this problem and have any tips?
EDIT: i know this isn’t the best subreddit to post this on but i really needed to tell this to someone. I told my parents that everyone drinks and they know i don’t, but i don’t want to bother them with the fact that my friends can’t see what happens around them. So i just ask to not be removed 🙂