If you think all students drink alcohol, think again . . .
While students who abstain from alcohol consumption are a minority, they aren’t as rare as one might think.
According to CU Don’t Know’s website, Carleton’s alcohol awareness campaign, 16.8 per cent of students never consume alcohol.
There are lots of students who drink responsibly within the university binge drinking culture, but students who don’t drink at all are often invisible in the student population.
Many students at Carleton have no interest in drinking—some have tried alcohol before, while others vow to never take a sip.
Mental health comes first
Meagan Morin, a first-year Carleton psychology student, said she chooses to abstain from drinking because it elevates her anxiety.
“I have generalized anxiety disorder and drinking just kind of increases the symptoms and causes me to have anxiety attacks,” Morin said. “I just really didn’t like feeling like I didn’t have any control of the situation, and I didn’t like that it was making me anxious and freaking me out when I could just avoid it by not drinking.”
Morin said her anxiety is triggered by vomit, which is commonly associated with drinking.
“I start worrying and worrying and I get sick to my stomach, and I get nauseous, and I have a hard time breathing and all this stuff, and then I’m like, ‘I’m gonna throw up’ and I freak out,” she said.
As a student living in residence, Morin said she switched buildings partly because her first residence community isolated her for being a “party pooper.”
“Everyone on my floor [now] is pretty cool with me not drinking. They understand why I don’t do it [and] they’re pretty accepting of it,” Morin said. “They let me party and let me hang out—it’s not like I’m this weird person that doesn’t like to have fun.”
Morin said she still goes to small parties with her friends and enjoys being the sober person who looks out for everyone, although it can be an overwhelming responsibility at times.
“One time my roommate got blackout drunk and she let these two guys into our room that we didn’t know and weren’t from here, and they were like trying to do things and she had like no idea what was going on,” Morin said. “I kicked them out [but] what if I would have been drinking? Something bad could have happened.”
Morin said she has several friends who don’t drink, and her boyfriend abstains because his dad is an alcoholic. Even though her parents pressured her to drink at first, they grew to respect her decision.
“[At first] I was like, ‘Mom, what are you saying right now? I can have fun without getting drunk . . . Why are you encouraging me to do this?’ ” Morin said. “But I think she just wanted to make sure I wouldn’t be isolated and wouldn’t stay in my room all the time.”
The power of parental influence
“I never understood the idea of not being able to control yourself, more or less. I am always around people who drink on the weekends and I just don’t understand drinking to the point of being super drunk and not being able to control what you say, what you do, and like just not being able to control your whole body at one point,” said Kareem Alhammuri, a third-year Carleton political science student.
Alhammuri said he chooses not to drink because he has personally experienced the problems associated with binge drinking.
“I’ve seen people puke and then fall in their own puke . . . I’ve seen [car] accidents happen because people aren’t able to control themselves . . . I’ve seen people when they’re drunk and what they say and then not realizing the day after,” Alhammuri said. “Just seeing people drunk and seeing what can happen, I never want to be in that situation.”
Growing up with religious parents in an Islamic country, Alhammuri said he agrees with Islam’s logic in prohibiting alcohol, although he is not religious.
“It has to do with the idea that God doesn’t want you to be out of your mind,” Alhammuri said. “The exact phrase is ‘nothing to get you drunk and out of your mind.’ It’s more or less not to be out of control . . . of your body and not being able to know what you’re doing and whether what you’re doing is right or wrong.”
While he said he has been socially excluded for his decisions, he still has fun with friends that drink.
“My parents . . . always said, ‘If you’re with people and they respect your decision, then those are good people to hang out with. If people try to pressure you to drink, then don’t hang out with them,’ ” Alhammuri said. ξ
“I go out clubbing with my friends even though I’m the one sober . . . I end up going to bars and everything—I’m not against it at all,” Alhammuri said. “I do everything anyone drunk would be doing, but sober and able to control myself doing it.”
