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Posted Feb. 27, 2015

Surviving Being Teetotal at University

For many of us, being teetotal at university sounds like insanity. After all, how are you supposed to make friends with all the terrible people on your course without a little alcohol in your bloodstream?! Plus, no one wants to be the designated driver, and have to drive four legless friends in and out of the city centre.

However, more and more people are choosing to drink less at university. So let us discuss why, and offer advice for those that do want to: where to party, what to do, how to survive your drunken friends.

First and foremost for many students as university gets increasingly expensive, not drinking is a major money saver . A Telegraph study last year found that students on average spent £200 on alcohol in the first week alone, and usually spend far more on alcohol than they do on food. Without this spend, that meagre maintenance loan is going to go far further, giving you money to spend on real treats - good food, restaurants, gigs and festivals - rather than watered down G&Ts in a student union bar somewhere. Going without on Fresher’s Week may be too unsettling a concept, but going teetotal later in the year can still lead to savings that can really tot up, to holidays, cars, whatever.

Not only that, but there are the obvious health benefits. As well as no alcohol meaning no days lost in bed to feeling sorry for yourself and drinking Ribena (it’s a guaranteed hangover cure), not drinking has countless other benefits, including more energy , better sleep and enhanced concentration: three very important things for a student to have. That, and you’re much less likely to ruin your friendships by telling people brutal home truths about them whilst under the influence.

Admittedly, in Britain, drinking is such a hard-wired part of our culture that going without may seem impossible. However, if you’re finding it difficult to avoid the temptation, there are a number of options to try. Instead of meeting your friends in a bar, suggest a coffee shop. Ignore the Starbucks on the corner and head for independent coffee shops for a real atmosphere and an air of cool equal to any bar. Plus, in meeting your friends for coffee, you can pretend that you are in an episode of ‘Friends’, which is never a bad thing.

But eventually you will have to brave a night out with your drunken friends, and realise that without alcohol nightclubs are just big, hot rooms with lots of people writhing against each other in them. Start by picking a club night featuring your favourite music, whether that’s an Indie night or a Guilty Pleasures party. The thrill of hearing your favourite songs should get you over the first hump, then the second hump is overcome when you realise you’re the only one who will remember tonight, won’t have a hangover tomorrow, and will be able to embarrass people by recounting in explicit detail all the stupid things your friends did whilst drunk.

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