Cara-Louise Scott
Before going to university, you’re always told how great the social life is. You’re told how you’ll make loads of friends at parties, go clubbing, and spend more time hungover than you can count on both hands. But what if you don’t like drinking or you don’t want to drink? What if you hate the idea of clubbing, and parties make you anxious? Where does this leave you?
Alcohol culture at university is a tricky situation to navigate. On the one hand, alcohol is seen as a substance everyone consumes at university, and a vital part of socialising. On the other hand, it can become a toxic way for students to feel excluded from the ‘typical’ student lifestyle.
“many students drink more alcohol because they want to fit in with those around them”
A Toxic Culture
Most people attend university at 18, when they have just reached the legal drinking age and are still figuring out their limits. As a result, many students drink excessively, and this is both normalised and glamourised.
The National Union of Students conducted a study which found that 23% of surveyed students drink 2-3 days a week, and 60% of those who say it can be difficult not to drink too much say it’s because alcohol helps them to relax and socialise. 76% say there’s an expectation for students to drink to get drunk and 79% agree that drinking and getting drunk is part of university culture.
Alcohol is seen as such an important part of university life, yet about three million people die from alcohol-related causes annually, and people aged 20-39 years-old account for 13.5% of all alcohol-related deaths.
Many students drink excessive amounts of alcohol because they want to fit in with those around them, and ease their anxieties – something I experienced in my first year. On more than one occasion, I got severely drunk in my first year when mingling with new people because I wanted to fit in. The (not so) funny conclusion to the story was that I still felt left out, and ended up feeling very down by the end of the evening and the next morning. I wonder now, why did I do that to myself?
“alcohol culture is one of the factors that contributes to some students feeling excluded from socialising”
After two years at university, I have finally learned that I don’t need to drink (a lot or at all) to find friends and enjoy myself. I choose not to go out to clubs or late-night parties not because I don’t want to get drunk, but because I simply do not enjoy it. And I am not going to change myself just so I can fit into stereotypical ideas of what it means to be a university student.
Alcohol Culture Affecting Student Wellbeing
It is also clear to see that alcohol culture is one of the factors that contributes to some students feeling excluded from socialising. I decided to conduct a poll on Fab N Fresh, a Facebook page for University of Birmingham students, to explore whether alcohol has affected the way students socialise. Out of 52 responses, 48% said that they enjoy alcohol and it hasn’t affected their socialising, and 23% said that even though they don’t drink, they still have a good social life doing other things. However, 25% of the responses said that they either feel like they have to drink to be social, or that they sometimes feel excluded because they don’t drink.
“when I would meet people at uni or go on a night out, and even when I meet people now, they always ask me why I’m not drinking.”
An anonymous graduate spoke to me about the expectation at their university to go out multiple times a week, especially in their first year, suggesting that it is “so hard for someone who does not enjoy clubbing, as you’ve just moved to a new city and started a new course and new chapter of your life…and you want to fit in and make new friends, and this is what everyone else is doing but you just don’t enjoy it.” They said that this results in students “participating in something that [they] don’t really enjoy just so [they] can fit in”, but it ultimately “makes you miserable and unhappy.”
“Why aren’t you drinking?”
People do not always want to divulge their reasons for not drinking to strangers, yet they often face a barrage of questions on this subject. “When I would meet people at uni or go on a night out, and even when I meet people now, they always ask me why I’m not drinking,” the graduate shared. “It can be isolating; I’ve been called boring and stopped being invited to things just because of it.”
“It just seems totally bizarre to me that that’s one of the first things people ask without thinking that it could cause a really uncomfortable situation for the person they are asking.”
“We are still a long way from living in a world where students can drink water without being asked, “Why isn’t that vodka?””
An anonymous university student spoke to me about their experience with faking drinking alcohol so that people would stop asking them why they weren’t drinking, “I started getting really bad anxiety and panic attacks the day after drinking… I decided to do dry January so I could still go to all these parties and nights at the pub without being sat at home miserable.”
They continued: “People were generally supportive, and lots…said they should cut down their drinking too.” However, support for their sober ways began to change after January. When the “I’m trying dry January” excuse disappeared, “The reception I got changed significantly; people would always ask why I wasn’t drinking,”
This was when they started pretending that they were drinking: “I just carried round a bottle of squash with me all night, saying it was vodka squash if anyone asked.” That people feel the need to fake drink so that they aren’t bombarded with people asking them why they aren’t drinking is very telling of the toxic drinking culture surrounding us.
Alcohol culture at university can be exclusionary for many people, and while university societies may be introducing more sober activities, more needs to be done to make drinking alcohol less “normal”. We are still a long way from living in a world where students can drink water without being asked, “Why isn’t that vodka?”
Featured image courtesy of Kelsey Chance on Unsplash. No changes were made to this image. Image licence found here.
Cara-Louise Scott
I am a waitress and writer currently living in London! Graduated last year from the University of Birmingham with a first-class BA English and Creative Writing degree. I am an aspiring young journalist with a love for writing anything related to current affairs, opinion, mental health, food and drink, and travel!