Goin’ Dry: Why some students are choosing sobriety and what they want you to know
CW: This article discusses alcohol abuse
Most of us spend the week trudging through uni, with a ‘Cs get degrees’ type-attitude, waiting for the moment we can crack open a bottle of Cleanskin and forget our ever-growing student loans. Sundays are then normally spent regretting pretty much everything, lying in bed, guzzling your dusty water glass from last week like it’s the actual fountain of youth. Maybe you’re fighting off the inevitable comedown of whatever substance you abused. If you’re someone who doesn’t get hungover this doesn’t apply, and also – I fucking hate you.
Believe it or not though, apparently using and abusing drugs and alcohol are not an essential part of the student experience. I literally thought you had to down a goon to be eligible for your course related costs. There are people walking among us, whose Saturday nights are spent tucked in bed after eating a healthy meal, ready to take on the weekend with everything they’ve got. They’re elusive, but Massive wrangled some, and interrogated them about their choices.
Billie is a second year Physio student, who tends not to partake in the sinful activities of us mere mortals. Although she’ll occasionally drink or smoke, she apparently possesses the rare ability to not take it too far every single time. She knows drinking makes her anxious and doesn’t want to be a liability so she just doesn’t do it. Which is probably the most self-preserving thing I’ve ever heard a student say.
She’s a self-described ‘flat-mum’ to the boys in her flat. “They’re an absolute drunken mess most weekends but I’m an [emotional] mess 24/7 so it actually kind of works out.” She claims to feel no sense of superiority about her sobriety, but finds drinking culture more than a little depressing.
Her mornings are spent pretty much as idyllic as you’d imagine them. “It is pretty satisfying to wake up and go for a run on a Sunday morning, and make the most of the peace and quiet to get some study done.” That genuinely seems like a fever dream to me. Running? Studying? What? Mornings for her flat-mates don’t look so pretty. “They normally roll out of bed at like 1pm, eat noodles and sit in a pool of regret and shame. They’ll finally move at around 9pm, to cook dinner, shower, and study until midnight.”
Although she’s got super-human self-restraint, Billie’s not totally opposed to casual drug use. “To be honest, other than weed I’m not interested in drugs, but I reckon mushrooms would be so on with the right people.”
Joe has been sober for the past year and a half, after “some pretty heavy binge drinking in my first couple of years at uni”. He says he made the decision after, “a particularly heinous night-out, where I woke up with vomit streaked through my sheets. I just felt fucking drained, emotionally and physically, and realised that I didn’t want to keep waking up like this.” Joe reckons prioritising his mental health played a big part, as he was struggling with increasingly worse come-downs from gear. “Once I stopped doing that shit, I felt like I could get my act together a bit. I also had another mate cut off substances for a bit, since he had a bad time with bath salts, so we were able to help each other, together.” We love to see it.
Some people would argue that drinking is a pretty essential part of student culture. Billie doesn’t whole-heartedly disagree, but notes that student life looks different for everyone. “There’s more to student life than studying and getting horsed. At the same time, I can’t relate to the part of studenthood that involves being a soldier and powering through the dust. Getting shit done and then going through another week just to get smashed again at the weekend.” She’s comfortable in her student identity. “I still go out, I live the poor student life and I’m surrounded by people who party hard. I just live the typical student life slightly differently.” Joe says he’s felt like “I’ve done the student thing, so I don’t feel bad about supposedly not living that life anymore. I still eat like shit and procrastinate my assignments, so I feel like a student in other ways.”
It’s not all Sunday morning runs and studying, though. Billie admits that always being the sober one on nights out, has turned her into a bit of a counsellor. “It’s sad to see people I know who are only able to open up about tough stuff and their emotions when they get wasted. A drunk deep and meaningful is a great thing, but 90% of the conversations I have with people on weekends would just never happen sober.” Having a sense of clarity on nights out has opened her eyes to how depressing drinking culture can be. “People will literally drink for any occasion. I feel like it also highlights how shallow a lot of uni friendships are when it’s literally all about the piss.” Joe agrees, saying that he feels like a large amount of male mental-health problems is “smothered by a drinking culture. Like, it’s okay if you cry or have a chat with the boys about your ex, but you’re expected to be black-out in order to make those things acceptable. It’s hard seeing mates go through shit, and then see them rely on substances instead of reaching out for help.”
Being a student can mean a lot of things. We’re all broke as shit, accruing up massive amounts of debt all to get a degree some of us don’t know what we’ll do with. It’s your choice how you get through it, sober student life sounds like it definitely has it’s perks, but alcohol is also really fucking fun. As long as you’re not hurting anyone, keep sending it, or don’t. The power is in your hands.
If the content of this article affected you in any way, don’t be afraid to reach out to these support numbers:
Alcohol/Drug Helpline: 0800 787 797
Healthline: 0800 611 116
Lifeline: 0800 543 345 or (09) 522 2999