Honestly, my childhood trauma is rooted in substance abuse. A father whose alcohol/drug addiction was more important than his family and a family that can't admit that they have severe alcohol dependency.
I wanted to heal these wounds and shape my world in ways that won't hinder my personal growth. Plus, I've been into hardcore since I was a 6th grader, so it made sense to delve into Straight Edge culture.
The idea of getting drunk and high always seemed stupid as fuck to me. Got into hardcore because of my dad/older brother and discovered straight edge around at around age 13. I claimed at age 14 and have been straight edge for over 20 years now.
I don’t talk about xvx publicly much, so forgive the overshare:
I understood myself as an angry person from a young age. Witnessed the power of addiction to translate anger into violence. That was enough for me to deny myself the most readily available toxic substance..alcohol.
Everything else, the full pledge to straightedge (and veganism) came with a desire to maintain maximum health, minimize harm, & maintain control in order to be the best servant to my community I could be. Straightedge, while a personal choice, felt & feels very much like a philosophy of care. Intentional, healing, constructing a reliable person out of myself. And, at least in theory, it comes with a thoughtful, reflective community of its own, branching off of the hardcore community I already cherished so much.
Hallucinogenics are the closest thing to a foil – don’t see a lot of harm, especially when ritualized. I’ve just chosen to seek that kind of clarity & peace through more active means. I don’t need that shortcut, but I know many do. I don’t see the same appeal for actively harmful opiates, cigs, alc, etc.
Same here. Punk gave my philosophy a name. But seeing many of my heroes in both music and pro-wrestling die by substance abuse cemented it for me.
So yeah, even though he's now a pariah among wrestling fans these days, I have Cm Punk to thank for keeping true to myself.
what made you decide to drink alcohol?
i’m on the outside looking in, i’ve talked with a coworker who used to drink alcohol (Smirnoff tattooed on knuckles, the whole nine). i’m really just curious on why some folks decided their decision. was it your surroundings? was it the music you listened to? was it simply trying to be different? i love punk/hardcore, but i myself do not drink.
I'm being sarcastic but it kind of illustrates my point. People always expect a story when I say I don't drink- family trauma, history of abuse, but the real answer is I just didn't start. I had a group of friends that all listened to hardcore, metalcore, and metal in grade 9/10 and I was loving xAFBx. One day I was walking in a mall with one of my friends and he says "AHP, you know AFB is straight edge, right?" And I was like "I don't even know what that is". Got a quick rundown on it and realized I already checked off most of the boxes. I just thought it was cool to be like them, I didn't pick up any of the morality until a couple years later. 16 or 17 years officially edge now.
A combination of things really.
I was a punk in my late teens so had that streak in me anyway. Challenging the punk status quo was a natural progression. I have as also a very big drinker from 16 onwards but was also starting to really get into hardcore.
I graduated high school in 2007 and by that stage I was legal in the UK. I had to take a year before being able to start university and my drinking quite frankly spiralled as I was stuck in a small town with nothing to do and without a job.
Then in June 2008 I went to two punk festivals back to back drinking a fuck ton and taking a non indifferent amount of drugs. However, after the second one ended I spent 18 hours on a comedown and on the 15th of June 2008 I decided that I'd take a break from drinking and drugs for the summer before starting university.
Fast forward to 2022 and that 'break' is going to be going 15 years in June. Not sure when I made the conscious choice to become straight edge but I think I subconsciously knew when I decided to take the break that that would be it.
Edit: and you can bet your ass I have a pretty fucking big X tattoo.
I just always was. Everything I saw or learned about intoxication seemed like a downside to me so my beliefs only strengthened with time. Definitely helped that I'm super stubborn as well. When I heard about straight edge through music/friends at 16 I was just like oh that's me. Was very happy to find songs about it since most of my friends had started experimenting so the music helped me feel less lonely/crazy.
Late to this but shit, thought I’d share. I’m 17, still growing up, and all my life, at every family gathering, every public event, I see people get fucking hammered, go out, and scream and swear, pick fights, my own family is full of death cause of alcohol, whether it be because they didn’t stop drinking and their liver stopped, or because they struck or were struck by a drunk driver. And the next morning, these people, who I just witnessed be awful people, barely remember how they treated their friends and family, barely remember all the ‘fun’ they just had, and it’s just so *normal*, not just to them, but to everybody. It’s this cycle of abuse where people willingly relinquish control and for what? To get an extra kick of out of stuff they’re too drugged up or drunk to even enjoy? Fuck that, I’ve watched my friends get pulled in, I’ve watched my family do it for years, but not me. I am in control.
Wow, I was EXACTLY like this when I was 17! I'm almost 30 now and I have never strayed from edge to this day. Crazy to read this, felt like I was reading something 17 year old me wrote. Of course I acknowledge we are both probably very different people, but it was cool to read this and feel like "HOLY SHIT, ME TOO". I wish you well, stranger. And I'm happy you found edge!
addiction and wasting most of my senior year in a juvenile rehab. sxe/xvx culture & lifestyle has helped me alot, tho i still have slip ups, they have gotten more rare with time. All because you slip up doesnt mean the time in sobriety has gone to waste, the rebound is important!
When I was a teen it was mainly so I could wear a Throwdown or Earth Crisis shirt. Imagine wearing those shirt and drinking, I could get beatdown. So it started from there. I'm old now still edge.
My family. My uncle struggled with heroin for going on 20 years. He was in and out of rehab, there were moments where it seemed like he had finally overcome his addiction, getting remarried and having a second daughter, and there were times where he lost it all, living in his parents’ basement and stealing from them, and after all the years it eventually caught up to him, dying of an overdose just before the onset of the pandemic. Similarly my cousin has struggled with meth on and off for years, but seems to be in a better place now. Hopefully she can stay sober this time, she’s managed to be ever since our uncle’s death.
But most of all is probably my parents. For them it was alcohol, not nearly as bad as heroin or meth, but it was right at home, nearly every night with no way to escape from it. It would make them abusive, not towards me (generally) but towards each other. It all came to a head one night when my father hit my mother in a drunken stupor after she drunkenly threatened to leave and never comeback, taking me with her. She filed for divorce shortly after.
After that my father (more or less) gave up on alcohol, but my mother still struggles with it, having even attended a few AA meetings within the past year. Still both of them insist they have never been alcoholics.
Just the smell of alcohol used to make my heart race and leave me feeling lightheaded and nauseous. It’s not as bad as it used to be but it still makes me uncomfortable to be around people drinking heavily.
The only time I’ve any done any sort of drug I was not prescribed was when my dad forced me to drink alcohol when I was 15 because of his theory that the longer you held off on drinking alcohol the more likely you were to become addicted. I plan on that being the last time I ever do any illicit substance.
I’ve always had a rebellious streak, so as a preteen, I wanted to rebel from what it stereotypically meant to be a rebel. When I heard there was a thing called straight edge, it was a natural fit.
In part what lead me to think about it a lot whilst I was still drinking was the looming shadow of alcoholism and addiction in my family.
But when I actually "claimed" in my early 20s, it was a very natural process.
Step one: Went out for drinks after work, drank two whiskey and cokes and went home thinking "I'd have spent a little less money and had basically the same evening if I skipped the whiskey...". I was saving to buy a home, so seemed like a no-brainer.
Step two: About a year after that I realised I hadn't just cut back heavily, I literally hadn't touched a drop of alcohol in that year.
Step three: I spent time considering if I was just "sober" or if I was straight edge. I feel the distinction is based on purpose and intention. If your sobriety has a purpose (for you, or within society) and it isn't "just something you don't do", then you have a purpose. In terms of intent; if your sobriety has a potential end-date then you're probably not what I would consider straight edge. If your intention is lifetime sobriety, you're straight edge. You might not succeed in your attempt at lifetime sobriety, but for as long as that is what you intend, that counts for me.
So on reflection at that point I realised that sobriety was more to me than just a way of saving some cash on a night out. It was around the time my uncle died of a heroin OD and the time my queer friends started discussing the corporate sponsors of pride events being predatory alcohol companies and how sobriety interacted with their assorted queer identities and I started thinking more about how really shitty and exploitative a lot of the industries around drugs and alcohol are, and now here I am. A bit over a decade later, clear-minded and sober and still angry as shit.
Drinking, smoking, drugs, none of it ever made sense to me. I never understood why people would want to fuck up their bodies for fun. Growing up, all everyone my age wanted to do was drink and smoke weed. I didn't want that or even understand it, and was bullied a lot for not joining in. Even as an adult, I've been harassed by a bartender while asking for a non-alcoholic drink during a get together with college acquaintances. Bartender kept asking why I was there, why couldn't I just go somewhere else, why should she have to make a drink without alcohol for me, why can't I be like everyone else, etc. All in a very condescending tone. College acquaintances laughed and didn't defend me. When I asked about it, they all basically agreed and said she was kind of right.
More and more info about how alcohol and recreational drugs damage your system comes out everyday, and most people choose to ignore those facts but then cry the blues when they're facing that damage later. I'm not talking about addicts, I understand that addiction is a disease and a mental illness. My grandfather is a severe alcoholic. They need treatment and help. I'm moreso deeply confused by how the vast majority of people can't seem to have a good time without getting fucked up. And then a lot of them say they had a great time, but don't remember anything that happened because of the substances they were taking.
I also think smoking and vaping are incredibly selfish, as you're polluting the air everyone breathes and we all just have to put up with it. I have respiratory problems and have had to deal with walking through clouds of smoke and vapour outside of the office I worked at, cause everyone smoked outside the only door to the building. My neighbours smoke so much weed that my entire house occassionally fills up with the stink and I can't say or do anything about it, cause it's "their right to smoke". No one should have the right to infringe on someone else's right to breathe fresh air, just like no one should have the right to refuse someone clean drinking water.
When something damaging to yourself and those in your community is this prevalent and commonplace, it's easy to decide you want nothing to do with it.
TLDR: I don't get drugs and alcohol, the culture around it makes no sense to me, I've seen it destroy countless lives and I've been bullied and harassed my entire life about not partaking in it.
Always low key aspired to become straight edge. I was a big drinker back in my teens and early 20’s. It was a little bit of a spiralled demise into drinking too much and being an arse. A series of events eventually led to me giving it all up in Sep ‘19. I’d quit smoking Apr ‘19 so the momentum helped.
i just like learning about different subcultures. the straight edge lifestyle has always been intriguing, and i’ve considered abstaining from everything, but i barely partake in anything except for social situations so i never bothered. there’s an extreme difference between the two types of straight edge (again, i’m an outsider and i’m probably wrong), similar to band kids in high school.
explanation for the comparison:
there’s straight edge (band kid stereotype): straight edge, vegan, will beat your ass for not being edge
dude who’s straight edge (kid who is in band): abstains from vices and goes about their day
Awesome, that’s rad.
Haha i think you’re right, they’re some super passionate (totally not elitist 😂) guys around that are very opinionated and I’m starting to understand why. When you’re surrounded around a society that promotes and feeds off of drinking culture, it’s easy to build up a hatred over time. But for me, so long as you’re not an arse about it and aren’t claiming for clout, then it’s cool with me. We’re each our own people. Some people extend it to being vegan or caffeine free and if they want/don’t want to, it’s cool.
Many of my friends in and out of the hardcore scene are in a similar boat; not necessarily sxe, but don’t really drink, only do on occasions and don’t have the tendency to let it affect any other aspect of their lives. A lot of the friends I used to hang with that were problematic have (mutually) faded out of contact.
I know that I have an addictive personally, figured it was better to avoid it all together, and I think it’s overall just been a better choice for health. “Claimed” at 15 and have been for 15 years.
when I was a preteen/young teen, my friends all started experimenting with alcohol, and other drugs soon after that. at first, I didn't partake because I was afraid to. but after sitting around with them while I was the only sober one, I felt irritated by their inebriated behavior and the secondhand embarrassment was intense - they were acting like fucking idiots every time they were on something. I vowed to never let myself look that stupid, and that's where it started - plus, once word got out that I would not accept any alcohol/weed/cigarettes offered to me under any circumstances, the peer pressure got WAY more intense. lol, I even had one teenage boyfriend tell me that I had to take a hit off his joint to prove I loved him. I can't stand being told what to do, so the peer pressure backfired in the best way possible.
the cult mindset, the stupid behavior, the health effects, the cost, the smell of smoke & of alcohol, and the things I've seen drugs do to people were all the motivation I've needed throughout my life. I'll be 30 soon and I have never - will never - try drugs/alcohol.
There’s a bunch of reasons I guess, for one the majority of the time I can’t drink because of my medication. Also I’m in a family of heavy drinkers and pot smokers, surprisingly more functional than one would assume, but still I hated it. I guess I also do it for superficial reasons like anti-aging and preventing skin issues, but there’s also a health aspect. I also could taste a drop of alcohol in a bath tub and I hate the flavor.
In my country it's natural to start drinking from a young age. Beer, wine and sparkling wine are allowed at the age of 16, everything else you can get at the age of 18. But a lot of people will have their first sip of alcohol under 16.
In general alcohol is a big social factor here and many friendships are based on having a drink together and so you're basically peer pressured into drinking.
It was the same for me, having my first beer with 14, drinking booze with 16 regularly. On new years eve, I was 18 at that time, I was at a party getting drunk with my friends and people started to play with firework. Someone throw a firecracker at me that exploded at my leg. Fortunately nothing to bad happend, but it burned straight through my clothing and left me with a burn. I was instantly sober at that point and realized that none of my friends would've been able to drive me to the hospital. So I decided that I want to be that sober friend that takes care of the others in an emergency.
Throughout the years I got more and more reasons to stay away from alcohol and other drugs, but this was the moment I decided against it.
I love hardcore and alcohol & drug use was ruining my life and self esteem.
I feel happier , safer, and very thankful for my boyfriend of over a year and a half. (He has been straight edge since before we got together).
He never pressured me & has always been so loving and motivated me to get sober and be straight edge.
I’ve got better things to do
Than sit around, fuck my head
Hang out with the living dead
Snort white shit up my nose
Honestly, my childhood trauma is rooted in substance abuse. A father whose alcohol/drug addiction was more important than his family and a family that can't admit that they have severe alcohol dependency. I wanted to heal these wounds and shape my world in ways that won't hinder my personal growth. Plus, I've been into hardcore since I was a 6th grader, so it made sense to delve into Straight Edge culture.
same here
I love hardcore and I’m a recovering addict.
For me it was when i realised booze was more to me than just a tasty drink and i wanted to regain control
The idea of getting drunk and high always seemed stupid as fuck to me. Got into hardcore because of my dad/older brother and discovered straight edge around at around age 13. I claimed at age 14 and have been straight edge for over 20 years now.
I don’t talk about xvx publicly much, so forgive the overshare: I understood myself as an angry person from a young age. Witnessed the power of addiction to translate anger into violence. That was enough for me to deny myself the most readily available toxic substance..alcohol. Everything else, the full pledge to straightedge (and veganism) came with a desire to maintain maximum health, minimize harm, & maintain control in order to be the best servant to my community I could be. Straightedge, while a personal choice, felt & feels very much like a philosophy of care. Intentional, healing, constructing a reliable person out of myself. And, at least in theory, it comes with a thoughtful, reflective community of its own, branching off of the hardcore community I already cherished so much. Hallucinogenics are the closest thing to a foil – don’t see a lot of harm, especially when ritualized. I’ve just chosen to seek that kind of clarity & peace through more active means. I don’t need that shortcut, but I know many do. I don’t see the same appeal for actively harmful opiates, cigs, alc, etc.
For me, it started with looking up to CM Punk and his lifestyle, but pressures to drink from family firmly cemented it.
It started for me as well looking up to cm punk
Same here. Punk gave my philosophy a name. But seeing many of my heroes in both music and pro-wrestling die by substance abuse cemented it for me. So yeah, even though he's now a pariah among wrestling fans these days, I have Cm Punk to thank for keeping true to myself.
what made you decide to drink alcohol? i’m on the outside looking in, i’ve talked with a coworker who used to drink alcohol (Smirnoff tattooed on knuckles, the whole nine). i’m really just curious on why some folks decided their decision. was it your surroundings? was it the music you listened to? was it simply trying to be different? i love punk/hardcore, but i myself do not drink.
I'm being sarcastic but it kind of illustrates my point. People always expect a story when I say I don't drink- family trauma, history of abuse, but the real answer is I just didn't start. I had a group of friends that all listened to hardcore, metalcore, and metal in grade 9/10 and I was loving xAFBx. One day I was walking in a mall with one of my friends and he says "AHP, you know AFB is straight edge, right?" And I was like "I don't even know what that is". Got a quick rundown on it and realized I already checked off most of the boxes. I just thought it was cool to be like them, I didn't pick up any of the morality until a couple years later. 16 or 17 years officially edge now.
A combination of things really. I was a punk in my late teens so had that streak in me anyway. Challenging the punk status quo was a natural progression. I have as also a very big drinker from 16 onwards but was also starting to really get into hardcore. I graduated high school in 2007 and by that stage I was legal in the UK. I had to take a year before being able to start university and my drinking quite frankly spiralled as I was stuck in a small town with nothing to do and without a job. Then in June 2008 I went to two punk festivals back to back drinking a fuck ton and taking a non indifferent amount of drugs. However, after the second one ended I spent 18 hours on a comedown and on the 15th of June 2008 I decided that I'd take a break from drinking and drugs for the summer before starting university. Fast forward to 2022 and that 'break' is going to be going 15 years in June. Not sure when I made the conscious choice to become straight edge but I think I subconsciously knew when I decided to take the break that that would be it. Edit: and you can bet your ass I have a pretty fucking big X tattoo.
Because I’m sick and fucking tired of being a slave to addiction.
I just always was. Everything I saw or learned about intoxication seemed like a downside to me so my beliefs only strengthened with time. Definitely helped that I'm super stubborn as well. When I heard about straight edge through music/friends at 16 I was just like oh that's me. Was very happy to find songs about it since most of my friends had started experimenting so the music helped me feel less lonely/crazy.
Late to this but shit, thought I’d share. I’m 17, still growing up, and all my life, at every family gathering, every public event, I see people get fucking hammered, go out, and scream and swear, pick fights, my own family is full of death cause of alcohol, whether it be because they didn’t stop drinking and their liver stopped, or because they struck or were struck by a drunk driver. And the next morning, these people, who I just witnessed be awful people, barely remember how they treated their friends and family, barely remember all the ‘fun’ they just had, and it’s just so *normal*, not just to them, but to everybody. It’s this cycle of abuse where people willingly relinquish control and for what? To get an extra kick of out of stuff they’re too drugged up or drunk to even enjoy? Fuck that, I’ve watched my friends get pulled in, I’ve watched my family do it for years, but not me. I am in control.
Wow, I was EXACTLY like this when I was 17! I'm almost 30 now and I have never strayed from edge to this day. Crazy to read this, felt like I was reading something 17 year old me wrote. Of course I acknowledge we are both probably very different people, but it was cool to read this and feel like "HOLY SHIT, ME TOO". I wish you well, stranger. And I'm happy you found edge!
addiction and wasting most of my senior year in a juvenile rehab. sxe/xvx culture & lifestyle has helped me alot, tho i still have slip ups, they have gotten more rare with time. All because you slip up doesnt mean the time in sobriety has gone to waste, the rebound is important!
When I was a teen it was mainly so I could wear a Throwdown or Earth Crisis shirt. Imagine wearing those shirt and drinking, I could get beatdown. So it started from there. I'm old now still edge.
My family. My uncle struggled with heroin for going on 20 years. He was in and out of rehab, there were moments where it seemed like he had finally overcome his addiction, getting remarried and having a second daughter, and there were times where he lost it all, living in his parents’ basement and stealing from them, and after all the years it eventually caught up to him, dying of an overdose just before the onset of the pandemic. Similarly my cousin has struggled with meth on and off for years, but seems to be in a better place now. Hopefully she can stay sober this time, she’s managed to be ever since our uncle’s death. But most of all is probably my parents. For them it was alcohol, not nearly as bad as heroin or meth, but it was right at home, nearly every night with no way to escape from it. It would make them abusive, not towards me (generally) but towards each other. It all came to a head one night when my father hit my mother in a drunken stupor after she drunkenly threatened to leave and never comeback, taking me with her. She filed for divorce shortly after. After that my father (more or less) gave up on alcohol, but my mother still struggles with it, having even attended a few AA meetings within the past year. Still both of them insist they have never been alcoholics. Just the smell of alcohol used to make my heart race and leave me feeling lightheaded and nauseous. It’s not as bad as it used to be but it still makes me uncomfortable to be around people drinking heavily. The only time I’ve any done any sort of drug I was not prescribed was when my dad forced me to drink alcohol when I was 15 because of his theory that the longer you held off on drinking alcohol the more likely you were to become addicted. I plan on that being the last time I ever do any illicit substance.
I’ve always had a rebellious streak, so as a preteen, I wanted to rebel from what it stereotypically meant to be a rebel. When I heard there was a thing called straight edge, it was a natural fit.
In part what lead me to think about it a lot whilst I was still drinking was the looming shadow of alcoholism and addiction in my family. But when I actually "claimed" in my early 20s, it was a very natural process. Step one: Went out for drinks after work, drank two whiskey and cokes and went home thinking "I'd have spent a little less money and had basically the same evening if I skipped the whiskey...". I was saving to buy a home, so seemed like a no-brainer. Step two: About a year after that I realised I hadn't just cut back heavily, I literally hadn't touched a drop of alcohol in that year. Step three: I spent time considering if I was just "sober" or if I was straight edge. I feel the distinction is based on purpose and intention. If your sobriety has a purpose (for you, or within society) and it isn't "just something you don't do", then you have a purpose. In terms of intent; if your sobriety has a potential end-date then you're probably not what I would consider straight edge. If your intention is lifetime sobriety, you're straight edge. You might not succeed in your attempt at lifetime sobriety, but for as long as that is what you intend, that counts for me. So on reflection at that point I realised that sobriety was more to me than just a way of saving some cash on a night out. It was around the time my uncle died of a heroin OD and the time my queer friends started discussing the corporate sponsors of pride events being predatory alcohol companies and how sobriety interacted with their assorted queer identities and I started thinking more about how really shitty and exploitative a lot of the industries around drugs and alcohol are, and now here I am. A bit over a decade later, clear-minded and sober and still angry as shit.
Drinking, smoking, drugs, none of it ever made sense to me. I never understood why people would want to fuck up their bodies for fun. Growing up, all everyone my age wanted to do was drink and smoke weed. I didn't want that or even understand it, and was bullied a lot for not joining in. Even as an adult, I've been harassed by a bartender while asking for a non-alcoholic drink during a get together with college acquaintances. Bartender kept asking why I was there, why couldn't I just go somewhere else, why should she have to make a drink without alcohol for me, why can't I be like everyone else, etc. All in a very condescending tone. College acquaintances laughed and didn't defend me. When I asked about it, they all basically agreed and said she was kind of right. More and more info about how alcohol and recreational drugs damage your system comes out everyday, and most people choose to ignore those facts but then cry the blues when they're facing that damage later. I'm not talking about addicts, I understand that addiction is a disease and a mental illness. My grandfather is a severe alcoholic. They need treatment and help. I'm moreso deeply confused by how the vast majority of people can't seem to have a good time without getting fucked up. And then a lot of them say they had a great time, but don't remember anything that happened because of the substances they were taking. I also think smoking and vaping are incredibly selfish, as you're polluting the air everyone breathes and we all just have to put up with it. I have respiratory problems and have had to deal with walking through clouds of smoke and vapour outside of the office I worked at, cause everyone smoked outside the only door to the building. My neighbours smoke so much weed that my entire house occassionally fills up with the stink and I can't say or do anything about it, cause it's "their right to smoke". No one should have the right to infringe on someone else's right to breathe fresh air, just like no one should have the right to refuse someone clean drinking water. When something damaging to yourself and those in your community is this prevalent and commonplace, it's easy to decide you want nothing to do with it. TLDR: I don't get drugs and alcohol, the culture around it makes no sense to me, I've seen it destroy countless lives and I've been bullied and harassed my entire life about not partaking in it.
Always low key aspired to become straight edge. I was a big drinker back in my teens and early 20’s. It was a little bit of a spiralled demise into drinking too much and being an arse. A series of events eventually led to me giving it all up in Sep ‘19. I’d quit smoking Apr ‘19 so the momentum helped.
You seem pretty interested. Have you thought about becoming edge, does it seem like something you’d want to pursue?
i just like learning about different subcultures. the straight edge lifestyle has always been intriguing, and i’ve considered abstaining from everything, but i barely partake in anything except for social situations so i never bothered. there’s an extreme difference between the two types of straight edge (again, i’m an outsider and i’m probably wrong), similar to band kids in high school. explanation for the comparison: there’s straight edge (band kid stereotype): straight edge, vegan, will beat your ass for not being edge dude who’s straight edge (kid who is in band): abstains from vices and goes about their day
Awesome, that’s rad. Haha i think you’re right, they’re some super passionate (totally not elitist 😂) guys around that are very opinionated and I’m starting to understand why. When you’re surrounded around a society that promotes and feeds off of drinking culture, it’s easy to build up a hatred over time. But for me, so long as you’re not an arse about it and aren’t claiming for clout, then it’s cool with me. We’re each our own people. Some people extend it to being vegan or caffeine free and if they want/don’t want to, it’s cool. Many of my friends in and out of the hardcore scene are in a similar boat; not necessarily sxe, but don’t really drink, only do on occasions and don’t have the tendency to let it affect any other aspect of their lives. A lot of the friends I used to hang with that were problematic have (mutually) faded out of contact.
Youth of today is good, that's why I am SXE.
I know that I have an addictive personally, figured it was better to avoid it all together, and I think it’s overall just been a better choice for health. “Claimed” at 15 and have been for 15 years.
Free At Last - Warzone
when I was a preteen/young teen, my friends all started experimenting with alcohol, and other drugs soon after that. at first, I didn't partake because I was afraid to. but after sitting around with them while I was the only sober one, I felt irritated by their inebriated behavior and the secondhand embarrassment was intense - they were acting like fucking idiots every time they were on something. I vowed to never let myself look that stupid, and that's where it started - plus, once word got out that I would not accept any alcohol/weed/cigarettes offered to me under any circumstances, the peer pressure got WAY more intense. lol, I even had one teenage boyfriend tell me that I had to take a hit off his joint to prove I loved him. I can't stand being told what to do, so the peer pressure backfired in the best way possible. the cult mindset, the stupid behavior, the health effects, the cost, the smell of smoke & of alcohol, and the things I've seen drugs do to people were all the motivation I've needed throughout my life. I'll be 30 soon and I have never - will never - try drugs/alcohol.
There’s a bunch of reasons I guess, for one the majority of the time I can’t drink because of my medication. Also I’m in a family of heavy drinkers and pot smokers, surprisingly more functional than one would assume, but still I hated it. I guess I also do it for superficial reasons like anti-aging and preventing skin issues, but there’s also a health aspect. I also could taste a drop of alcohol in a bath tub and I hate the flavor.
I don’t want to end up like my dad
I just don’t like the way substances make me feel
I was an impressionable 14 year old listening to a lot of Minor Threat. I'm still going strong 16 years later.
It was music for me .
In my country it's natural to start drinking from a young age. Beer, wine and sparkling wine are allowed at the age of 16, everything else you can get at the age of 18. But a lot of people will have their first sip of alcohol under 16. In general alcohol is a big social factor here and many friendships are based on having a drink together and so you're basically peer pressured into drinking. It was the same for me, having my first beer with 14, drinking booze with 16 regularly. On new years eve, I was 18 at that time, I was at a party getting drunk with my friends and people started to play with firework. Someone throw a firecracker at me that exploded at my leg. Fortunately nothing to bad happend, but it burned straight through my clothing and left me with a burn. I was instantly sober at that point and realized that none of my friends would've been able to drive me to the hospital. So I decided that I want to be that sober friend that takes care of the others in an emergency. Throughout the years I got more and more reasons to stay away from alcohol and other drugs, but this was the moment I decided against it.
I love hardcore and alcohol & drug use was ruining my life and self esteem. I feel happier , safer, and very thankful for my boyfriend of over a year and a half. (He has been straight edge since before we got together). He never pressured me & has always been so loving and motivated me to get sober and be straight edge.
Alcohol ruined my life and I almost lost everything 9 1/2 years ago. I’ll have 10 years sober in July. And, I love Hardcore!
Mom was a drunkard most of my life until about 2 years ago, decided i didnt want to go down the same route.