I don't believe the statistics. In the UK a lot of people drank like me and didn't seem to think it was a problem whereas I was wracked with guilt. I had more mental and health problems it seems, I know people who drank like me til their 50's and are largely fine. And others seem to have lots of social problems drinking. I never did and for years it made me a bit self righteous about it and reluctant to stop drinking. The thing is it is all entirely irrelevant to you. Took me a long time to get this and let it go but it does me no favours whatsoever to compare myself to other drinkers. So what if other people are drinking excessively? I admit to having an 'it's not fair' response to that for quite a while but really that was because I wasn't happy that I wasn't drinking. I made a concerted effort to just think about my own issues with alcohol and what was best for me, and it became obvious that giving up drinking has been the best thing I have ever done. And the biggy for me, I actually don't care what other people think about that and they are free to do whatever they want with their own drinking problems. If anyone ever admitted they needed help then that would be another story and I would bend over backwards to help them but in the mean time it's none of my business, just like my not drinking is no one else's business. Sorry, that turned out quite long winded, but I know how you feel Sophie because I was there myself. It took time and acceptance to feel better about it x