Originally Posted by
sleepie 
Hi all.
So I was reading on SR as usual. It seems a lot of people started drinking young, had these wild times and fun youth and then quit pretty early on. Or maybe in college. I was almost 30 when I started and hated drinking before that- besides which I was always a reject and had few friends until college and even then I wasn't really cool or pretty enough to go party with people. Plus I was way too anxious and self conscious after all the years of abuse and public humiliation centering on being physically unattractive. The power of collective hate aimed at one person for years by peers is devastating and lasting.
Definitely High school was hell and zero social opportunities there. I mean hell. They even threatened to expel someone who teased me so badly and he was a senior male and I was just a little freshman girl.
I was NOT to be made friends with.
So I got a late late start because I never had any friends when others did or did normal growing up things like parties, boyfriends, dances etc.
Basically due to being a social reject, ugly and also suffering abuse at home, I missed out on an entire youth.
I didn't drink until my 30's too, well late late 20's. But the drinking became out of control in my 30's. It started with me trying to cope with having a stressful job in child welfare. Big mistake, obviously.
I can say that one thing I have learned on my journey is that alcoholics often feel alone in the crowd. A lot of our stories are similar to yours.