Taken from /u/offtherocks about a year ago

It's true. Though this isn't really about drinking vs. not drinking. Nearly all friendships are based on at least two of these four things: 1) shared interest 2) similar stage in life 3) shared time, like work or school 4) geographical proximity. When you're young & naive, you think all of your college or military friends are going to be BFF's for life. That's because you have at least three if not four of these things in common, so your friendships seem rock solid. But then people move. People get real jobs. People get married & have kids. Next thing you know it's 5 years later and you're left lamenting, We used to be so close. What happened? What happened is that you no longer have at least two of those factors in common. It's nothing personal. It doesn't mean that person likes you any less. It just means that each of you is now spending the majority of your time with people who better fit the formula. That may sound depressing or pessimistic to some, but it's not, it's just the way things work. Think about it--if people really were so perfectly suited for one another they would never find each other in the vast sea of 7 billion human earthlings. You can take any 100 people & stick them in a shared situation & they'll all find BFF's within that group. Most people are pretty OK, and all people adapt to others. If you spend a lot of time drinking with your friends, that's at least factor #1 - drinking is your shared interest. It's probably factor #2 as well, shared situation in life. When you stop drinking, you no longer have factor #1 in common. So of course the friendship falls apart. You likely don't meet the minimum requirement of factors in common. All this to say, hey, don't worry too much about it. Yeah, you'll lose some people. But you'd eventually lose those people anyway as they moved, got married, had kids, got new jobs, etc. It's natural. You will find new friends. If you start spending your time doing things that don't involve drinking, you will likely develop stronger friendships with these new folks. Or at least less tenuous relationships, where your entire friendship isn't based on taking a drug, ya know?