>drinking and smoking and just doing whatever Just to demonstrate one of the issues-- How about if your friends don't do this? Right there is a huge barrier to

>drinking and smoking and just doing whatever Just to demonstrate one of the issues-- How about if your friends don't do this? Right there is a huge barrier to socializing-- you tend to hang out with people with similar drug habits. When someone gets sober, they often report losing a lot of friends because the alcohol is the common ground and without it hanging out on a couch doing nothing feels weird. >I think the key here is to just find grounded, normal people. I agree, I'm kind of exaggerating the difference between cultures in order to highlight it-- but it's not like I have no Caucasian American friends that can just hang out. I definitely do. It feels more like some people are more within that isolating sort of culture, while others aren't. A close friend from high school reached a point where he wouldn't hang out unless we were doing something, while there was a less close friend who I still hang out with as he's open to just hanging out for the sake of hanging out without needing to include an activity. The experience of the first friend still puzzles me, but the second friend is just like most friends from my culture.