"I drink therefore I am"

On 8/6/11 I will have been tea total for a year, not a drop has passed my lips!
I have lost a lot of weight, saved a lot of money and  generally feel a lot healthier. All this sounds great but there is one big drawback my social life is non-existent, I don't see any of my old drinking buddies and basically go out on my own, except for the odd occasion when I go out with my wife when we can find a babysitter!
When I meet my old drinking buddies on the street they usually greet me with "how are you?" as if I'm ill then the conversation becomes very stilted and then we quickly go our own ways.
I'm not blaming them they invest a lot of time and effort into their drinking and don't want someone like me upsetting their equilibrium, but for gods sake I've known some of them for years and been through a lot with them.
It's a very strange situation but not one unheard of in the field of alcohol counselling, my counsellor, an existential psychotherapist no less!, calls it the Mitwelt dimension!!! I just call it being dumped!