I had a similar experience to Dean except there was no NA beer available back then. I had three months up and was back in the bar with my old friends who, incidentally, had not bothered to visit me when I was in the nut farm, and I was drinking soft drink of some sort. Someone passed me a joint, I took one puff, then went and bought a beer. My three months was gone in seconds after that puff. The point for me was that I was back in my old way of thinking, trying to live the same way without the alcohol, looking for that vicarious pleasure buzz. I went into that peculiar mental blank spot where no thought of the consequences can get through, the mind altering chemical changed the way I felt about alcohol, I drank, the phenomenon of craving kicked in and I was on that down hill slide again. It happened in seconds through me being in the wrong place and, having not taken the steps and had a spiritual awakening, having no defence against the first drink. Why had I not taken the steps? Because I did not realise the seriousness of my condition.
God bless,
Mike H.
-- Edited by Fyne Spirit on Sunday 1st of April 2012 12:03:17 AM
One of the really cool things about AA is, you can do what ever you want to do, and you can do it as long as you can stand it. For me, drinking " non " alcoholic beer is like taking a shower with a rain coat on. Whats the point. "Non" alcoholic beer isn't really non alcoholic beer any way. There is a little alcohol in it.
I used to go to AA meetings at a club in Vegas that had a smoking and a non smoking room. I had quit smoking one time, and would go into the smoking room, just to get a whiff. I wasn't smoking, what was the harm. The truth was I really want happy about not smoking. I still secretly wanted to smoke. It was only a matter of time till I picked up a smoke.
A little excerpt from our AA Big book pg 151-152
Now and then a serious drinker, being dry at the moment says, "I dont miss it at all. Feel better. Work better. Having a better time." As ex-problem drinkers, we smile at such a sally. We know our friend is like a boy whistling in the dark to keep up his spirits. He fools himself. Inwardly he would give anything to take half a dozen drinks and get away with them. He will presently try the old game again, for he isnt happy about his sobriety. He cannot picture life without alcohol. Some day he will be unable to imagine life either with alcohol or without it. Then he will know loneliness such as few do. He will be at the jumping-off place. He will wish for the end.
We have shown how we got out from under. You say, "Yes, Im willing. But am I to be consigned to a life where I shall be stupid, boring and glum, like some righteous people I see? I know I must get along without liquor, but how can I? Have you a sufficient substitute?"
Yes, there is a substitute and it is vastly more than that. It is a fellowship in Alcoholics Anonymous. There you will find release from care, boredom and worry. Your imagination will be fired. Life will mean something at last. The most satisfactory years of your existence lie ahead. Thus we find the fellowship, and so will you.
Welcome to our board, way to go on 4 months.
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Since it cost a lot to win, and even more to loose, you and me gotta spend some time just wondering what to choose.
Hi Angela and welcome to the board. Congrats on 4 months! Billy Jack summed it up pretty well. 4 months is not a lot of time considering how long most of us had been obsessed with drinking. I tried drinking NA beer once when I had about 3 months, with my old drinking buddies. It was odd, my friend Ronnie (RIP) was drinking our favorite beer and I was drinking NA beer. Both of us had these beverages in separate bags. It was a matter of time, that evening before I reached into the bag with real beer and lost my 3 months, had to start over and admit my mistake to my sponsor and the group. Best to stick with iced tea, water, and sodas. Get a few years of sobriety and then see what you think about this subject.
I love to quote a friend in the program (he has 23 years) who says, "non-alcoholic beer is for non-alcoholics". That being said, I choose not to go there. :)
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I think there's an invisible principle of living...if we believe we're guided through every step of our lives, we are. Its a lovely sight, watching it work.
My eldest son went dry for a long time and kept a Near Beer in the refrigerator. One night when we were over for dinner he admitted that he was always soooo aware that it was there and couldn't tell what else was. He asked me for some feedback on it and I told him that for me it was like "flirting" with an old girl friend; for me. Near Beer came out in the late 50's for a reason and all the guys that I drank with did a taste test one night and didn't finish the 8oz cans it came in...Not because it didn't taste like beer and for that it just didn't give us what we were looking for. My sponsor told me I was going to have to get away from all things alcohol and I have and I am sober and serene. Keep coming back and don't feel bad because of the responses of a buncha ole sober guys...what do they know!!
A couple years ago I was on holiday in Germany. I'd met up with some old friends, beer monsters all. I'd told my closest german friend and his wife that I didn't drink and why. All was going well, but I soon realised that they were all big drinkers, so in the evenings I took myself off for a lng hike. On the way back I would call in at a coffee house for a decent cup of coffee and a cake. One night, I was hot and sweaty and wanted a cold drink. I don't like sweet drinks, so eventually i settled for Erdinger Weisebier 0.000% certified alcohol content. The stuff is made in a lager which is purpose built and has NEVER been used to produce alcoholic beer (They are very anal about regulations in Germany) It was delicious but I couldn't finish it. I thought that would be enough. Yes the next night I went for another and finished it. I was troubled enough to speak to my sponsor who just said go to the barbers often enough and you'll get a haircut. So I had no more. Already I realsed I wanted to be like hte others, already i realised that it was just a matter of time for me before I said Fukkit, I'll have a real one. Someone else has said non alcoholic beer is for non alcoholics. I don't have aproblem with NA Beer, just that I don't think it's for me.
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It's not having what you want, it's wanting what you got. BB
I am glad I have no issue with this one. I surpassed beer drinking in college and drank only hard liquor for the last decade or more of my active disease. I progressed so far beyond drinking for the taste. I actually drank listerine if I could not get to liquor. The taste of NA beer? Is that something I care enough to dabble with? No. I never liked beer anyhow. Even when I drank it in college it was just cuz I wanted to get wasted and everyone else was drinking beer. Vodka did the job much quicker. NA beer - just seems so pointless. Like drinking a sour messed up tasting sprite or something. What's the point?
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Keep coming back. It works if you work it. So work it. You're worth it!
I can identify with that Mark, I remember in college being sooooooooooooo pissed when the parties were so over packed that we freshman could only manage 6 or 7 cups of beer in the amount of time the party lasted... and that was just awful! I had just started drinking, and I remember it being the most frustrating time!
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Thanks for everything. Peace and Love on your journey.
WElcome to the board, I think almost all NA beer still has small percentages of alcohol in it. We true alcoholics avoid ANY amount of alcohol whatsoever no matter what.
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God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.
Even if it was 0% I wouldn't go near it. I don't want to ever risk getting the a taste for it back and I think that if I did it it would be because I deep I felt like I was missing out on something.
When I drank I my brain didn't crave the taste it craved the effects I got from drinking. Near beer might be like pretend drinking, I never pretend drank and I don't pretend recovery. Walking past beer in the grocery store cooler is as near as I care to get.
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Tell me and I'll forget. Teach me and I'll remember. Involve me and I'll learn.
Like a few people said above, I feel non-alcoholic beer is for non-alcoholics. When I first tried to get sober I figured I'd drink O'Douls, why not? I went to a Halloween party and drank 12 of them. 12?? Am I an alcoholic, yep. It's not for me, I drank to get wasted and this little experiment reiterated that fact.
Welcome Angela! My experience is like the others here. I would drink NA beer because I wanted to fit in and pretend to be drinking. With no effect it sucked. I was camping once and ran out of NA beer. I went back to the store to buy more. Sound familiar? WTF? Ran out of NA beer..... I'm an alcoholic. More of anything please. I was just fooling myself and reserving my right to drink some time in the future. Damn, that peculiar mental twist won again.
I had all emotional, mental, and physical characteristics present, but the effect/solution had changed. I was drinking the real stuff soon after and off an running. Wash, rinse & repeat.
I usually down 30-40 fake beers when I am out snorting great huge gaggers of fake coke
makes about the same sense
I did drink a few in early sobriety when I was going out to see bands and stuff and I didn't know what to drink, but it was weird and uncomfortable, I know some sober alkies that will have one on occasion (1-2 a year) and I have seen other sober alkies actually go back out on them, it's not something I do, nor would I recomend doing it, but there are no rules in AA, just suggestions.
just because I can't or won't do something, doesn't mean you have to, for me, it's a dumb idea
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Light a man a fire and he's warm for a night, set a man on fire and he will be warm for the rest of his life
Hehehe. Nice to see you here Angela. No question is ever the wrong question. I remember being in a bar once that had a sign on the wall that said non-alcoholic draft on tap. I'd been to a few meetings and I had determined I wasn't really an alcoholic at least not like the DWI, listerine-guzzling trench coats downtown. maybe just a guy with a drinking problem. So my keen intellectual alcoholic thinking cap told me if I wasn't alcoholic I must be non-alcoholic ergo non-alcoholic drinks were made for people like me. so I tried some near-beer. Looks like beer, smells like beer, almost tastes like beer, but it ain't beer and all it ever did was make me thirsty for real beer. Thanks for reminding me.
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Not all my days are priceless, but none of my days are worthless, anymore.
A few weeks ago I tried a can of what is a 0.0 percent lager in Spain. It tasted ok, but I won't be drinking it again, diet coke is better. I don't feel I had a slip or anything like that, but I did find myself wondering what good it did me and what business I had drinking it. It had no effect on me regarding cravings etc, if anything made me realise how much I don't want to drink again.
Certainly I'd recommend against it. In some ways I feel it had a positive influence on me, but I wouldnt recommend doing so. It's unnecessary and best avoided, in my opinion.
As someone said, I realised it's not for me, and that my sobriety needs more work than I've given it in recent months.
-- Edited by Kennyronin on Tuesday 11th of December 2012 04:21:11 PM
Chaya - Funny thing is, it was actually enough to make me realise I don't want anything from the old days back in my life. I experienced nothing except the taste, and realise that it wasn't really that great. Nothing I'd go out of my way to have again, or indeed that I'd choose over other options.
I feel that with hindsight it was a bad idea trying it but has had a positive outcome in that I now don't want to go near the stuff. My life is so much fuller without real or fake that I'm better off with what I know with certainty I will be comfortable with. If only I could find some real Mountain Dew over here, now that would hit the spot...
-- Edited by Kennyronin on Tuesday 11th of December 2012 06:10:25 PM
I can't relate to wanting to drink alcohol free beer, but if there was alcohol free whiskey or gin I am quite sure it would only be an enormous trigger for what I really want. I don't want to experience alcohol with any of my senses right now. Too dangerous.
Ooh. Mountain Dew! I remember one night in college getting myself so jacked up on the Dew and coffee. Add some tofu scramble to that and I was so sick to my stomach I don't know how I even pulled that all nighter. Yuck. It was gross.
Heyyyy you know whats funny i had my four months on dcember 14th congrats to you..the funny thing is i was thinking the same excat thing....Thats so funny i was talking to my sponser about that she said everyone works the program different i know someone that said it makes their craving go away then you got some people that will go and say your not sober or blah blah blah ive actualy tried it its got vey very little alcohol in it but when my parents go out to dinner thats what i had one cause they still drink and it helped a little bit but you know no one can really tell you what and what not to do...Im sure a handful of people tried it before cause they was curious.. then their some people who it makes them go back to normal alcohol...have you asked your sponser see what he or she says
I was just fooling myself and reserving my right to drink some time in the future. Damn, that peculiar mental twist won again.