O'douls? good or bad?
 

Is there any debate on N/A beer or is it all no way ?

thx

Kind of like trying to kick a crack habit and hanging out in a crack house waiting to smell it..

Why? What is the point? Is that a road one should be heading down?

AG

There's LOTS of this debate all over this board.

My opinion is that it would be really stupid of me to flirt that close with my addiction(s).

Odouls has a small amount of alcohol in it. A very small amount..

I've yet to buy any fake coke or smack just to "pretend" to use. In recovery I have learned to move on with my life, and stop staying stuck in old habits and thoughts.

IMO, don't mess with it. I wasn't a big beer drinker but I enjoyed beer because it had alcohol in it. Once I started catching a buzz "I'd feel that ease and comfort that comes at once by taking a few drinks." NA "beer" might be good but REAL beer is so much better.

I can't imagine, on purpose, doing anything that that might lead me back to the bottle again. I understand I'm powerless over alcohol once I drink that first drink so for me to purposely do something sooooooo close to drinking booze again would be about the dumbest thing I could possibly do.

Hopefully you're not an alcoholic and can control your liquor once you start because the %'s of ppl who start with NA beer and end up back in the real thing is overwhelming or I hope you get "recovered" and thoughts of NA beer won't even interest you anymore.

Best of luck

There's plenty of debate when it comes to NA Beer.
I am of the belief that you either drink alcohol or you don't.
Either the drink problem has been removed, or it hasn't.
Regardless of whether you drink NA beer or not.
Mainly because you won't see the word "Beer" anywhere on the label.
It isn't "Beer" and it's not allowed to be called "Beer" by law.
It's a "Non Alcoholic Malt Beverage". Not Beer.
It's regulated by the FDA and not the ATF.

Me personally?? I drank the stuff by the buckets when I quit drinking.
I eventually got tired of it.

Most people that drink NA Beer eventually return to the real thing because they're also hanging around in bars and fooling themselves into believing that they're doing OK by drinking the stuff. They're not!
Eventually the atmosphere and environment draws them in. It's not the O'Douls that does it.
So ask if you can hang out in bars and drink Pepsi and you'll probably get a firm "No" from the masses just the same.
In the same respect I believe one can sit around the house and drink O'Douls all day long without a problem.
Just My Opinion and should never be taken as actual fact.

I agree with all the posts so far but I have a question: Where are you going to drink this NA beer if you decide to? Your house by yourself? At a party? At a bar?

The last 2 places are terrible to be at in early sobriety no matter what you are drinking. Look at your motives and answer truthfully why you are thinking of doing this.

Kind of like going across monkey bars on a playground. If you never let the bar behind you go you will never move forward and drop to the ground.

Every heard of the phrase "Grow or Die"..?

AG

8 yrs sober after yrs.. of alcohol abuse/misuse

I recently told a person i never relapsed and their reply was to say my o'douls is a relapse

- I thought that was mean,but maybe that is their coping mechanism to be weary of any item that triggers them,maybe even mouthwash?-and that is ok too - to ea. their own ..

but i don't see an o'douls as falling off the wagon imho :ghug3

I don't associate o'douls with beer -I have 1 with diner

to me 1 o'douls is a bubbly refreshing beverage - a soda alternative due to sugar drinks giving me an upset stomach, I think it is the corn syrup that doesn't agree with me - I have never been able to have a 2nd pepsi,or sometimes not even a entire can w/o having to 'go sit down' in a bathroom

headly

18+ years for me.. I don't see ANY positive side.. No it is not a relapse IMO but I would look more into WHY.. Taste? Smell? Thinkness? Bubbles in mouth? A way to hang out with friends?


There is a reason deep down that hasn't been posted yet... Looks like you posted while I was typing! LOL

AG

There is no way in hell I would fool with it.

Some people would view it as a "relapse" (I prefer the term consciously drinking alcohol), some people don't. Obviously if you don't, what's the problem?

Ah this one again..hmm well i got to go with headly a bit on this..firstly im a vegi,and i eat soya meat..made into burgers/sausages, similar flavour..no animal harmed or killed..
and good for you, i also have been using n/a beers every fri, maybe sat, its the 0% type absolute..i enjoy the fizzy wheat beer flavour..and i dont think its gonna tempt me as my choice of poison was fine red wines, on the whole,with a few beers sometimes, i dont like the artificial fizzy sugar drinks...coke/tango/ades etc...so personally for now i feel is helping me along...my take on things..early as i am in sobriety..i guess each to there own..if the cap fits wear it...:whoop

I just cooked some hot dogs on the grill for my son and I... I had a nice frosty O'douls... Something about the taste of a Hot Dog and a cold Non-Alcoholic Malt Beverage... ya know ;)

It's only a relapse for the one who drinks it and then considers it a relapse... If someone tells me that I relapsed today, with my Non-Alcoholic Malt Beverage... well, hmm, on second thought, lets not go there... People should work their own programs on this.

I drink only a few of them, less lately. One should examine their motives and carefully consider what drinking one might do... lead one back to the real thing? Quench their thirst on a hot day? Both? Neither?

It ain't up to me what you do with an O'douls and it ain't up to me whether it's a relapse or a slip.

My opinion... FWIW

Mark

I drank to get drunk...

This has beendebated a lot, lets take the gambling it would be like me playing free games...wheres the buzz in that? I dont understand the attraction to NA beer i guess?!

People often have a hard time letting go...

Each to their own recovery. We all walk our own path. Do i drink anything with alcohol no matter the percent? No. Nothing. Not even mouthwash. Nada. No cooked foods either. Zero.

Having said that, i don't think others are relapsing drinking O'douls malt beverages because the alcohol content blows for a relapse, imo.

The head games to drink that stuff would not be in my game-plan though. My alcoholism is cunning, baffling, and powerful. Drinking the stuff, for any reason, would be way dumb for me, because if i was gonna get drunk, i wouldn't fvck round, lol. The taste alone would make me sick and crappy now. :)

Others can do what they want with non-alcoholic beer. If they get drunk they get drunk for more reasons than drinking non-alcoholic beer. A relapse is more than just drinking alcohol, we all know that. If it was just about alcohol than just not drinking would solve everything.

My ESH.

Rob

That's the thing with us alcoholics, we seem to like living on the edge.

How close can i get to drinking without actually drinking.

Don't rub the belly of a sleeping tiger.

It's sooooo easy to backslide once you try n/a beer. I tried that loophole too and it led me right back to the liquor store

Hey gang, love the posts so far, quite diverse in opinions, motivations, and reasons. I'm tempted to try and O'douls after reading these posts, though I only really liked beer for the sedating effect of the alcohol. I drank most of em so fast, I don't think I tasted them either!

Lithobid
Day 6