RainyDayWoman1

I never realized until recently how pervasive the smell of alcohol is!
Apparently all the gum, mints, mouthwash, etc wasn`t masking the smell on my breath and I didn`t know it. I drank alot of vodka too, which I thought had no smell (as opposed to beer or whiskey which I thought smelled strongly)

I always thought when a cop says they smell alcohol, they were just saying that? But my SO was so used to my smoke/booze smell he didn`t realize what it was until he saw me/kissed me sober and noticed the difference! He said "I thought that was just your normal smell until now, now I can smell the difference"

I drank before a job interview and the lady said "by the way, you reek of booze" - I acted all offended - I chewed gum!The nerve! (of course I didn`t get the job)

In a hardware store of all places - the guy was helping me find something on a shelf and he looked at me funny and said "whattya drunk?" I was like "the hell? why is this hardware guy commenting on my (wine) breath?"

jamdls

Yep, it stinks. I remember about 10-15 yrs ago I regularly attended a large church and most every time I went there there was 1 particular man who would sit near me, we never spoke other than to greet each other when you had to stand and do that. I thought he was attractive, and no wedding band, so I went out of my way to sit next to him, very quickly he was no longer attractive because he reeked! of alcohol. It really made me wonder if I smelled the same. Even when I drank I disliked the smell of alchohol at least until I got the first 1-2 glasses down, and now the smell nauseates me.

LaFemme

I remember doing the whole wine smelling ritual at restaurants...the whole production of it. Now if I smell wine, even from a distance, it makes me gag. But that's not really what you were talking about...I remember that no matter how much I showered I never really smelled right...duh!

c49

I find Purell to smell disgusting which is bizarre because I used to think things with alcohol smelled great back when I was hydrating myself with cheap vodka.

I guess we become repulsed of alcohol over time. Thank God!

Dee74

Having sat next to people on the bus since - I hate to think how much I used to stink up the place after a few days of booze and cigarettes.

Welcome Lorraine - you'll find a lot of support here.

There is a better life out there
D

least

Now that I'm sober I can smell booze-breath a mile away, yuck!

marni

l can't stand the smell of alcohol now at all, it makes me feel nauseous (especially beer)
l actually hold my breath if l have to walk past a bottle shop or bar where people are outside drinking.

l found out (when l got sober) that my workmates regularly made jokes about my stale alcohol odour, makes me cringe when l think about that.

The first step towards change is acceptance.
Once you accept yourself you open the door to change.
Change is not something you do, it's something you allow.
Will Garcia

stark6935

We have a purell dispenser next to my desk at work, and when people sometimes use it I look around for who it is that smells like hard liquor.

MsCooterBrown

I used to think eating onion overpowered booze breath..wtf..Nothing more enticing than walking around with onion whiskey breath! All of it makes me sick now. And someone above mentioned how gross it is even when you are an active alcoholic..true story. I was ok by the 3rd drink..the first two I had to gag down.

CarolD

Welcome....

I too reeked of alcohol ..by the end of my drinking..I could smell myself.
I took 3 showers before work....and I worked in a cocktail lounge!

Anyway...no more working around ooze or drinking it for me.

Hope you enjoy your recovery as much as I do..

wichitalineman

This post made me think a lot today. I clearly remember being told one day at work a few years ago "You smell like booze". And here I thought Listerine and gum did the trick?? Haha, yeah right...

+1 for sitting on the bus next to booze hounds. Bleuch!

JaguarWong

It's kinda sad isn't it how you think you can hide it, but really it doesn't fool anyone. I can remember constantly eating packs of extra strong mints - but you're right, it just doesn't work. Although, it probably did help keep the Trebor Mint Company in business.

I notice the smell more than ever on other people now.

RainyDayWoman1

It`s weird - I can never smell booze on anyone else or myself, maybe because I am a cigarette smoker? I can`t really smell cig smoke OR booze. I`m not really around anyone too often who drinks though, and I never noticed it on some random stranger...Cigar smoke I CAN smell (I HATE it) and pot. I worked in a bar for years (when you could still smoke inside) and cigars were the only smell I objected to.

mmh364

If I was out of mints or gum, I would keep toothpaste in my pocket at home just in case a surprise visitor showed up. I'm sure the smell of Crest and glazy eyes never made anyone suspect I had been drinking. lol

jamdls

My final drunk ended with me overdosing on prescription sleeping pills and pain pills and it was around 36 hours later before I regained consciousness (only by the grace of God) and called 911. It was too late to pump my stomach, and by the 2nd day in the hospital my liver enzymes were very high and continuing to climb; on the 3rd day they did a sonogram and discovered a hole in my liver (due to the acetaminophen in the pain pills), to repair the hole I had to drink 17 doses of this gawd awful stuff called Mucomyst over 4 days; this stuff smelled like rotten eggs and the taste was horrendous even though they'd mix the dose with a little apple juice (I still won't drink apple juice); by the 2nd day that's all I could smell and my whole body smelled of it, it was seeping out of my pores and they wouldn't let me take a shower (suicide risk). When I finally left the hospital after 7 days I went home and showered like 3 times the first day but the smell stayed with me for another day or 2 and over the next year or so I would periodically smell it again, it took over 2 yrs before I ate an egg again. So since then I associate alcohol with that rotten egg smell, it's only been in about the last 6 months (and it's been 3.5 yrs since the mucomyst experience) that I can walk past the wine isle at the grocery store w/o holding my breath. Even just writing this I remember that smell and I cringe. I've always had a very sensitive sense of smell and cannot tolerate things like perfumes/many cooking odors/ etc so for me the strong aversion to the smell of alcohol has played a tremendous role in eliminating any desire I may have had to drink.

Lionne

Welcome to SR Lorraine!
I'm was always pretty sure that I didn't smell of booze the day after a huge binge, but now I'm ultra-good at detecting the smell on others so...Who was I fooling?

MrsCooter, this actually made me giggle a little when I read it. I was imagining someone taking a swig from the whiskey bottle and then biting heartily into a raw onion as if it were an apple
But seriously, the lenghts we sometimes went through to hide the extent of our drinking...and to convince ourselves that these measures were actually working...I'm so glad that I don't have to do any of this anymore!

TexasNative

When I pump gas I can always smell the beer cans that are in those little trash cans by the pumps, it's just beyond gross. Whats even worse is I used to help fill those little trash cans with empties

RainyDayWoman1

Wow, I`m suprised you can smell anything over the smell of gasoline!

spen71

I am only 17 days sober and had to pop into a pub for 5 mins to pick some money up (I clean their windows early morning). The smell on peoples breath just talking to them was really off putting.

JoeCree

My wife commented on the room in the morning - and how it used to reek of alcohol. Now, freshness. I'm so sensitive to smell, I am surprised at how I didn't think alcohol really smelled unless you got "trashed". I was never a heavy drinker, only a few - but very consistent/daily.

Smoking had the same affect on me. Moreover ---- the one time before I quit drinking for good I had to talk with my neighbour about putting in a fence (we share a property line), I hadn't had many (maybe 3 glasses of wine) but to this day, they must have been like - Why does this guy smell like wine at 5:30PM?

I tricked myself into believing that they didn't notice - but that is just silly -- everyone always notices.

For instance I am at the airport right now waiting for a flight to San Fran --- the woman next to me smells so bad -- I wonder if she has had 1 or 7 hard alcohol something or other.