quitforme79

I am curious to know what others thoughts are about using products with alcohol. For example, listerine, nyquil, wine vinegar based salad dressings? I know some people I have met in AA who say this is an absolute no no and will cause someone to relapse. I use listerine everyday and eat a lot of salad w wine vinegar dressing. Not once does it ever make me crave alcohol. I guess I figure if I want to drink, I'll go to the liquor store and get a bottle of pinot grigio. That's the only alcohol I ever crave but I know everyone is different.

choublak

Some people get drunk chugging entire bottles of mouthwash. Everyone is indeed different.

suki44883

I have never had a problem with foods containing alcohol. They have never caused me to want to run out and buy a 12-pack of beer. I am about 4 1/2 years sober, so I must be doing something right.

That said, some people ARE very sensitive to alcohol and should probably avoid products that contain it. You will find out quickly if you are one of those people.

FreeFall

I'm avoiding things I know have alcohol in them if there's a good alternative. I'm not going to sweat an occasional slip if I didn't realize...I don't ever remember feeling any kind of craving after using something like mouthwash or Nyquil.

sugarbear1

I almost purchased some cheaper chocolate chips (for a chocolate with chocolate chips cake). I read the ingredients...the second one was chocolate liqueur! I chose the more expensive brand name chips, I wasn't going to be responsible for kindling anyone's relapse at an AA meeting! John celebrated 7 years of sobriety....he previously had 15, but thought he could drink again!

freshstart57

Sugarbear, are you sure the label did not say 'chocolate liquor'?

Chocolate liquor (cocoa liquor) is pure chocolate in its liquid form. Like the cocoa beans (nibs) from which it is produced, it contains both cocoa solids and cocoa butter in roughly equal proportion.

No alcohol in that.

ElanorMae

I started drinking mouthwash before I even started drinking on an unhealthy basis. I went to a grocery store to get a 6-pack and when I found my ID wasn't with me I bought mouthwash. I remembered doing that after a few years and for a 6 month period used mouthwash instead of booze when I was broke.

I still have no grip on staying sober. I do for a while and then slide. I've been dead broke and not a dime in my pocket and have had access to mouthwash and vanilla extract etc. and haven't touched it. Maybe it is because I have tried it and know the aftermath is so miserable.

Mizzuno

I use mouthwash, dressings, and whatever else i want. If it has alcohol that's fine. Im not getting loaded off of my mouthwash or my salad dressing. Its a non issue in my life.

Dee74

As other have said - some do some don't.
I prefer to avoid alcohol in my food, and in other things I might ingest, wherever possible.

What others may baulk, or even scoff, at, I just feel comfortable in doing - and that's the bottom line for us all I think

D

IndaMiricale

To each is own on this one.... Many different views..

I personally use listerine, and being a chef cook with alcohol. But I sure didnt have it in the house for many months. And really try not to now.

If it worries you I would say dont eat it...

Sobersunshine

Well I never drank mouthwash before, but I always had access to wine, hard liquor, etc. who knows what I might do now that all of the alcohol is out of my house. I seriously doubt I would chug mouthwash, but then again I never thought I'd be an alcoholic, either. I just by the alcohol free stuff now. Also got rid of the herbal remedy with brandy in it, and the NA beer with a tiny bit of alcohol in it. I just don't want to know what might happen. Plus, it's kind of symbolic in a way, just to not have it around in any form. I don't think salad dressing with wine would send me into a relapse, however. Having said that, I smelled some wine today (at a thanksgiving dinner, was checking to see if it was my water, which was also in a wine glass), and that started a big old craving. Ugh.

sugarbear1

Too late to change now....the cake came out beautifully and those Nestles chips were so fabulous melted inside the cake!

jennikate

None for me! I drank both Listerine and Nyquil on occasion during my drinking days.

quitforme79

Thanks all. It doesn't bother me at all to use these products so I will continue to do so. My roommate keeps a whole rack of red wine always fully stocked in the kitchen along with beer in the fridge. Again, those types of alcohol do nothing for me. BUT, if she was a white wine drinker I would've had to ask her to keep them out of sight because the craving would be too strong. I hear you sobershunshine...I smelled wine at a restaurant this weekend and kicked into a little craving. It is getting easier to get through them though, thank heavens.

Sapling

You get to a point Quit....After or during your ninth step...Where this comes true....Until I got here....I didn't tempt fate too often.

And we have ceased fighting anything or anyone - even alcohol. For by this time sanity will have returned. We will seldom be interested in liquor. If tempted, we recoil from it as from a hot flame. We react sanely and normally, and we will find that this has happened automatically. We will see that our new attitude toward liquor has been given us without any thought or effort on our part. It just comes! That is the miracle of it. We are not fighting it, neither are we avoiding temptation. We feel as though we had been placed in a position of neutrality - safe and protected. We have not even sworn off. Instead, the problem has been removed. It does not exist for us. We are neither cocky nor are we afraid. That is our experience. That is how we react so long as we keep in fit spiritual condition.

bb pgs 84 -85

Orbea

I can handle those things. I think cooking w straight up wine would be problematic for me. One cup for the pot. Two cups for me.

KnowHope

I like to think of this through analogies, as I'm also a recovered addict.

What would you tell a cocaine addict about products containing cocaine?

Cocaine based mouthwash...

Cakes with cocaine in them...

Drinks with only a small percentage of cocaine...

This is life or death for someone like me. We don't know how much or how little it takes for alcohol or other substances to keep the illness active, if not by creating a physical craving, then in the ways in which it may affect our minds. Not worth it!