TexasGirl

When AH was "quitting to bring me back home," he showed up at my office one day as I was leaving work. He had a NA beer in the console cup holder, two more in the back, and three empties rolling around. OK, great, he wasn't drinking "real" beer, but it was still weird I thought. How many people drive around town downing a six-pack of NA beer? Not too many, I don't think!!! I sure don't! To me, it seemed like he was using it to try to prove to me and to himself that it wasn't about the alcohol, but just about the taste. Needless to say, he was back at the "real" stuff a few weeks down the road. Yes, every situation is different, but it didn't jive with me (not to mention that the sound of rolling empties clinking together in the back floorboard REGARDLESS of whether they were real or NA beer sent chills up my spine).

embraced2000

texas....lololo....the visual of driving round town, slugging down a six pack of odouls, the rattling cans,.....omg....it's so ridiculous and so sad at the same time...

i'm trying to relate that to myself.....i love sweets. i try to stay away from sweets. so i buy sugar free candy bars, which taste like chit, i KNOW they are not the real thing, so i will buy and eat a dozen of them, hoping they will be as satisfying as one real one. i am picturing myself riding round town, furiously eating the candy bars, throwing the wrappers all round my car, and convincing myself i'm losing weight by eating them.....altho the caloric value is virtually the same in sugar free vs regular.

oh, my.

jeri

prodigal

Bottom line: denial via method of showing everybody "I can control my drinking. See? I'm drink O'Douls and non-alcohol wine." Yep. It's an addiction but there's a strong component of emotional attachment to that bottle too. They're only fooling themselves. I've seen my AH play this control game with non-alcoholic beverages so many times. Like I said, denial.

steady14

An alcoholic on NA beer?

Wouldn't that be "fake it til you break it"?

Astro

Wow, thanks for sharing that Texas! It made me think of my insanity, putting away a case of NA beer to prove to my now ex that I didn't have a drinking problem. A few days later it was back to the real stuff after I felt I'd proven my point. Sad, sad, little man I was.

Pick-a-name

Seriouly........NA Beer is such an "alcoholic" product. Are there really many people who drink it who are not alcoholic? I may be wrong,but I doubt it. From what I understand, it doesn't taste "as good" as the real thing so why would someone who like an occasional (really ) beer not just have a glass of the real stuff? JMO

LaTeeDa

I once had a friend who drank it occasionally while she was pregnant because she said some foods just go best with beer.

She is the only non-alcoholic I've ever know who drank it.

L

Wayne C.

After I got out of treatment (Oct.31,06) I drank about 6 NA beers a day,at all hours of the day; it mimmicked my previous drinking habit. For about three weeks now I may drink one NA beer a day. I do not have the craving for the taste of beer as I did upon leaving treatment. I also tried NA wine, it tasted like sh*t.

bahookie

I'm not an alcoholic and I drink non-alcoholic beer sometimes, the Beck's one tastes exactly like the real thing only I can get in the car and drive home afterwards.

Some of it's really really bad though, like soapy water.

Bleh

J

Nuudawn

I tried sobriety that way before too. Didn't work for me. Like another poster noted, I was deluding myself. I drank it compulsively like so many who try this route do...that in itself is just odd. I was going thru cases of the stuff. I was trying to satiate my emotional needs and difficulties with a placebo. Didn't work. I eventually started drinking. I actually told my roomie that if he sees me drinking that stuff again, know that booze is just around the corner.

WantsOut

As I understand it AA teaches that As should avoid the people, places, and things that make them think about drinking. Fake beer seems to me to be a "thing" that would make a person think of drinking.

criss-cross

A friend of my AH's used to be an A also. He got a divorce, got an OWI and then met someone, started going to church every week and he did drink NA beer for awhile. For him it worked, but I think more to the credit of how he changed his life around in other ways and not that he was drinking NA beer.

Whereas my husband was sober, I mean he was telling some of his friends that he gave up 'that career', and refusing offers of a beer - for 8 weeks. And then one weekend he was fixing his truck with a friend. They were drinking tea and NA beer, and then that was the end of my husband's sobriety. I don't hold any faith in NA beer whatsoever. I loved those 8 weeks - they were a look at the person I thought was gone, and now unfortunately has left again.

It takes a change of lifestyle, a change of who you see, staying away from the triggers/situations that lead to drinking. And I believe, most importantly having a Higher Power to believe in and guide you.

FormerDoormat

Now if someone would just invent non-food items for we food junkies to munch on, then perhaps all would be right in my world. I'll have another piece of non-cheesecake please.

jimhere

To each their own, but I'm with dk on this. I've seen it take more than a few back to the real stuff.

Besides, I can't see the point. I drank for one thing only-the effect, not the taste.
Jim

jimhere

Wants out-
AA doesn't teach that stuff, treatment centers do.

The AA program is about freedom. I can anywhere I want, because I'm free.
Free from the alcoholic mind, free from fear of drinking, even free of the kind of stuff that you hear in AA. I'm free of AA.
Jim

elizabeth1979

Me too FD!

WantsOut

Hey Jim, I know AA teaches it because I heard it there. But groups differ. I always liked the slogan:

"If you hang out in the barbershop, eventually you'll get a haircut."

CatsTail

Alcoholics DO NOT need non-alcoholic beer.


Cat

nocellphone

My opinion is that, for an alcoholic, drinking non-alcoholic beer is like shooting yerself in the head with a small-caliber handgun. Maybe it'll kill you, maybe it won't. Either way, I just don't see the point of taking such a risk.

Would it be ok for an addict whose DOC is IV heroin to shoot up a syringeful of water now and then? Surely there's no harm in that! "Seriously guys, I just do it for the hydration..."

Why not snort a line of sugar with that cup o' coffee? It's all going to the same place!

So much of addiction is about rituals, triggers and endorphin manipulation. To claim sobriety but continue (or closely mimic) the addictive behaviors seems like a bit of a conflict.

Addiction is conflict. Recovery is balance. Each day, I make a choice to work toward one or the other.

GlassPrisoner

I've always heard it referred to as "Mental Masturbation"