Carlotta

I don t go overboard and if I found out I had accidentally ingested alcohol (with food for example) I would not freak out but I am careful of what I buy and do.
I buy non alcoholic mouthwash for example and I don t cook with wine. When I have a cold, I do not get Nyquill and I look at the ingredient on the medicine bottle. I just feel that it is not wise to play with fire and risk triggering my addiction needlessly when there are many alternatives.

Dano1975

Drop the mouthwash anyway, it's unneccesary and bad for the chemistry of your mouth (you're killing some things that are supposed to be there). Drink lots of water and brush your teeth twice a day. (Dad's a dentist)

Pandorable

I came into recovery with some major sleep issues that predate my drug use and continued many years into recovery. After seeing a LOT of doctors and trying all kinds of treatments, I found medications and herbs I could take that allow me to sleep, which allows me to live. Unfortunately, one of those herbal preparations is a tincture (alcohol-based). My neurologist and addiction counselor are both aware of this and have OKed it *because* I didn't start on it till I was several years into recovery and it doesn't appear to trigger cravings. I have tried many other preparations of those herbs and that is the only thing that works. I take it every night and have for years. During those years, I have at various points had several years clean and sober and free from cravings. At one point I was on some heavy psych meds and was able to ditch the tincture for a little bit (not sustainable long term, but I would rather not put alcohol in my body if I have an alternative), and discovered that what I thought was "no cravings" was actually a very, very small attraction to alcohol, which I no longer had when I took the tincture out of my routine.

Does it make me relapse? No. Do I ever take more of it or want to take more of it? No. Does it make me more *likely* to relapse? Yes, slightly. For me, the risk is worth it because I have cleared it with my doctors (who know addiction and know I am an addict) and I need it to survive. I wanted to die when I could not sleep, so something that allows me to sleep and doesn't *make* me relapse is a risk I am willing to take. And being able to sleep brought me so much deeper and better recovery, so I would say that in this case, using the tincture actually supports my recovery, though that is between me, my doctors, and my higher power.

I don't worry too much about alcohol in food as long as it is not the primary flavoring (that's a trigger for me) and it has been cooked. It's true, there can be some residual alcohol in cooked alcohol dishes. If I took a bite and thought, "this has booze in it," I certainly wouldn't take another bite. Might even spit it out if it was strong enough to worry about. If I took a sip of a beverage and discovered it had booze in it, I would spit it out. I do not use alcohol-based mouthwash because I think it's gross. Reminds me of 2 am at the bar. And I do not use alcohol-based cough syrup of any kind because to me, it's too much like booze. Nor do I drink kombucha - it's like a lite beer. And I learned the hard way that I have no business drinking non-alcoholic beer either, though that's a topic for another thread.

Really, I think this is between you and your higher power (or if you don't do the HP stuff, between you and your conscience). I wouldn't test to see how well your conscience works till you're at least a few years into recovery, though. Lots of ours seem to get impaired when we're using and stay that way for quite a while.

hypochondriac

I try not to use products with alcohol purely because it triggers me. I don't think a small amount is gonna kick start the physical side of addiction but it sure would kick of the psychological side. I can just imagine thinking, well I had a few spoonfuls of wine in that meal I may as well finish the bottle now...

I have tasted alcohol in food after getting sober and it really did trigger me. I didn't like having the taste of it so I use alcohol free mouthwash now and I am not even keen on having alcohol based skin products. The only thing I have knowingly used is cough syrup. Despite assurances that alcohol free ones are readily available I haven't found any and I have a very low tolerance for a tickly throat. I worried at one point because I bought 4 bottles of the stuff but then I realised that is just my normal excessiveness and I didn't drink the lot.

susasober1

Me too! I get a very scratchy allergy related cough sometimes and the non-alcoholic cough syrups do nothing for me...however, I have only taken just a few half shots of the cough syrup with alcohol (all on separate occasions). I bought only one bottle and have most of it left!