clones2

What's the consensus on declaring yourself, or being sober but drinking a couple N/A beers during the week?

Ive developed a pretty bad green tea habit now after I went cold turkey. :-)

Does drinking a N/A beer or N/A wine break the rules of sobriety due to the extremely low alcohol content still in them? Thanks...

Dee74

I dunno about 'sobriety' thats an individual, personal decision...but I don't drink them myself...they always led me back to the real thing.

why would you choose NA beer when there's so many other things to drink?

D

SoberForMySon

I personally think it's a bad idea.

Bilr44

Not sure about anyone else but I'm not sure that I would drink beer unless it got me drunk. It would probably lead me back to the real thing since it does have SOME alcohol. My sober drink of choice is fresh brewed ice tea or iced Yerba Mate. Unfortunately I am nowhere near ready to give up caffeine.

Mountainmanbob

I don't think so
but
they are never recommended in the AA Program
or most any other clean and sober program

question
how many of these will one be drinking
one or two a week
one or two a day
or
three or four a day

I was doing a lot of the N/A beers many years ago
was buying cases of them
before I knew it I looked at the beer in my hand
and
it was a real beer

somewhere I had deceived myself yet again

MM

Carlotta

What's the point of non alcoholic beer? Why not get a soda instead.
If you are in AA, maybe you will remember this:
Half measures availed us nothing
If you do a quick search on SR, you will see that some people got triggered by NA beer (which has some alcohol btw) and ended up relapsing. Drink at your own risk.

Bruce292

For me, it's like giving a starving dog a rubber bone. Just not a good idea. Seltzer is my beverage. That being said I have a friend who was a *heavy* beer drinker who does just fine having a N/A beer once in a while.

wehav2day

I personally think the negligible amount of alcohol is irrelevant. What matters is what it represents. THAT's what I fear. Psychologically, I know if I'm "replacing" beer with na beer, it's only a short matter of time before I scrap the na and go for he real thing. There is little variation in na beer, so the anal foodie in me would want to branch out, think of moderating... There goes the sober neighborhood for me!

That said, I have had two na beers in the last 8 months. On those occasions it was a safe move for me. But I don't intend to "make a habit" of it.

Make sense?

Mountainmanbob

that is a good one Bruce
thinking of my dogs outside
that would be a dirty trick to pull on them

why fool them
why fool ourselves ???

MM

Like2Hike

In the US, many NA beers contain up to .5% alcohol. There are also studies indicating the anticipation of drinking alcohol can raise an alcoholic's dopamine levels similar to the effects of the first drink. For me, consuming NA beer would just be a step towards drinking again.

tangningsheng

to me it's playing with fire and their is no reason to be playing with fire.

Johnston

The gateway beverage for alkies in my experience

happyhour

i tried that...it didn't work for me, but then again i only drank beer for one reason

clones2

Thanks for the feedback and insight... If I ever try it out, it wont be more than a couple for a week. (Sounds like a statement from an alcoholic...)

I don't drink pop/soda, anything with aspartame (diet pop), juices with unnatural sugars. So - Im trying to do something different than just unsweetened teas, and hot loose leaf teas, and water.

I definitely understand it being a potential "gateway" back, or just replacing one routine for another. I think I'll leave the temptation be for the near future...and keep fighting the good fight.

Thanks.

360shoes

Only me but the I don't like the taste of beer whether it has alcohol in it or not...wine...now that's another story. I'm probably lucky for that. Take the alcohol out of wine and all you got is very unsweet grape juice. I can make me a nice sparkly water with a splash of cranberry or pear or some fun exotic fruit juice and put it in a pretty glass and I'm just fine. I don't want to spend the money on NA stuff anyway.

Maybe that's the thing. I think, for me, it's just having something different to drink that doesn't taste like a kids drink and I like pretty glasses. I can see that beer drinkers kind of don't have an NA adult tasting drink in a bottle. It's sparkly water or soda and that's about it. And for a guy maybe a pretty glass just ain't going to cut it.

What do I know. I just like a pretty drink so float a berry and a mint leaf in my water and I'm happy.

DoubleBarrel

I used to drink non alcoholic beer.

Seems that it meant I wasnt really truly done yet.

As much as I liked beer, my sobriety is so precious to me now, I just wouldnt do it. Its playing with fire.

FOR ME.

RobbyRobot

Drinking N/A beer is a personal choice, same as is sobriety. Since sobriety is also a total inside job, and mileage varies so much depending on individual choices and life experiences, all the so-called rules for sobriety are really subjectively created (or not created) depending.

Choices define our responsibilities. We all know when we cross lines into crazy land with drinking whatever - we all feel that wrongness in our common sense gut. After that we can do the denial thing, or we can refuse to compromise ourselves and change what needs changing.

Only each individual can decide what N/A beer does or doesn't do for themselves. As for rules - I think being real with ourselves is the best and only rule worth honoring when it comes down to drinking or not drinking N/A beer.

Me, I don't drink N/A anything.

DoubleBarrel

To elaborate a bit...

There is one issue that I think is important to consider, and that is the phenomenon of craving.

Your body can go into craving mode after being exposed to alcohol. Im not sure how little or how much it takes, but consuming alcohol, particularly if you have been physically addicted, has the POTENTIAL to start the cells craving all over again.

The book, Under the influence has good information about how alcohol affects us on a cellular level.

If the average american lager has about 5% alcohol, and NA is .5%, its not much. But is it enough, to start the cravings all over again? I dont know.

I am so happy and relieved to be over the worst cravings, that is what I would be concerned about.

Drinking a 12 oz NA might be the equivalent of taking a shot of regular beer.

I cannot imagine that I would or could justify drinking a shot of beer as maintaining sobriety.

Just a thought.

heath480

I wouldn't drink NA beer ever,no desire to drink something that tastes like the stuff that got me into so much trouble.

Venecia

Helpful thread. I'm on Day 76 and will be going to a party this weekend. I'm feeling all right about it, but had pondered bringing NA. This thread was a good reinforcement that my beverage needs to be something totally different. I am thinking of Orangina!