Addiction is a serious disease. The slightest carelessness or mishap can result in endless repercussions. If any person is fighting the battle of drug or alcohol addiction should be highly careful around things that can trigger a relapse. Recovery of addiction is not only refraining yourself from drugs or alcohol use but also from things that can stimulate the urge for these things, ending in addiction again.
What Is A Non-Alcoholic Beer?
First things first, we shall discuss what actually is a non-alcoholic beer. Now, as the name pretty much suggests its meaning literally, it is, in fact, a deception.
Non-alcoholic beers are made for minors, mostly, as they cannot drink alcohol before the age of majority. By law, the alcohol content should be 0.5 ABV or less than that in a non-alcoholic beer. They are famous with names like pretend beers, near beers, small ale, etc. Although the name suggests it is a “non” alcoholic drink, it still has amounts of alcohol in it. Less, but it still does have it.
Difference Between Normal Beer And a Non-alcoholic Beer
The difference between a normal bear and a non-alcoholic beer is the alcohol content. An average beer has a higher alcoholic count than a non-alcoholic beer. You can say about nine bottles of non-alcoholic beer can make up one average standard beer. Non-alcoholic beers have traces of alcohol; they are not totally free of alcohol.
Ways In which Non-alcoholic Beer Can Be A Stimulus To Addiction
The question as to whether or not a person can be addicted to drinking non-alcoholic beer can be determined by the following ways, which will explain how it can be a stimulus for addiction.
Usually, when a person is in recovery, he/she opts for non-alcoholic beers but not realizing it can have indirect consequences and maybe leading them back to the bad old days. They can experience a relapse by the following ways.
1. Pretend Beer
As you know, non-alcoholic beers or pretend beers have a less count of alcohol. The person drinking them is pretending to drink normal beer, just like underage drinkers do. This pretense can stimulate the urge of actually wanting to drink a normal beer or starting to consume more of these non-alcoholic beers, which can have its consequences. Not to forget that these drinks have alcohol in them. Any person in recovery can be triggered by the consumption of such drinks; however, less the content of alcohol is, it is still alcohol.
2. Traces Of Alcohol
As mentioned earlier, there are traces of alcohol in non-alcoholic beers. This count of alcohol is less, but it can stimulate the urge to want more. A person fighting addiction can be highly triggered even by the smell of alcohol. This can result in a bad ending as there are high chances of a relapse in a person who is trying to recover from addiction. A mere non-alcoholic drink can result in his addiction.
3. Causing Nausea
These drinks are not healthy. They only pretend substitutes for standard beers. So any person in recovery can be triggered by the less content of alcohol.
4. Recapturing Alcoholic Days
Any person who is recovering from addiction can recapture his alcoholic days by consuming alcohol, be it in less count as in non-alcoholic drinks. The feeling of drinking beer and consuming alcohol can have a bad influence on their urge that they have calmed with so much effort. A slight whiff of alcohol can recall the bad old days, and one can easily fall prey to the smell, the taste, the feeling of drinking a beer. These can highly trigger a recovering alcoholic back into addiction.
5. Mistakenly Consume Normal Beer
It has happened more often than individuals mistakenly drink a normal beer than a non-alcoholic beer while in bars or with friends. In the spur of the moment, one forgets their restriction to non-alcoholic beers. The environment of the place, their friends drinking normal beers can have a big impact on their restricted drinking. They may mistakenly drink normal beers, which can lead to stimulating their urge and falling back to addiction again.
6. Triggering The Urge
Usually, underage drinkers drink non-alcoholic beers because they are not allowed to drink standard beers, but they want to drink more, and more is activated by the low count of alcohol in the drink. It may not directly put them in the addiction game, but the urge to want more will trigger them to drink more. Eventually, consuming more alcohol.
Should Non-alcoholic Beers Be Consumed If You Are Recovering From Addiction?
We discussed above the different ways how one’s urge can be triggered by non-alcoholic beer consumption. More likely, a recovering addict is high on alert in such cases. A slight smell or taste of the alcohol can trigger them back to addiction. Non-alcoholic drinks might have less amount of alcohol in them, but it does not mean that this less amount cannot cause a relapse to a recovering addict. It would be recommend that a recovering addict does not consume non-alcoholic beers at all; no amount of alcohol should be taken by them if they are fighting addiction.
What Are The Alternatives For Non-alcoholic Beers?
As non-alcoholic beers have alcohol in them and can have repercussions, it would be better if individuals who have restricted their drinking consume beers that either has zero counts of alcohol or other beverages like soda, soft drinks, fruit juices, fresh lime. These are alternative drinks for not consuming non-alcoholic beers to avoid any amount of alcohol in your body.
Bottom Line
The bottom line is that one can be addicted by consuming non-alcoholic beers directly or indirectly, depending on whether he is a minor, major, or a recovering addict. But at the end of the day, it is up to the individual’s personal choice whether or not to drink non-alcoholic beers.
We have discussed different ways of how one can fall into addiction to non-alcoholic beers in this article. But it depends on the person’s self-resilience and power over his urges. If he can control them successfully, it will be no problem for him to fall prey to addiction. On the other hand, a recovering addict is weak when it comes to controlling his urges and fighting back what is harmful to them, in such cases, it would be recommended for them not to drink non-alcoholic beers.
The law may have allowed 0.5 ABV of alcohol for non-alcoholic beers, but this amount of alcohol is also enough for a person in recovery to be triggered to drink more or start drinking again, resulting in a relapse.
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