On reframing your relationship with alcohol

If you’ve struggled with alcohol, is there a place for NA beer in one’s life of sobriety?

For me, the answer is a resounding, “YES!”

But, not as a replacement substance without the mind-altering affects.

Instead, non-alcoholic beer can be a wonderful addition to your life so long as it connects to adding value in one’s life.

I don’t usually get into these discussions. Largely, it is because we as a society — and even more, a recovery community — place too much weight on the importance and variable affect of a substance and sobriety in the totality of life.

For some time, I joined and believed the narrative that alcohol was the boogieman. If I ever went back there I was dead.

After a while, that became a ruinous way to live my life. Everything went through that context. People said, “don’t go to bars, you’ll just be tempted.” They said, “don’t have any friends that drink, they won’t understand.”

All of it is and was hogwash.

About 8 years into my recovery, life no longer began and ended with sobriety. Everything in my life had to have additive value rooted in my wellbeing and purpose.

Finding and enjoying a really good NA beer (Clausthaler) was part of that equation. The other part of the equation was truly knowing why alcohol and drugs existed in my life before — deep pain…