This is Annie Grace and you're listening to this naked mind podcast where without judgment,

pain or rules, we explore the role of alcohol in our lives and culture.

Hi friends, it's Annie Grace. I am answering your questions. I am the author of this naked mind.

Today I actually got the same question from two people yesterday, so I thought, okay,

put the other questions on hold and answer this one. Sarah asks, what is your view on alcohol-free

drinks, wine and beers as a substitute, okay or avoid, and then Kimberly asks, what are your

thoughts on drinking so-called non-alcoholic beverages? My sense is that while they may make it

easier to join in socially, they may hamper my true desire to totally eliminate drinking alcohol

from my life. So this is a really good question and interestingly, I did not realize that this was

such a sort of controversial and loaded question when I stopped drinking and for myself, I'm not

necessarily opposed to drinking an on-alcoholic beer or low alcohol wine. I just haven't done it.

I haven't done it because I haven't desired to do it. So when I was pregnant, I remember and I

was still a drinker when I was pregnant with both my kids, but I remember going out and having

non-alcoholic beer and just not enjoying it because it wasn't the non-alcoholic beer that I wanted,

it was the alcohol in the real beer. So it didn't ever taste that great. I only ever had, you know,

just one and I felt deprived anyway. And so since I quit drinking the thought of having a non-alcoholic

beer or low alcohol wine or whatever, it just hasn't even crossed my mind. Now that's not to say that

I haven't substituted the habit with some stuff. So one of the things that I learned that was really

important about replacing a habit, and obviously we know alcohol is much more than a habit because

there's psychological addiction, emotional addiction, you know, physical addictions. So it's

much more than a habit. However, there are some very clear things that are very habitual about

drinking and those are fairly easy to address. So we should address those and we should change those,

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