Anyway, I don’t know if Johnny was a real “alcoholic”, you know? I think the comments over his drinking problems (he always has said he loves wine, but not that he had a problem) exploded with the issues in his marriage…so maybe, that’s the real “change” he did in his lifestyle: DIVORCE…and now with a new love, with his children under his care, maybe he’s just trying to stay as clean as he can!

Anyone who says “oh you cannot tell the difference” has probably never had had good beer or is American, but I repeat myself.

Also, the idiot child in me immediately thought of Steve Urkel. “Did I do that?”

Alcoholics have changed brains due to their addiction. They crave alcohol. The taste of non-alcoholic beer gives them the trigger of their addiction without satisfying the craving. It will eventually lead to a relapse unless they stop completely.

Additionally, it’s really difficult to change your lifestyle (and avoid relapsing) when you still associate activities with drinking beer- even if it happens to be sans alcohol. As long as it is a focus in your life, you cannot recover.

While it’s a nice sentiment for Amber Heard to not drink real beer around him (which is such a difficult position for an alcoholic! If someone around you isn’t drinking & you care about them at all- don’t ask them why they aren’t drinking. If they are recovering, it’s probably hard enough for them to even be around the stuff without being questioned about it too), it would be better if they were drinking lemonade or smoothies or whatever else instead. New associations and all that.

As an alcoholic that quit drinking, I had to change my entire life. People I hung out with, activities in which I partook- the meaning/motivation for everything had to be re-established. It takes total commitment and total removal from the abused substances in your life until you can rebuild all of those connections in a healthier way.

As for the taste- I love the taste of hops. Maybe my brain was just fooling me in order to get the alcohol (though I hated liquor), but I’ve always found it tasty.

Sorry for the weird rant…it just hits close to home. It’s kinda funny because one of the many activities I replaced drinking with (as stress relief) was following this site. (So thanks for all the snark and keep it steady!)