I’m coming up on two years without alcohol. I used to be a crazy drinker, not a full on alcoholic but pretty close. Sobriety has been harder than hell, especially because I love to travel. And the places I love (France, Spain, Italy) all love alcohol. Basically every group tour is a wine tasting so I usually just skip out early or focus on something else.
I’m in Switzerland for the week, and as someone who loves cheese more than I ever loved alcohol, I was so excited to eat everything. Especially fondue. Liquid cheese and bread??? Heaven.
Well apparently I didn’t do my research, because after my first bite I notice a bitter taste in my mouth. Then it hits me like a brick wall.
This has wine in it, and oh my god do I want wine now
I almost had a panic attack. I had to step outside to compose myself, I felt like everything I’ve done the past two years doesn’t matter. I want a drink. I want to go to a jazz club and drink some Merlot and just vibe. But also, what the fuck dude? I know it’s wrong but for the first time in 23 months I want to drink.
TL;DR I threw away my sobriety for fondue
Comments
You havent thrown anything away. You made an honest mistake and hit a trigger.
It will pass, you’ve gone through the want before under worse circumstances.
You got this.
I think you are being overly hard on yourself framing it is “throwing away” your sobriety. You didn’t know there was going to be wine in it (and it is also absolutely news to me as well that fondue cheese can have wine in it, so you aren’t alone in not knowing ahead of time). Just wanting to drink also doesn’t invalidate your sober journey. It is just my opinion but I would say now you know and in the long run it will be more beneficial to forgive yourself for not knowing rather than beating yourself up.
So you didn’t actually go out drinking? Accidentally consuming isn’t losing your sobriety.
I don’t think this counts. For what it’s worth this internet stranger forgives you, so that’s something. Anyway good on you for making it this far my friend, don’t let this trip you up it was an honest mistake forget it and move on. Also why is there wine in fondue, I’ve never had it but is that normal? Can kids not eat it? Seems more that the concept of fondue is fucked up not you.
You would have to consume a hell of a lot of fondue to throw away your sobriety. You’ll consume more alcohol accidentally by rinsing out your mouth with Listerine.
Also most of the alcohol will have burned off when it’s cooking in the cheese so you probably had the flavour of the wine but not the alcohol that usually comes with it.
Apparently fondue has wine to stop it curdling – so TIL
Oh for fuck’s sake
No you didn’t, and it’s an excuse if you use it as one so drop the language immediately.
One innocent mistake, one innocent bite, has absolutely NOT undone your hard work of over two years.
Go for a walk and buy yourself some glorious alcohol free cheese, you deserve it.
I’ve only been clean 5 days because booze does not play well with my anti depressants, I truly get the craving but you’ll feel so better tomorrow if you just walk away.
If this is the first time in 2 years that you want to drink, then I’d say you’ve been handling it very good.
As a sober alcoholic going on 4+ years now, wanting to drink and actually doing it are two entirely separate things. I’ve had many moments where I wanted to drink, but I never did it.
This isn’t a god damn computer game, inadvertently ingesting some alcohol doesn’t mean jack shit.
You throw away your sobriety when you start drinking or using. Not because your aunt’s plum cake had rum in it without you knowing or some French restaurant gave you red wine sauce.
If you want fondue without alcohol, you can probably try again. Swiss people will sometimes substitute pear juice if for whatever reason someone doesn’t want wine in it – certainly at home, I don’t know about restaurants, but you can always ask. But maybe the smell will set you off now.
As someone who is not sober, I think sobriety is a choice. Intentionally drinking alcohol is throwing something away. You didn’t know and technically you’re still sober. The alcohol is cooked anyway so you’re fine.
You haven’t thrown away anything. One of the biggest traps that my addiction counselor mentioned was getting too hyper focused on the number. You have all that time that you bettered yourself. Think of that…
The “thrown it away” is a good way for most alcoholics to say eh screw it and start up again. Not a good mindset.
There’s an episode of “Mom” where several (sober) characters unknowingly eat pot-laced cookies and panic, and their sponsor soothes them by explaining that it was an accident and therefore doesn’t count. “Wind Chimes and a Bottomless Pit of Sadness,” if you want to look for it.