[emmanuel_1234]

From alcohol, I love:

- drinking it: I really enjoy the feeling of just ingesting beer, wine or spirits, especially with friends or family

- having a nice buzz from it.

However, those two things are, for me, incompatible. If I start drinking a little bit, I usually don't stop until I'm way beyond the "nice buzz". As the joke goes, "one beer is not enough, two beers are just enough, three beers really aren't enough".

Having something that would allow me to keep drinking without jeopardizing my body, my mind, and the day after would be a huge game changer.

[CaptainOfCoit]

Sounds like maybe the "alcohol free"/"0.0%" beer (not really 100% alcohol free) is something you should try. Tastes and looks like beer, but doesn't come with the buzz (which is the thing that your brain hooks into and uses to tell you it isn't enough yet).

[iamthirsty]

> Tastes and looks like beer

I have tried almost every major non-alcoholic beer in the U.S., and none of them truly taste exactly like beer.

[pjot]

There’s a brand I’ve seen in stores called “Athletic” and it’s nearly indistinguishable

[oarsinsync]

> I have tried almost every major non-alcoholic beer in the U.S., and none of them truly taste exactly like beer.

Agreed, but if you drink them exclusively for a few weeks, your taste buds and brain will reframe around them, and it'll cease to be a problem. I did this with Brewdog's Punk AF, and after 2 weeks on that, most non-alcoholic beers triggered my brain's "I'm drinking beer!" response.

It's a lot of work for overpriced soft drinks, and isn't for everyone.

Also, I'm back to drinking real beer again anyway.

[Nursie]

They are improving all the time.

Some are really good. If you like german weissbeer then Franziskaner Alkoholfrei is more or less indistiguishable to me.

There are other good ones too.

[badgersnake]

Over in the UK I think Adnams Ghost Ship 0.5% is the best one commonly available that I’ve had. Most of them are far too sweet.

[swozey]

Microdosing psilocybin (shrooms) is amazing at letting me go out and just have 1-2 beers while still giving the slight affect of a nice anxiety-free buzz. I'm what I'd call a nervous drinker. I'm ADHD and sitting still can be rough for me, so at bars I tend to drink a lot very fast because the only fidgeting I can do without looking strange is .. cup to face over and over.

Obviously not something everyone wants to do or can do, it's legal for me, but it's great for basically taking my interest in alcohol away after a beer or two. Microdosing is usually 1/10th or less what a "normal" light dose would be (going with 1-2g dose here, so 0.1/0.2). No weird/visual/hallucination effects or anything like that.

You just feel a bit lighter and relaxed. Been a big game changer for me since I go out all the time. A bunch of my service industry friends and I do it and they've all started drinking significantly less.

Naltrexone is great too but it's probably easier to get someone to microdose than ask their doctor for that which is unfortunate. You won't get a buzz with that, you'll just get bored of drinking by your 2nd beer and move on to doing other things which can also be nice at times.

[xgkickt]

Try alternating between water and beer. You’ll drink half as much, and at a better pace.