Drugs and alcohol

[CAPTAINZING2000]

How many on here did both?

Seems like, we have only a few real old timers that, only drank at our meetings. The rest of the room is filled up with people that abused both!!

[suki44883]

Just alcohol here. For some reason, I never got into the drug scene at all.

[Mark75]

Not really everything... I hated pot, never liked it... Didn't shoot them... Pills and Alcohol. Captainzing, Do those at your meeting get upset about people sharing their "dry goods" stories?

Mark

[nandm]

Although I tried drugs a few times there were several reasons I chose to stay away from them:

• They interfered with my drinking.....when I smoked pot it put me to sleep....which meant I could not drink as much as I wanted.
• In my mind alcohol was ok since it was legal but drugs weren't so it was better to drink than do drugs
• The jobs I had did fairly regular drug testing so it was easier to not do them than to figure out how to avoid the drug tests
• Didn't want to get caught by the police....figured drugs increased my chances of arrest which could mean the loss of my job.
• I am sure there are others but these are the primary ones.
• Oh, I felt I still had control when I drank but with drugs I felt that control was gone.
• I tried coke twice but found I liked it so much that I knew I had to stay away from it otherwise I could easily give up everything for it.

[Toomutch]

I had a bad cocain problem for years. I stopped cold turkey before getting pregnant with my first child and have never wanted it since. Now alcohol on the other hand, that's been my primary doc.

[dgillz]

I tried pot and a few pills but that was about it. I was 98% pure alcoholic.

[laurie6781]

I cannot answer the poll the way it is set up.

You see my PRIMARY addiction was ALCOHOL. All those years it was ALCOHOL. When I got sober in '81, the meetings I went to in the SFV of Los Angeles you dasn't mention 'drugs' in an AA meeting.

But, I was confused as I knew I had used lots of drugs when I was drinking. To clarify it in my own mind, my sponsor had me do a 4th Step on my drug usage. Sort of a 'Time Line' to see when and what I used.

Well ......................................... turns out there wasn't too much I hadn't tried and used, but all in the "UPPER" category. Seems I used lots of drugs. Why?? So I could drink MORE.

So yep I used both, and today do feel that were I to try some of them again (NOT) I would certainly become addicted to them.

What that revelation did do for me, was to certainly make me more 'open minded' (even in those times) of someone who used both. Today I know without any doubt, that alcohol can lead to drugs and drugs can lead to alcohol, thus for me, anyone who has a problem with both is more than welcome in my book to an AA meeting.

J M H O

Love and hugs,

[Julesy]

Hi Zing,

I was both - alcohol and pot. I loved the added buzz of pot after I'd had plenty of alcohol.

[Julesy]

Also when I was in my twenties there wasn't anything I didn't try.

[CAPTAINZING2000]

Probably

The fact of random drug tests or, the drug tests required if, injured at work kept me away from drugs at the latter part of my drinking.

My favorite D.O.C. was actually acid. I can't recall where or who talked about Bill W. trying acid at one point in time.

Due to our culture, we had to allow dually addicited people in our meetings. had we gone the way of some areas, our AA would have withered on the vine.

Thank God, we practice love and tolerance at our meetings. No one is offended at the mention of the use of drugs and alcohol at our meetings.

They have fortunately, started an NA meeting here in my town again.

Be it drug or, alcohol, I can let my mind take me to the time where, there wasn't anything unpleasant of my using to change the way I felt.

[shaun00]

As a kid i was given some white powder to try......i dont too this day remember what it was called but i remember snorting it.

This was my first experience with drugs.....people have told me later that it was probably ketamine?..

It was also my last experience with drugs.........the most horrendous trip followed....snakes coming through the walls..celing...frighten the s..t out of me and ive never forgot it.

And there or about there started my journey with alcohol...interestly i had a similar effect coming "off" booze as i did with that first encounter with drugs.
but it didnt stop me drinking...

For me it wasnt or isnt about what i was "using"...more about where i wanted "it" to take me......oblivion...thats where i was most happy.

Very little of my drinking was a social thing....prefering to drink on my own till i passed out.
If i did go social drinking i made sure i was full of it before i went.

trucker

[CarolD]

This poll is too limited for me to vote on.
My only addictions were alcohol and cigarettes.

In AA meetings I share about how I recovered from alcoholism.

[Barto]

Neither. Some drugs and lots of alcohol, but not everything.

[Rusty Zipper]

garbage head here capy, and at a young age ta-boot...

my second job, worked at a pharmacy!

alkyhol was the one that kicked me in the end tho...

[CAPTAINZING2000]

Originally Posted by Rusty Zipper

garbage head here capy, and at a young age ta-boot...

my second job, worked at a pharmacy!

alkyhol was the one that kicked me in the end tho...

Like a kid in a candy store huh?

You make up your own?

[LosingmyMisery]

Alcohol, alcohol, alcohol. I dabbled in a pot, speed and coke in my teens, but never got into it. I didn't like the "drug scene". It scared me so I shied away from it. I'd rather stick to drinking because it was what I knew. I liked the way booze made me feel. Drugs, I had some bad experiences so that was that. The funny thing is, I had some bad experiences with booze too, but it never stopped me from going back for more.

[sailorjohn]

Would do anything to change the way I felt, but at the end of the day, my doc was always alcohol.

[jimhere]

Let me make it clear that I am not a "pure alcoholic," if there is such a thing.

I'd also like to say there is a difference between using alcohol and being an alcoholic, just as there is a difference between using drugs and being a drug addict.

But I also have to say that I really can't answer the poll the way it is either. I used lots of drugs. I started drinking when I was thirteen. Started smoking pot soon after. This was in the seventies, so if you put it in front of me, I would do it. I guess you could say that my drug of choice was yours, if you had it. We liked to wash down reds (seconal) with whiskey. Same with quaaludes. Anybody remember those?

I quit smoking pot about ten years before I stopped drinking. I hate that stuff. It takes me into my head, which is what I was trying to get away from. I never saw what was so special about cocaine, the high wasn't long enough to justify the cost for me. I'd do it if someone else had it and I already had a snoot full of booze, I'd never go out of my way to get more. But I'd trade you a pound of coke for last night's left over drink with a cigarette butt in it any day. Toward the tail of my drinking, I dabbled with heroin, but it just made me nod out and puke and go to sleep, which ain't my idea of fun. I like stuff to happen and when I drink stuff happens.

The only drug I had a problem with was speed. I'm not talking about the nasty stuff that passes for speed these days, I'm talking real crystal meth. My brother-in-law turned me onto it and I found out that I could drink more and longer using speed. I also found that I could drink all night and go to work if I fired up some speed. I essentially used the speed to manage alcoholism. For as long as I could any way, which wasn't long. I got real sick and decided to quit the speed. And I did, after a withdrawal. Never went back to it. This all took place about six years before I stopped drinking.

So I am an alcoholic who used drugs. I'm an alcoholic who had a drug problem. When the drugs got to a problem, I quit. Drug problem solved.
Jim

[sugErspun]

This seems to be quite the topic tonight. There's no clear answer for me..I will explain.

When I was 17,18,19 ~ I smoked pot a lot. I preferred it to alcohol and it seemed to cause less problems. As I moved from home and off to college, I drank on occassion, but mostly I like to smoke pot and use psychedlics (LSD, mushrooms and few other things that I don't want to give people ideas to try...). I actually looked down on drinking ~ I would see the drunk kids coming home from parties and the emptiness in their eyes, they fought, argued, laughed about stuff I considered stupid. But I had a beer now and again. I think I got drunk 10 times my freshman year, if that. Not to mention I looked like I was 14 when I was 20 and didn't have a fake ID...alcohol just seemed to be such a hassle. I did speed now and again, X, coke. It was what I considered a fairly normal life for a guy like me.

Around my 20th birthday - I got high as usual, but had a very unusual reaction. I had a full blown panic attack and thought I was going to feel that way forever (this was just marijuana). I figured that it was bad weed, or that I had done too many drugs and my brain was fried. Needless to say ~ I felt better a couple days later and tried to smoke some different pot (from a very good source) ~ I freaked out again. I waited a week ~ same reaction. I was going nuts and was scared of doing drugs again. That was 1994 and I haven't touched any recreational drugs since.

Alcohol ~ no bad experience. I got drunk, woke up feeling good. My consumption went up rather quickly and I drank just about every night. 6 years later I was physically addicted to alcohol and had to be withdrawn medically...that was pretty bad and as I left the detox..I swore to everyone that I would never drink again.

I got drunk within 30 days ~ this pattern repeated itself. 22 months went by at one point and I didn't drink. But I couldn't stay stopped.

I have been in a few rehabs, and usually alcoholics are the minority (it's always been the case at the places I have gone). I got to know a lot of drug addicts and people whos lives werer ruined by drugs (edit - ruined by their drug use and addiction to such). I couldn't understand how they could go that deep - why they just didn't stop doing drugs once they were physically seperated, they couldn't understand why I couldn't stay away from the first drink if I knew exactly what would happen (I wouldn't know when it would stop).

I did drugs some, they drank some ~ we wound up at the same place. I think the root of the problem is the same (spiritual malady), and not the substance itself. But I never got anywhere near feeling recovered until I had a step one experience and could say "Yes, I am alcoholic just like they describe". The addiction to alcohol was secondary and fairly easily treated at the hospital.

[Latte]

My DOC is pills (opiods/opiates) but alcohol is what brought me to recovery. I smoked some pot when I was younger but stopped when I joined the military. Now that I am married to someone whose job is drug interdiction (Coast Guard) I would never do anything the jepordize his job. It's odd how my addict/alcoholic mind works.

[Rusty Zipper]

capy

You make up your own?

[Rob B]

My Drug of Choice was cocaine, I also had a long history of daily pot smoking, one day I just stopped.

my Drug of NO CHOICE is alcohol. I have as little choice in drinking today as I did when I was struck sober. This is why I continue to seek God, in and of myself I have no effective mental defense against the 1st drink.

I see a lot of people going out under the notion that they have choice. If you have choice, you don't need the spiritual awakening the 12 step path provides. Which makes me wonder why so many folks hang out in AA without doing AA.

[collinsmi]

Well, drugs were more or less a hobby. They were fun but when push came to shove, I reached for john barleycorn.

[jimhere]

"Due to our culture, we had to allow dually addicited people in our meetings. had we gone the way of some areas, our AA would have withered on the vine"


I think you miss the point Cap. No one is opposed to "dually addicted people" being at AA meetings, as long as they are alcoholic.

[CAPTAINZING2000]

In most of our meetings people say alcoholic addict

i just say alcoholic.