SoberNowOkGO

Has anyone else noticed that their opiate addiction has had an effect on how appealing (or unappealing, really) consuming alcohol is?

Prior to my opiate addiction, is wasn't unusual for me to drink 1-2 glasses of wine every night, as well as during most social gatherings where drinking was taking place. I looked forward to it and genuinely enjoyed alcohol. Once I started using opiates, my desire to drink totally vanished. Even after starting suboxone, alcohol still wasn't appealing. I've been clean off of everything (including suboxone) for almost three months and still the mere THOUGHT of drinking is repulsive. The smell, the taste, the idea of it, it all seems so...gross.

And this isn't to say it's not around and in plentiful supply. My husband of almost 10 yrs owns a brewery for crying out loud. I have an unlimited supply of alcohol and a husband who doesn't even drink much anymore because he doesn't want to be the only one drinking (and he's never been a heavy drinker to begin with).

I often want to enjoy a drink, but just can't. The couple times I tried I wasn't even able to finish one drink. It wasn't enjoyable. I basically took a few sips and then dumped the rest out.

Has anyone else experienced this? Do opiates and the subsequent recovery from them rewire something in you having to do with alcohol? At this point it's not so much about figuring out HOW to drink, but more simply figuring out the WHY.

Thanks for listening.

doggonecarl

Count your blessings. Once you've recovered from an addiction, it's best to remain clean from all drugs. I view alcohol as a drug. Legal, but a drug. My recovery means clean and sober.

Addicts who continue to drink often find themselves returning to their DOC.

IvanMike

Amen. (And from an atheist, that's a high compliment!)

ScottFromWI

Do you see the contradiction in terms there? What's to enjoy in something that you don't enjoy? Why on earth would you want to force yourself to learn to "enjoy" being drunk...especially if you have addictive tendencies? Alcohol is simply another drug, it just comes in a can or bottle rather than a pill.

cleaninLI

I agree with the following comments! But it looks like sober now just wants to know if anyone else has experienced this phenomenon? I have too! Not really sure about the science behind it....but yes....I have no desire to drink alcohol and I've read quite a few posts from opiate addicts, recovered or not recovered that don't care much for alcohol? Why that is and how true that is....not really sure. But yes I can relate to what you said.

Now with that said, it's best to accept that and roll with it! Trying to "enjoy" another DOC could have serious consequences! Have experienced that too!

IvanMike

To answer directly, the only thing that happened was that opiates were my # DOC, so alcohol became "not exactly what I'm looking for, but I'll take 20 of those drinks anyhow".

When I got clean (meaning I abstained from all drugs including ETOH) I didn't really find the pot that my wife was smoking in the house all that appealing....until one day I did. I didn't use, but I had to tell her she couldn't have it in the house. Ultimately, her continued use was of the reasons I had ask her to leave. She's not a bad person, but I couldn't be around any drugs, even ones I didn't like all that much.

YMMV

DoneWithIt4Good

I absolutely found that...when I was actively using I drank once and due to mixing the two found myself in a blackout at my son's baseball game (awesome parenting, there) I haven't had more than a drink here and there since, and I can't finish one. It's been four years. The taste doesn't appeal to me anymore (probably because I drank way too much before I became addicted to opiates and made myself sick off of almost every type of alcohol.) Definite yes for me.

teatreeoil007

Well, different drugs are just different from one another and I guess that's why there is this concept of the drug of choice, afterall. I know that opiates appeal to some people like some supermodels even because it helps them stay skinny. (zero calories as well as an appetite suppressant.) Alcohol on the other hand is packed with calories and gives a different kind of effect. Both can be sedating; both can lower inhibitions. Both can relieve pain. Then there's crank, crack, meth which are stimulants which appeal to some for weight loss reasons and gives a person lots of energy...until they crash... You can see why various folks have a drug of choice, though...Most all drugs have what can be referred to as that "sweet spot"....a time period in which they "feel good", "up", "euphoric", etc. Thus why folks are tempted to use again in the first place. Some people who prefer opiates view alcohol as a pretty crappy drug comparitively.

Marcus

I used to like the feeling of a couple Vicodin and some booze. Mixed well. Then once I went hardcore into Oxy then H (and more H) didn't want to mess up my buzz with booze. Almost never drank when doing H. Problem is when I tried to quit dope SO MANY DAM TIMES I started drinking more and more. For me I have to categorize everything together. A drug is a drug (and alcohol is a DRUG which can be as devastating as any other drug). I know not the same for each and every person, but my experience tells me it is like that for MOST addicts (alcoholics ARE addicts too as far as I am concerned and vice versa).

teatreeoil007

So true Marcus.

kzaug2014

Interesting topic! Both my hubs and I were wkend partiers before we started taking methadone for 10yrs. ( I also took benzos. ) We pretty much quit drinking after we started taking methadone. Last summer, I thought I felt like having a 7/7, so I bought a pint of Seagrams. I made 1 drink, didn't finish it & that pint is still in my freezer...minus that 1 drink. Opiates are a whole different story though...methadone turned into heroin when we could no longer get methadone. I think it's part genetics. There are 0 alcoholics in my bloodline, but my mother was a huge pill popper.