Hi PolarBlue,
Very hard to concentrate on sobriety with all the other issues. No, I don't think I would feel the need to inform any employer proactively that I was sacked due to intoxication. Not if you need a job yesterday. Concentrate on getting a job. If you can attend AA fine. Or just come here a lot. When I first came here, I was here all the time. So much so, my husband got jealous but it helped. Now I exercise 3 times a day and shuttle kids around, so not here much anymore, but it did help.
My cousin lost everything to alcohol. The career she loved and the house her father built and left her, she had to sell it to pay legal fees when she sued her company (a BIG airline) and failed. I don't know where she is and it's heartbreaking.
You can turn your life around at this point. Don't even think of alcohol, just think about working and think positively.
OMG I am going to sound really corny - but I bought 2 Chicken Soup books recently when I was in Rite-Aid (a drugstore)...one on exercise and one on happiness. I haven't read the happiness one yet and have barely read the exercise one - but it got me going. I quit with my 100 excuses and just started doing the work. I go to the gym, I go to Jazzercise, I go to Bikram yoga - I went today and almost passed out, it's been too long and I just wasn't up to the 100-plus heat...
My point is, so much is mental. Like me not getting to the gym. Just reading how Turkey opened it's borders today to Syrian Kurds made me so happy. People can endure a lot.
I can't count how many times my mother almost lost her home. It was awful and she was always working - rarely unemployed - but raising 3 girls by herself was daunting. Try as hard as you can and make an effort to make payments, even if they are partial.
Just don't drink. My mother never drank, not once.
Sometimes I had to go in to school with a note from my mom saying she couldn't pay for a field trip until her next paycheck. It was embarrassing.
I don't know about legal things. My husband is a lawyer, he doesn't work in employment law though, but I would say if they have proof you drank on job there isn't much recourse. Of course, I don't know what you do for a living and that makes a difference. If you need to evacuate an airplane in an emergency or inject the correct amount of morphine to a patient - yes, being sober is crucial. My only other job was working as a preschool teacher. All 3 occupations I had needed someone with all capacities. My drinking has always correlated with having a baby, so I wasn't working at the time thank goodness.
Just focus right now on what you need, a job. Go for a walk or a run when you feel stressed.
Just skipping around - as far as the way they tested you - well I think you can always refuse to be tested. You can refuse any test so far as I know. Just for future reference, and I hope it never happens again, but no one can force you to submit to a urine test.
You can refuse any medication a doctor says you need. A doctor can say you need this and that test and you can say no. A patient has a "right to refuse medical treatment".
But the point is, you agreed to be tested and it's water under the bridge at this point. You just need to deal with the cards you have now.