dsmaxis10

Bill Wilson took acid nothing more mood and mind altering then that. Me I say no it's not about drugs it's about alcohol. I know a women who had 15 years smoked one joint and her sponsor made her change her sobriety date. I think that's bad sponsorship.

Tommyh

I can`t treat my alcoholism with drugs.
If I smoked a joint,it would be my solution to
my problems,and not a spiritual solution.My
solutions are not quarenteed to keep me sober
but AA`s solutions will.
bad sponsorship?
Thats up to them.My main concern is their relationship
with the HP and it must be lacking and the most
important thing is to restore it first.

GracieLou

To thine own self be true.

The AA program demands rigorous honesty. I feel I would be lying to myself.

I was never a big pot smoker. Never was my vice, alcohol was. If I picked up a joint today I would consider myself relapsed. It is not the substance, it is the why.

Why did I feel the need to use anything but my faith and my HP to see with through a situation?

If the person does or does not change their sobriety date is up to them and their own honesty with themselves. IMO their sponsor should not demand anything but they do have the right to no longer be their sponsor. They can move on if their belief in sobriety, the program and what honesty means to them does not match what their sponsee wishes to believe in.

sugarbear1

Bill was trying to repeat the "white light" spiritual experience he had had to help others.....

Anything that gets me out of my head and treats my alcoholism gets in the way of my sobriety, I choose not to indulge today.

dsmaxis10

I was just kidding illegal drugs is a relapse and Bill Wilson didn't just take acid he did it under doctors supervision.

jdooner

Actually when Bill took acid it was legal. However, Bill's quest was about connecting spiritually. Having taken LSD myself there is nothing that can make you believe you have connected spiritually than psychedelics. The problem is its a drug and one needs to learn to connect sober or its not sustainable.

You have to work your own program. For me I don't want to be beholden to any drug - perhaps I would feel different if I had too but I don't and so I see no need to take anything - legal or illegal. BTW - most problems can be fixed through diet has been my experience. This does not mean I would advise against taking prescribed medicine but for me I have found a proper diet, exercise, meditation and prayer are ingredients that solve all of my issues.

I am guessing you know the answer, which is why you posted here for permission.

Where are you in your steps?

Mountainmanbob

If she got high then her sobriety time was gone

As for Bill Wilson
He deceived himself and also lost his sober time

MM

Caldus

If it was one joint and then you went right back to the steps afterwards, then in my opinion, I wouldn't change the sobriety date. But that doesn't mean go do it right now. I pretty much never smoked anything when I was using and I never actually felt much of anything the few times I did it. It was always a peer pressure thing for me. Alcohol has always been my drug of choice 100%.

jdooner

Wow - I just totally disagree with this. To each thy own though.

The drug does not make the addict in my experience. So once an addict (I am including addiction to alcohol) then I need to be careful of whatever it is I am using to escape.

Caldus

That's true. I think what I meant to say is that if I was sponsoring someone and that situation happened to them, then it would depend, but more than likely I wouldn't reset the sobriety date. I knew some other people in my AA meetings that accidentally took a drink of something at a bar one night (they meant to order something else but got alcohol instead). Their sponsor did not reset their date because of that incident. I know that's different though. I guess my opinion is biased based on the fact that I never enjoyed drugs in the first place.

jdooner

I agree that if someone orders a drink by mistake and takes a sip that is not a slip at all. Its an accident. However, you don't order a cigarette and get a joint. Further, smoking a joint would be like finishing a bottle - I would be out of my mind and if I was out of my mind I would not be sober. To me this would have to be a conscious decision to escape and therefore would be an entire relapse. I don't care what the drug is, to me a relapse is if you are consciously taking a substance to alter your mindset.

Based on this definition a gray area occurs with prescribed psychoactive and psychotropic medications. My own opinion is this is still not a sober state prescribed or not if used to change or alter your mindset. Again, this goes back to rigorous honesty.

Music

I have to be honest. I LOVED smoking pot. I loved that laid back feeling...not the munchies. I'd probably smoke it today if it didn't affect my sobriety but I believe if I take any kind of mind altering or mood changing drugs, it's a deal breaker.

There are some real hardliners in AA who even condemn prescribed drugs that alter the mind or change the mood. To those folks I'd just say, it's not your call....mind your own damn business.

anattaboy

Is it AA? Bill W. smoked himself to death. "Singleness of purpose" (alcoholism).

Sugah

I had a sponsee make a conscious decision to change her sobriety date over antibiotics. She took them from her mother, thinking they were something else. Did she get high? No, but she obsessed about it and followed that obsession through to an action. I didn't tell her to change her date, though once she was rigorously honest with herself, she saw that the intention was to get high -- and because she acted on that intention, she counted it as a relapse.

She's sober today, ten years later.

Peace & Love,
Sugah

jdooner

If a drug is prescribed and has the correct effect it is impossible to get to an altered state. I guess this would beg the question of an altered state. If you bipolar do you want to take a drug to normalize chemical levels in your brain - yes of course. However, if you are taking an Oxycodone when you really don't have the pain to get a buzz, well, I consider that abuse whether prescribed or not (most opiate addicts start with prescriptions).

I wonder what you loved about pot? It is my opinion that the drug does not make the addict. I believe the Vietnam study regarding soldiers returning from the field with heroin use the fact not all remain users (I think 5% did) suggest that the drug does not make the addict. I have had several injuries from my athletics and had some serious pain medication such as Dilaudid. Never once did I ever feel a pull from that or any other opiate. However, cocaine, Ritalin, Aderall, Alcohol whoa, watch out. Its because I am dopamine deficient and self medicate through those drugs. This would suggest that an addict such as myself could use a drug recreationally without beaching an addict I guess. But if I am altering my mind to lower my inhibitions then I risk rationalizing the use of a drug or drink that I am addicted to such as the stated above. Herein is the slippery slope. I was and have never been addicted to pot but I do know that decisions made while inebriated are have not been my best and I see it as a risk to my sobriety from alcohol, cocaine, Ritalin, Aderall or any derivative therein.

As another posted pointed out it goes to rigorous honesty - you get what you put in. I will see you popcorn and raise a popcorn

Greedy

I havent had a drink for just 4 days.

I have painkillers prescribed. I dont need them for pain anymore but i'm still taking them.

I didn't set a sobriety date yet, I don't consider myself sober.

For me, any drug I take to alter my mood means I'm not sober. Alcohol, weed, painkillers, hell even night nurse.

UncleMeat69

I don't drink but I take a drug called "Nothing."

If you want to get high on "Nothing" all you have to do
is take a lot of it for a long time.

heartcore

What's "night nurse"? I interpreted that as a distraction with a cute night nurse, which led me to the following:

The only requirement for membership in AA is the desire to stop drinking. The whole brouhaha about the sobriety date is to (in my mind) honor and ceremonialize the anniversary of the powerful birthing of the new you.

Recovery is going to take you on a vast journey, outside yourself and within yourself. It is not a linear, ever climbing path; it circles round and round, rises and valleys, little huts with sage wisdom and yes, super-cute night nurses beckoning from the bushes to distract you!

I have found - in my own recovery - that I have used relationship and sexuality in the role of drug. Forgetting my troubles, distracting myself from new awareness, getting out of my head and into my body - pure feeling and sensation.

Now, does that mean that every time I "distract myself" from my internal growth I need to restart a sobriety date?

Then, we have to also include obsessive eating and sugar (an affliction of many in recovery), the rush of adrenaline in anger tantrums (a drug that courses through your body and is certainly a pull to many in recovery), and the use of nicotine and caffeine in the extreme (both external substances which alter the physiological and the psychological).

Ah, but all those distractions are legal, some answer. Well, so is marijuana in many places. And in even more states in the US, medicinal marijuana is actually prescribed by doctors, as are various pharmaceuticals to alter brain chemistry for mental health purpose, as are various powerful pain killers to address physical pain.

For myself, I have chosen NOT to smoke pot while I work an AA program. I am enjoying a complete intentional sobriety, and am curious about my mind and body functioning when fully clean.

If at some point I decided to take marijuana as a medicine, or even was doing some sort of spiritual work which could benefit from a shaman-administered herb or fungi (say, while traveling in the Amazon rainforest on a quest) would I change my sobriety date? Likely not.

I quit drinking alcohol because it was damaging the core of who I want to be. I get support and give support to other alcoholics within the program because that feels like the community in which I most fit and where I can be of the most service.
The path of my personal conscious contact with God, while reflected in that community, remains my own (and Gods).

I recognize that many will disagree with this opinion, but it is what I believe, today...

Greedy

It's a brand of medicine taken by flu sufferers before bed in order to ease flu symptoms and aid sleep. It is probably the strongest non prescriptive sleep aid and the UK and causes no high or low but it does quickly induce sleep. I've used it now and again in order to sleep whilst withdrawing from various substances.

I'm sure they have it all over the world under different brand names.

NYCDoglvr

You can't be high and sober at the same time.