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Drugs that weren't your drug of choice

Old 08-31-2012, 05:06 PM
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Drugs that weren't your drug of choice

I've been thinking about this a lot lately.

My problems were with alcohol. I've done other stuff, on and off, but I've never been addicted to or dependant on anything else.

I've avoided using anything since I've stopped drinking, and I am aware of the risk of switching addictions, but I was curious whether I could use other substances in special occasions without going back to alcohol or going off a different deep end.

Thanks.
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Old 08-31-2012, 05:14 PM
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I personally wouldn't. I've accepted that I have an addictive personality, and I am lucky it was ONLY alcohol that became a problem. (not to say booze is easy to kick of course lol... I just dabbled in some other stuff and I'm lucky I didn't get hooked on that too)
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Old 08-31-2012, 05:27 PM
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To me they are all the same. Pot, pills, booze...I wasn't good with any of them.
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Old 08-31-2012, 05:30 PM
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The various drugs I used were never really the problem - I was.
Once I stopped running away from reality (and myself) - I started to get a lot better .

In my experience, if you have to ask if it's a good idea, it's probably not....

D
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Old 08-31-2012, 05:51 PM
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I would listen to others on probably abstaining. I would just add that in my experience, parties/situations where "other things" can be found are situations that include alcohol too. I think if I did something like smoke pot, etc, it would diminish my resistance and I'd be afraid of saying yes to a drink.
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Old 08-31-2012, 05:58 PM
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I probably should have stated it before that the question isn't academic.

My birthday is coming up. In the past, that was the perfect excuse for my friends and myself to get wasted and stoned then go do dumb stuff.

I'm determined for the "wasted" part of the program not to happen this year (not for me, my friends are free to drink until they pass out), but I was wondering if the "stoned" and "do dumb stuff" parts need to go as well since I've never had a problem with pot and it is a special occasion.

So far, the consensus seems to be against...
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Old 08-31-2012, 06:24 PM
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No, please don't do it, please listen to my experience. I had over 6 months of solid sobriety. Then I decided, much like you, that cocaine had never been my problem, sure I did it sometimes while I was out drinking, but I wasn't always abusing it like I was with alcohol, so why couldn't I just have a little bit now and again when out with friends, so to enjoy the same state of mind that they were in, and not have to sit there like a sober bump on the log?!

So I did some coke. Naturally (come on, if you dig deep within yourself you will know this is true) it only made me want to do more, more often. The problem was that I was not truly living a sober lifestyle-- hanging out with friends who drank and did drugs, in places where people drank and did drugs, etc., meant I was still yearning for that kind of lifestyle, or at least not committed enough to staying SOBER, which for me means not letting myself escape from my problems, not using substances instead of dealing with life and working on myself.

It got to be where whenever I was out with friends (which I had severely limited compared to the past), I wanted to do coke, which let me tell you is way more expensive than alcohol and which can be a lot more dangerous to use in one setting/episode than alcohol (for me, alcohol takes its toll over time, but when I do coke I can TELL that it is really really bad for my body and mind, RIGHT AWAY!). I also started smoking pot with my boyfriend, thinking hey at least I'm not drinking.

Well, let me tell you that addiction is addiction. We do that stuff- drinking, drugs, sometimes even stuff like being in bad/unhealthy relationships or horrible choices- to not have to focus on ourselves, to not have to be in our own heads. I am convinced that there is no way that anyone who was ever addicted to anything can switch to another highly addictive substance (which to me is any drug or alcohol) and not start to see old patterns resume. We turn to substances instead of inwards. We need to stop that pattern if we are ever to have any hope.

Not to mention, doing drugs lets us let down our boundaries and causes us to crave alcohol. For me it was only a matter of time before I had returned to drinking. Although I had a huge emotional life event that I used as an excuse to drink, I know my resolve would have been stronger had I been substance-free. Instead I had a lot of guilt over having already succumbed to doing drugs, and figured well I failed at sobriety, why not just go back to my drug of choice. (I've also started to realize that I DID have a bigger problem with coke than I had wanted to admit-- it fueled my drinking, and vice versa). If you have to ask yourself/us if you should do it, I think the answer is to stay on the safe side and NOT do it. And, medical marijuana aside, the consequences of doing illegal drugs can be HUGE-- do you really want to risk it? In my opinion there is NO safe or moderate amount of drugs to do (again, I am not getting into pot for the general population [I honestly think it's safer as a social drug than alcohol for people who can handle such things "socially"-- we are not one of those people!!!] but for us addicts IMO pot is just another addictive drug).
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Old 08-31-2012, 07:10 PM
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Wow, sobriety must be "taking" for me, because I read this and I think "Hmm. special occasion. I know, let's get too wasted to remember it and maybe do some things we'll regret later!"

Once upon a time that made sense to me, but darn if doing drugs didn't just lead to me saying "F it, I'm having a drink" and darn if having a drink didn't lead to me saying "F it. I'm going to see what I have in my bag of tricks and down a handful."

It didn't happen every time, but it happened a LOT of the time, and once I got the "F its" and was off and running...things got real bad, real fast.

MY experience is that I either want to be sober and live sober or I don't. I tried to play the drinking/drugging game and avoid the consequences but I couldn't. So I choose sobriety and be done with it, because playing halfsies just didn't work for me.

I do know some people who can drink occassionaly and use occasionally and no prob. But I don't know anyone who is an addict or alcoholic that can use the other one without pretty quickly going to the bad place. My main issue was with drugs...I was sure that I could still drink, since booze was not my DOC. I could tell you about my hellish overdose, eighty mile ride to the hospital screaming all the way, months of bills to pay, etc etc.

It would have been seriously easier, cheaper and more pleasant to just not have had that first drink that night...
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Old 08-31-2012, 07:55 PM
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Originally Posted by Pigtails
I wasn't always abusing it like I was with alcohol, so why couldn't I just have a little bit now and again when out with friends, so to enjoy the same state of mind that they were in
Originally Posted by Threshold
My main issue was with drugs...I was sure that I could still drink, since booze was not my DOC.
I have to admit that those two quotes are eerily similar to how I was thinking about it...

I would have known to stay away from cocaine since I had (minor) problems with speed when I was younger, but I've always thought of pot as completely safe (if mediocre).

Thank you for sharing your experiences. I'm not known to take decisions quickly, but those two posts really spoke to me.
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