notfixable

what if a recovering alcoholic takes a narc is that a relapse ?

What if a drug addict drinks alcohol ?

Is a relapse consuming anything that will alter the way you feel ?

I know my opinion Im just wondering about what others think.

13unluckyforsom

I would say it depends - if the intention is still just to get **** faced then anything abussive is a relapse I think.

I'm gonna say that for now - heads a bit foggy only 6am here lol but I think if your just replacing one with another your not fixing yourself

13unluckyforsom

So yeah that would be relapse. In my opinion.

Dee74

I keep it simple.
I know what would constitute a relapse for me.

What it would constitute for anyone else is really none of my business

Thinking about it too much might just lead to some 'back door' thinking.

D

13unluckyforsom

Too much thinking is bad for you anyway lol I'm going with Dee - keep it simple. Make your own rules. Everyone's standards are different etc. and on that note I'm away back to bed - again - lol feel like I'm doing step aerobics half the night up and down the stairs!

DoubleBarrel

I had to have this conversation with my wife. Back has been killing me. Used to take a LOT of opiates for it.

I've been suffering with Advil.

She asked if I wanted anything stronger. Said, I thought you liked that stuff. I had to just laugh. Yes I liked it. A little too much.

She says, what are you gonna do if you have a really bad problem? Like a medical thing.

I said I guess if I'm in unbearable pain, I do what I have to do, but I will not ever take anything other than what a doctor prescribes as prescribed, for a very limited time.

No bending the rules, no self medicating, and no drinking again ever for any reason.

I pray that I do not have to deal with that ever. Or for a very long time.

PaperDolls

I completely agree with Dee.


The problem with this type of question, in my opinion, is that I can always find someone to tell me that if I took a narcotic not as the doc prescribed or got drunk as an addict that its not a relapse. In fact those are the answers I would seek out so that I could convince myself I hadn't relapsed.

Sent from my iPhone using SoberRecovery

UnixBer

Personally I'm very cautious about defining relapse, I take the textbook-version and hold it my guideline. This means any even small amount of alcohol, such as a mouthful of beer not swallowed (kept against the mouth causes ingestion too). This is because this is a thing I don't like playing with. According to this article that's been shared here on SR quite a few times:

PAWS | Digital Dharma

And this is the guideline:
As it says... any quantity of alcohol, or any other (possibly central nervous system depressant) drug. But this doesn't count caffeine or nicotine. The reason is as pointed out: even a small amount can destroy the work and healing for scientific reasons and that is why I would not take the chance.
Hope this is helpful.

ZoeM

Personally, I would consider that ingesting / drinking anything that you're addicted to, or trying to give up, would be a relapse.

ReadyAtLast

I wouldn't consider accidental ingestion a relapse-eg if you picked up the wrong drink and took a sip by accident. Thesethings can and do happen. Intention is key imo

I suppose I would ask why you are asking the question.

freespirit86

In my opinion a relapse doest even have to involve anything, its a mind set, i consider it more of a lapse than relapse. It is totally possible to go back to the mind set our addictions create without actually doing the drug or the drinking.

Anna

As Dee said, I know what a relapse would be for me.

For anyone else, it's up to them and not my business.

Threshold

For me a relapse is returning to a behavior that I have sworn off of due to it's destructive control over my life.

Afloat

It seems a reasonable question to me - you're not asking for advice, just for other peoples thoughts.

My reason for giving up drinking was to escape from that life (?) where everything seemed to depend on when and where I could get the next drink, I thought about that from the moment I woke up to the moment I fell asleep and I hated it all.

I'm really not bothered by drink now, and I think and hope that I would know the difference between anything that led me onto the slippery slope back to where I was and what I've gained since sobering up.

So I won't say "Just one drink and it's back to day 1". Nor will you hear me say "Yes please, just one drink, it can't hurt".
Well not yet anyway.

whipster

When your lizard-brain is talking to you and you listen. It is OK to drink now, you can handle it. You aren't going to start getting drunk like you did before because you are cured now. Just one drink or two or five isn't really getting drunk so go ahead. Getting a little buzz going is relaxing, and since you are cured it won't really hurt anyone....and on, and on, and on....

Sound familiar?

That would be a relapse in my mindset.

ScottFromWI

I would consider anything that I knowingly drank, smoked or ate to escape reality or feed my addiction a relapse.

ZoeM

OK after puzzling over this for a while, I'm now totally agreeing with Anna and Dee.
Took me a while but I got there in the end.

crackerboy

All addictive drugs, including alcohol -- just another drug -- work on the same section of the brain. Whether or not one considers it a relapse, rest assured that your brain won't have any questions, and your recovery will not really begin until you are abstinent from all substances that work on that portion of the brain. This is science, not opinion.

crackerboy

You can make your own rules all you want, but you can't change the science. All mood-altering substances work on the same parts of the brain, and it doesn't really care what you stimulate it with. If you are addicted, you will not begin to recover until you are abstinent.

The brain makes changes to accommodate the presence of high levels of stimulation. When we're abstinent, we "jones" for our drugs until the brain begins to repair itself. The repairs take months. Using during that period will stop the recovery process. Using afterward is likely to cause a return of the addiction.

This isn't opinion. It is the opinion of the vast majority of addiction professionals and addiction scientists.

crackerboy

Actually, it does include nicotine. Recent research has shown that stopping smoking actually speeds up recovery (although it makes the early weeks a bit rough if you don't have support, which is why I left it out of the article.)

As far as tiny amounts of alcohol are concerned, it's impossible to avoid it completely. My personal guideline is intentional consumption. That indicates a dangerous frame of mind. We need to remember that relapse occurs before we use the drug, otherwise we wouldn't use.