BlueChair

I usually post over on the substance abuse family forum but I had a question I wanted to ask to get opinions on people switching from drugs to alcohol, or people who start drinking and it leads them back to drug use.

Based on peoples experiences I was wondering if the alcoholics in your life started out having a problem with alcohol, or switched from something else? or do they have a problem with both?

My husband has never had an alcohol problem but is recovering from a relapse on cocaine lasted a few months and he hadnt used in a lot of years before that. I hope what Im asking makes sense. I did make a post a few minutes on the other forum with more details if you want to read it. Im not sure what Im looking for here, to ease my worries tonight while I wait for him to come home.

http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...t-trauma.html?

Seren

It happened the other way around with my stepson. He started by drinking, then became what is delightfully termed as a 'polysubstance abuser'. In other words, he would take whatever he could get his hands on. Crack was by far the scariest one because he is a vile, abusive, dangerous man on crack.

digdug

I was a past drug user before I became an alcoholic. I didn't start drinking heavily until 28. A late bloomer.

It started out slow for me. Just a couple of drinks here and there when out with friends. But hey, I wasn't getting high, right? But because addiction is progressive, I was eventually drinking multiple times a week, drinking alone, and finally drinking every day. I drank for the same reason as I used to get high.

I haven't done hard drugs in 10 years and marijuana in 6 years, but alcohol destroyed my life and the lives of those close to me in less than 3 years of drinking. It is just as dangerous and damaging as illicit drugs. Alcohol IS a drug. In my mind, the only thing that separates alcohol from cocaine is the method of consumption.

If an alcoholic suddenly decided to shoot up some heroin, everyone would be saying he/she relapsed. But if a drug addict has a couple of drinks, it's okay because it's not their drug of choice?

I'd be very concerned if I were you. Addiction is a disease of the brain. The particular substance ingested is just the symptom.

MissFixit

my former a never smoke or did drugs in his whole life.

however, he would drink bottles of wine, cases of beer and a fifth of whatever in one day.

Johnston

Never cared for drugs, but put a beer in front of me and I'm hooked.

HealingWillCome

For my xabf it's been a near lifelong addiction to both (40 years). He is a daily pot smoker. He would tell me while in recovery from both that giving up the pot was much, much harder than giving up the alcohol. And guess what...it was the pot relapse that started first. Eventually the drug fog he was in convinced him that starting to drink socially again would be okay. I left the relationship before the drinking kicked in, but I knew what was coming and didn't want to be there for another round of hell. It was bad enough when the pot showed up again.

dizzychainsaw

I started alcohol and drugs around the same time.I am addicted to both. At my worst, I drank every day and did whatever drugs I could get my hands on.

Erik1980

Booze was always my drug of choice but when I was hammered it could easily seem like a great idea to get a bag of blow or some Molly or X pills ... I would never really use drugs (except pot which I don't really count as a drug) unless there was drinking involved

Pipping

I chain smoked cigs and drank wine. I was always horribly hungover and vomited most mornings. Pot never really did it for me and I was too scared to take other drugs. Makes no sense to me at all now that I had the attitude that alcohol was a soft drug since it had wrecked my health and nearly my life.

PippiLngstockng

My xah smoked pot and drank pretty much every day when I met him. I used to smoke pot quite a bit and none of his consumption phased me before we had children. I stopped being a semi druggie once In my twenties. Xah stopped using hard drugs but always consumed something every day, which I knew way back when was afdiction.

Thing is, for me, stopping drugs was easy. So I thought when we had children it would be easy for him, too.

Now I wonder if he is back to pot and hard drugs as well as booze. And that is where our money disappeared to.

I still think pot was a better choice. At least that didn't make him violent.

If you are worried about where your addict is, you don't have to live like that. You shouldn't have to worry where he is at night.

amy55

I experimented with drugs, uppers and downers, weed, nothing else. I was too afraid to take anything else. Afraid that I would hurt my baby if I became pregnant, but I drank. Must say, I never took uppers or downers without drinking. Almost never smoked pot. It made me paranoid.

So if you are asking if someone who took drugs, can drink, and not go back to drugs, highly doubt that. I didn't like drugs, but if I did, and I was drinking, well, where or what do you think I would go looking next

BlueChair

Thanks for all the replies. Something a couple people pointed out was if someone usually mixed the two substances. Like coke always went with drinking, or drinking made him want coke. He says he has always drank socially and never felt it was a problem in the past, and never felt it caused him to want to do any drugs. Right now he doesnt think it will make that association for him. Ive read enough, and the counselors at rehab, the family counselor has told him its best to wait for a while, but he is stubborn about his idea on it and has not changed his mind. I dont see any problem so far and he is not drinking everyday and only like one drink when he has had one so far, but just knowing what I know is possible causes me some anxiety. His relapse was so God awful and I want him to do everything to make the risk of another relapse lower. He came home about 20 minutes after I posted and was fine, talking about the slopes and everything, said they didnt stop anywhere and he seemed hungry enough ! I believe him with all that, know it was just my insecurities bubbling up. I hope the past memories fade soon, that feeling when he did not come home during the relapse it was the most fear I ever felt.

bigsombrero

I pretty much abused every substance that was put in front of me. When I first tried cocaine I remember thinking "aahh, I can see why people like using this" and promptly did it every night for a week. Upon first use of mushrooms, I wanted to use them every weekend. Marijuana hooked me for years. After my first high I wanted to be stoned all the time.

The "problem" with drugs like these for alcoholics, is that they're not always easy to get! And they're relatively expensive! I didn't have access to a lot of these substances after college, and they pretty much faded out of my life because I didn't have the motivation to find a new supplier. Alcohol, on the other hand, was easy to obtain and relatively cheap. After college that became my DOC and I abused that until I almost croaked.

I believe that SOME alcoholics, like me, share a lot in common with substance abusers. I went to a "NA-style" treatment center with folks who were getting off crack and heroin, among other things. I found that for me, the trigger to use/abuse was very similar to those people.

Aeryn

My XAH is an X-drug user (started drinking once he quit the drugs under the idea that "alcohol is different")...he's finding it 1000000 times harder to quit alcohol in his case.