Mala09

While those in early sobriety still use coffee as a stimulant, many of us sober for longer prefer green tea or herbal infusions as we get into healtheir lifestyles. Twenty years ago, AA rooms were blue with cigarette smoke and cups of black coffee were de rigueur. These things are cultural habits as much as anything. People are more concerned about health these days and when I was recovering I ate fruit for sugars rather than ice cream or sweets.

Nicotine is more of a problem because it creates severe addictive dependency and kills many recovering alcoholics. I also believe the habit prevents many from getting in touch with emotions so they keep smothering anger and smoking away the feelings.

Hypnotherapy and acupuncture do seem to help many smokers to give up.

sobergirl77

I've never understood how brand new sober people can drink so much coffee, or drink it at night. Personally, being only 11 days sober, I can't have more than 2 cups in a day or I get anxiety or the shakes. I'm one of the only people in the room who aren't sucking down cup after cup of double-strength coffee in the meetings I go to.

As for smoking, I don't smoke, but I go to smoking meetings. The smoke kills my eyes but I love that particular group too much to let it hamper me from attending.

I know my coffee consumption will increase as I stay sober longer and the lingering anxiety and shakiness goes away completely, but I will never become a smoker!

Tazman53

When I went to the doctor about my drinking he told me I needed to be medically detoxed, I thought quitting smoking at the same time would be a good idea.... he shot that down for me real quick, he told me that my smoking was a very minor problem in comparison to my drinking and suggested I not try quitting smoking until I was fairly solid in my sobriety.

Well I quit smoking on the day I celebrated 1 year booze free!!! It was not easy, but one of the neat things about it was I know alternate between talking with the smokers out side before the meeting and the non-smokers inside. All of my sponsees smoke, so I always spend some time with the smokers before and aftr meetings.

Coffee!!!! Well when I was drinking I drank huge quanities of coffee in the morning right up until 1 PM when I got off work, then it was drinking until bed. When I first got sober I drank coffee by the pot full!!! I am noticing lately that I am with no effort cutting back on how much coffee I drink now, I enjoy it, but just no where near as much as I used to.

In my area the stereotypical smoke filled AA meeting has been gone for years, all smoking is done out side and even the numbers of smokers is slowly going down. The coffee consumption seems to be going down as well, I would guess half the folks in meetings I go to are drinking sodas, juice, or water, I am not there yet, I may never be, but that is okay!!! I am sober and happy, there are far worse things I could be doing then drinking coffee.

least

One of the side effects of drinking was that I couldn't drink coffee anymore as I was already too shakey and agitated in the morning. Now that I'm no longer shaky in the mornings I can have my coffee again! I also smoke, too much, and would love to quit but the withdrawals from nicotine are worse than from alcohol. Or to put it differently: when I withdraw from alcohol it makes me feel horrible for a few days. When I withdraw from nicotine it makes everyone else feel horrible cause I'm such a b!tch!!

Jersey Nonny

For me, drinking alcohol and smoking were synonymous...I started both at the age of 16. It took six years in AA before I was able to quit smoking..quitting drinking actually seemed easier, and I experienced more "smoking triggers" than drinking (i.e., driving in the car, after a good meal, coming out of the pool, etc.). I also felt like lighting up during stressful situations like figuring my taxes or studying for an exam.

I never was a big coffee drinker, except when I was making 10 - 14 meetings a week. Now, I usually just have one cup in the morning...mainly because they only serve decaf, except in the Activities Room.

Most of the meetings I used to attend had gone "Non-Smoking" about 10 years ago. Before that, my home group had a "non-smoking section", which was really laughable because the room was so large, the smoke filled the room anyway.

Even though all the hospitals are smoke free now, the ARU's still allow smoking. They'd have patients slitting their wrists, I'm afraid, if they tried to cut them off alcohol, drugs, and cigarettes at the same time. Although they do provide decaf coffee and tea.

I now consider myself a recovering smoker, as well as a recovering alcoholic.