Did he relapse?
 

Today at the AA meeting a guy w 3 years sobriety broke down during the discussion.

He was under a ton of stress because he feels like he may have had a slip.

He was in Asia last month and he was eating in a local tent.

He said everyone was drinking, except for him. They were eating all sorts of local fish and filter feeders.

As the night drew to a close, the owner of the tent insisted he have a shot of strong liquor to kill the bacteria he may have just injested.

The owner said it was medicine like. The man said it made sense at the time.

He had the shot and called it a night. He said he felt a tiny buzz, but he didn't drink any more and hasn't had any since.

He wasn't sure if he should take a 24 hour chip or not.

The folks at AA said it wasn't a relapse or a slip. It was medical.

I agreed.

What do you all think?

I would agree and call it medical, but I pray he doesn't use it as a reason or excuse to restart drinking...IMHO, taking the 24 hour chip would send the message to me, hey I'm off the waggon, why not drink again

I would agree and call it medical, but I pray he doesn't use it as a reason or excuse to restart drinking...IMHO, taking the 24 hour chip would send the message to me, hey I'm off the waggon, why not drink again

I would say no for sure. Sounds like his mindset was good and actually sounds like this might fall under accidental ingestion or medical of some sort as mentioned above. In a foreign country and you eat something you don't know what it is and then you are told to drink something so you don't get sick, I would have drank it too and then been scared to eat anything there again!

I think he made a reasonable choice in the circumstances. It is not the choice I would have made. Alcohol in that sort of quantity could mean certain death for me. I'd take my chances with the bugs, and it is unlikely I would have eaten much of that type of food. I have been living in SE Asia for the past six months and watch what I eat.

Medical? That's a new one on me.

I understand different cultures and norms, and imagine he was under pressure. However, this is one area where I simply would not give in to anyone else's design of what is the right thing to do. Nope. Nope. Nope.

Call it whatever you want - it would haunt me, at least for a bit, and make me question my commitment to my sobriety (til i hopefully surrendered - again- to being powerless over alcohol *which he was by making the choice to drink*!!!). In AA, we say recovery and sobriety come before everything - EVERYTHING- else. So, that's my $0.02 - and I pray I am strong enough to make my decisions around that.

I hope he remains sober. The mental part, again, is what I would worry about - the obsession with what he did, and what he could do.

Been thinking about this one all day - and I wouldn't take someone's word for it.

If it meant me checking in with a Dr later to make sure about parasites bacteria or whatever, I'd rather do that.

Whether it's a relapse - not my call - it's his :)

D

Intention is really important in recovery, and for me this case would be the same as he ingested alcohol by accident. I think it's up to him to decide how he feels more comfortable about calling this a relapse or not.