zoomi

new or later on in sobriety, how important is it to be completely clean! or can we alcoholics still use things like cannabis etc...

and how many of you do?

biminiblue

If I'm using an outside substance to change my mood or to zone out, I'm not considering myself sober.

So, no. I don't do any drugs. I don't even take prescription drugs except thyroid.

Pot gets you high, right? Then...?

jryan19982

Slippery slope that is starting on. Just one puff of pot... Just one joint. Just one 8th. Just one ounce... Where do you stop? Just at pot? Or just one bump... Just one line... Just one 8 ball... Then you know what goes good with xxxx alcohol. That would be my mind set. And before I knew it I'd be back down that same path I don't want to go on again .

What are your feelings about this?

Dee74

I think it's vital to stay away from anything that scratches that old itch.

I destroyed my life as much on pot as I did drinking later. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who finds themselves here for substance abuse.

D

zoomi

thanks for the answer guys. I was just wondering since I have that void thats missing from drinking. But I guess doing something else mind altering like thc or stuff occasionally would help. Guess not

Dee74

I think it's addictive thinking to want to fill the void - I've had far better results focusing on trying to heal the void

D

Zebra1275

I drank fairly heavily in college (which was pretty much the norm in my dorm). Then I took classes one summer and didn't drink very much. But I smoked a lot of pot.

At the end of the summer I was starting graduate school and realized that something had to change if I was to be successful. Getting stoned all of the time wouldn't help my grades, and smoking pot would have been a career ender in my field

So I quit smoking pot. To scratch the itch I started drinking more. It was socially acceptable and legal. I thought it was a brilliant solution. So I started down the road to alcoholism, came upon a town called denial and had a hell of a time finding my way out of it.

My point is, it doesn't matter what your drug is, if it is negatively affecting your life, it's a problem. Addiction is the problem.

BrandNewLife

Tried it. When I used to smoke, I never really drank. When I moved to a state where it wasn’t medicinally available, that’s when the drinking picked up. When I quit drinking, after a couple months I thought it’d be ok to try it again since you can’t really “overdo it.”

I also love everything about it and was convinced I could use it to help my anxiety.

I think you can and I truly believe it has medicinal value - when you’re not a substance abuser.

Recovering from addiction means more than abstinence. You have to change the way you think and the way you show up in life. You have to learn how to be yourself without the fuzzy edges. Being high, in any way, allows you to continue to escape and not deal with those feelings.

Just like you said - you’re looking to fill the void left by drinking. In order to recover and escape the demons that prevent you from being ok with being in your head, you have to face them.

Gottalife

For me, pot lead instantly to my drug of no choice, alcohol. I heard a talk the other day by someone working in the rehab industry. He was saying that they are receiving a high number of people who have been sober for very long periods, ten, twenty years plus who have relapsed. This is a new trend.

What has happened in almost every case is the individual has become unhappy in sobriety which has led to doctor visits and precription medication for depression and sleep problems. Something about the medication triggered the alcoholic craving, and off they went. It wasn’t a case of becoming addicted, it was a case of the substance having the same effect as alcohol in respect of triggering the craving.

That was pretty much the case when my tortuous stint of sobriety was ended with a puff of weed which triggered the craving.

biminiblue

Yeh, Mike - I went through a bunch of dramatic life losses at 18 years sober and was put on anti-anxiety meds, including benzos. I didn't know much about benzos.

The desire was awakened.

Pretty soon I was drinking. Granted there was a confluence of events as well, but those pills sure felt good.

So insidious. My doctor didn't even ask if I had previously had a problem with alcohol - AND her son was an incarcerated alcoholic. Just goes to show we are the gatekeepers to what we allow in our bodies, no one else "gets" it.

Never again will I use a prescribed med for anxiety. No way. I will survive, I have found other ways to deal with life.

August252015

Illegal drugs - no dice (I'm including pot even though it is legal some places).

Prescribed drugs, including ativan (a benzo) for anxiety and seroquel and Trazedone for sleep are part of my psych supervised regimen. I also take paxil, campral (anti craving - maintenance now and I never experienced physical cravings so I am ok taking it indefinitely!) and lamictal (a maintenance drug now, too, for near non-existent BPD symptoms). It works for me- and is only part of my complete sobriety program.

I am very careful with the benzo and also with sleep meds- we have worked to get that latter one right/enough/not too much because sleep is my biggest physical concern in sobriety. I have realized how deep seated my anxiety is and how it manifests and I seek to use medicine plus tools I have learned in AA to counter it.

I believe that rx drugs are an individual thing and having a good dr with whom we are honest is critical- especially those of us who have toyed with rx meds in the past (I have) or have an inclination to take more than prescribed (me, again).

Intent is key here. Mine is not getting high/drunk feeling.