SlvrMag

I am a recovering addict. My DOC was meth. I have been reading stories here and on other forums and it seems to be mainly about alcoholism. The stories seem very similar, but I always tend to look for stories I can relate to even more. Is it that there are more alcoholics than drug addicts?

Taking5

Of course there are more alcoholics! Alcohol is legal. I know lots of alkies who have never as much as touched a joint and wouldn't even take prescription meds that weren't theirs.

There is a small but vocal contingent in AA that believes that drug addicts do not belong in AA, they should go to NA or CA. I do not believe this. The same AA people that take this stand would never consider me sober If I told them I smoke pot.

I think you are right to look for similarities. I don't know the first thing about meth, but I di know this: We all end up in the same hell if we drink or use again.

Mala09

Interesting debate. To conflate addictions is now not considered helpful in many rehab centres and addicts are advised to stick with NA. Many older members of AA do not like to see those battling drug addiction in AA because they know from experience that they are unlikely to get clean there, in so far as AA is primarily for alcoholics and most alcoholics do not identify with the issues around drug addiction. I have never abused any substance except alcohol (never smoked nicotine let alone pot) and while I listen with sympathy I find I have nothing to offer in terms of es&h to those struggling with drug addiction.

Love & peace

Mala

bobmatic

well, here is how i see it, i am a recovering addict with one year, and 5 months, i battled with both drugs and alcohol for 31 years. today i split my meetings between AA and NA. i kind of relate to both meetings, and when i share in meetings i refer to which ever.
even though i work my steps from all NA literature and sponsor NA fellows. hope this is of use.......they are both a DRUG......

Latte

DOC is opiates but I go to AA because it is closest. I speak at meetings but I don't talk about drugs or alcohol, I talk about recovery and how to stay in it. I feel that I belong because I did struggle with alcohol for awhile and know that I can benefit from ES&H from any alcoholic/addict.

Gmoney

I have no idea whether there are more alcoholics than drug addicts? I do believe that AA is a much larger fellowship for many reasons, including the fact that they've been around much longer. There's too many factors to consider for me to offer a reasonable answer, but I will say this: there's countless people who suffer from addiction of some kind that go under the radar and for many drug addicts, alcohol was a "gateway" drug.

I cannot offer specifics, but I also believe that there is a difference between an alcoholic and a drug addict. The end result is often very similar, but in recovery identification is crucial - so there is a need for different programs and fellowships.

Ananda

I introduce myself as an alchoholic addict....just so I remember I can no longer use either...long story...but it is important to me. I got sober and clean in AA and there was never any real problem with alchoholics and addicts sharing about either in the meetings. I was really lucky that way. My favorite drug was crystal meth...although back in 85 when I quit we snorted it and I don't think smoking it was something anyone I new had heard of at the time.

I also drank continually....when I drank again in 99 it was "just" alchohol. I had been out of the drug scene for 14 years and moved to a different town. So basically alchohol was easy. Got sober in 2007.

I still am and "alchoholic/addict" Lots of people get all wrapped up in the drug vs alchohol thing...for me I see no difference. And if you want to find a difference you will find it where ever you go NA or AA and if you want to see the similariteis they are there to be seen.

The only requirement for aa membership is a desire to stop drinking...so if you don't want to drink (which NA recommends) you can go to an AA meeting. Now in some areas you may get a lot of flack....but it's hard for me to invision a group in this day and age where there wouldn't be a number of people who did drugs too. Eventually people get tired of giving "addicts" crap about being in the meeting and alot of people choose to simply not refer to the drug itself, but simply say when I used, or whtever so that people won't waste their time getting all in a hoot about it.

As for primary purpose....that indicates there are secondary ones. If I listen to some of the people in aa and na.....i wouldn't have a place in either. I suffered too long in my addictions to let anyone keep me out of any program that will get me into recovery. In AA they say that alchohol is but a symptom. Drugs are just another manifistation of the symptom...we have to get down to causes.

All this is my expereince strenth and hope and my opinions based on it...and yes....many will come along and disagree venomently (spelling?).

I hope that you insist on keeping your chair in whtever meetings you decide to attend.:ghug

LogCabin

I'm just like Ananda. I introduce myself as Addict/Alcoholic. At every meeting. They are both chemicals that led me to self destruct.

For me I can say that in my own recovery...the harder one to stay away from is/was alcohol. I rarely think about the other drug I would do when I was drunk.

I have heard from NAer that they like the more "kick-back" feeling of the NA meetings in my town. But for me...I like what is closest to my home.

Peter

I am an addict. I am addicted to drugs. Alcohol is a drug. I keep it simple. I do not need to share about my particular drug of choice because for me AA and NA is not about alcohol or drugs......it is about recovery

Alcohol may still be the number one DOC but I think it might be followed a close second by prescription meds.....

tsukiko

Reading the above posts, there's a lot of wisdom in what everyone's saying, but perosnally I believe (while drugs are drugs, alcohol included) that there are differences in both drugs and in the lives addicts lead depending on their DOC. I say this based on personal experience, being both an alcoholic and a heroin addict. My life as an alcholic, previous to using gear, was very differnet to my life as a junkie.

I think there are more alcolics out there because booze is both legal and thus far more socially accepted. I think it'd be easier to ignore a developing drinking problem, while surrounded by friends etc who are all drinking too, than really ignore for example a blooming heroin addiction when you're waking up clucking and staring in to a spoon first thing in the morning.

Plus, because drink is legal I know I personally was able to be alcoholic and remain far more a part of society than when I was using gear. I found being a junkie mean't moving in circles much more removed from those within society, because of heroin's social and legal status.

I didn't know I was alcoholic until I tried to stop cold turkey because a friend bet I woudltn be able to.I was suer she was wrong. Turns out she wasn't, but I hadn't recognised that. It was too easy to compare myself to the rest of the drinking population and no one at that point really noticed how much I was drinking.

As soon as I started using gear though, esp' when I was pinning it, people noticed and though I tried i couldn't ignore the problem, partly because it was far more obvious.

stillabovewater

I can personally say that I have drank too much when I was younger, I tried other drugs occasionally. NOTHING has affected my life like METH. I tried other drugs to get away from METH. I feel that you could probably trade 'addictions' in an attempt. But, I think it's a personal struggle. I've seen alcoholics go as low as I made it. My DOC is/was METH (of any kind).

Nainoa

Depends... Alcoholics don't tend to connect well with Addicts... But Addicts connect well with any addiction... Gambling, sex, porn, whatever...

Depends on how someone is affected...

For me DOC was Meth and Opiates... And while I had some Crossover problems in the early days of recovery with alcohol... Alcohol was never really got out of control of consumed my life.

I believe that addiction isn't about the substance... Addiction is about self focus, and avoidance... And it's cured at the heart of an individuals character...

I believe that the Substance, is actually the most outward symptom.

I mean when I quit Meth and Opium cold turkey (And suffered through hell, for 40 days without treatment.)

I came out the other side... And what did I do... I drank, I Chain smoked, Went to the casino and chased women... All to the same level of obsessive self destruction.

All I did was cross one addiction over to another.

It wasn't until I put all of them down and made the long road of progress towards taking control of my life.

In the end, if you're going to really treat "The Demon within" and not just the damage he did on the surface, it eventually has to stop being about the substance... And it has to be about "The reason why."

And it was that Staring myself in the mirror and looking at the evil I let deep within that was harder than the 40 days I spent locking in my room, kicking, shaking, puking blood and resisting the evil voice in my head.

****

All that being said... 13 years later now... I can have a beer when I get done mowing the lawn, or a glass of wine with dinner, and it does nothing to tweak the old demon... But I never would think about taking a taste of anything narcotic.
*I've been through 3 Shoulder separations, a compartment hemmorage in my ankle, 5 broken ribs, a degloved finger and 2 knee dislocations and refused pain meds stronger than NSAIDs or SAIDs.

debs4321

I am a alcoholic to the core, although I did every probably every drug known to man. Meth was my last addiction.

I believe I am a addict. I was addicted to alcohol and drugs.

But, out of respect to others, I only address myself as a alcoholic at AA meetings and an addict at my CMA meetings.

The 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous and God (of course) are the reasons why I am sober today.

So, for me, being addict or an alcoholic really doesnt matter. The steps are all the same. stemming from the Big Book.

Gotta love Bill Wilson.

grantstrength1

Meth is what I was doing, I posted a new thread about one of my experiences with kicking this drug.

It's in the new posts category.

How are you doing with your recovery?

debs4321

I am doing absolutely wonderful in my recovery.

I have almost 19 months sober and couldnt be any happier.

I actually enjoy life to the fullest.

I have a God of my understanding that I turn my will over everyday, trusting that He has the wheel.

I no longer am afraid of the outcome of any situation cuz I know He (God) will never give me anything I can not handle.

I no longer have to rely upon a substance to get me through the day.

For that I am grateful for.


Live and let live.

Lily

I am an addict to the core. My first DOC was alcohol, then it was meth for over 4 years and finally opiates. I always introduce myself as an addict at NA and when I go to AA (which is almost never) I say alcoholic/addict. I do not know why I introduce myself as both there....part of me feels like introducing myself as an addict covers everything and alcohol as only part of my problem.........I guess I am just a freak.

Sheila

Pinkcuda

I am an Alcoholic and nothing but. I don't do drugs and never have. I don't know why people do drugs and I don't understand how they can cause a person to become adicted. Therefore I have nothing to offer in a NA meeting.
I think Alcoholics deserve the same respect. If you're not an Alcoholic then stay out of AA meetings. There are Alcoholics trying to recover in there from Alcoholism.
NA has a different book. It is like bringing your science book to math class. There is a lot of valueable information in there, but it's not the same.
The Program is called "Alcoholics Anonymous" because it's for Alcoholics. Not Drug Addicts. As soon as I think that should change I may begin to think the steps or the traditions should also be modified to suit our wants.
Our third tradition in the long form states that "Our membership ought to include all who suffer from Alcoholism. Hence we may refuse no one who wish to recover"
That statement is the backbone of AA. The integrity of AA must be preserved and I will do my part to see that only Alcoholics with a desire to recover are considered "Members".

RK2007

Alcohol is a drug. People do drugs for the same reasons people do alcohol. For some people it's fun and stops there. For other people it stops being or never was fun and/or they become addicted.

I think it's essentially the same thing.

Pinkcuda, you probably understand more than you think you do about drug addiction. The way you understand your own addiction to alcohol could quite easily be applied to drugs and vice versa for somebody else. Just because you haven't done them personally - you still understand addiction. Addiction, and the definition of addiction doesn't change in the dictionary just because the substance you're addicted to is different.

Yes, there is alcoholism - but then there could be heroinism, crackism, cokeism by the same token.

I think Peter said it best - it's about recovery from these substances, whatever they are - it probably matters very little what the substances are, unless you're a scientist doing scientific research of some sort on whatever substance.

The various paths to recovery are still the same.

The reason we have the word alcoholism is because alcohol is a legal, commonly used and widely accepted drug. It has permeated our culture as a socially acceptable, safe drug for most people. Whether it actually is or not is another matter.

So, it's pretty natural for casualties of alcohol to be attributed a nice, special word to pigeon hole them. But they are addicts nonetheless, and no different than any other addict in the world, across the whole spectrum of wacky substances that are there to be abused by man/woman.

For illegal substances, whatever it may be-oholics are known as drug addicts.

debs4321

I agree. Alcohol always led me to drugs. I wasnt addicted to the taste, I was addicted to the effect. Anything, and I mean "ANYTHING" to take me out of me. Alcohol is where it centered for me.

Both alcohol and drugs are mind altering substances for me.

Ya know, if i was turned away at the doors of AA because I did drugs, and wasnt solely a Alcoholic. I probably wouldnt be sober today. I needed that faith that there was a way out.

I dont go to NA. Only because I dont feel it is for me. Nothing wrong with NA.
What ever works for you.

My sponsor tells me. If I do the steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, practice these principles in your life, and help others, it will take care of all of my addictions and I will remain sober.

Thank God for Alcoholic Anonymous and the unconditional love I received when I walked through the door.

maloneshawn32

I see them as the same. Alcohol while naturally occuring most of the time is a drug just like anything else. Alcohol is just easier to get since it is legal and narcotics aren't. Stay strong with your recovery, yours is just as challenging as mine, maybe even more.