I cant answer for you if you should change your sobriety date. That decision is entirely up to you .. and God. Id be willing to bet that if you prayed about it, you would get an answer.

I would have to guess (and the only thing I can do is guess, cuz I havent done it) that if I smoked some pot ... was not working THE AA program, and knew I was very close to getting drunk that I would most definately be on my knee's asking for guidance with my nose in the book and the phone at my ear talking to my sponsor.

not having a sponsor is definitely a problem of mine.  9 years ago, I had a baby with my newcomer...lol...and since then I have not attended meetings.  I know I am sober today by the grace of god.  I have my arse in a seat at my group and intend to get a sponsor as soon as God puts her in front of me.  I have blown the dust off my aa books, and am willing to do whatever it takes to get my peace back!!  I feel like the insanity is starting to set in, and I know only God can fend it off, but I have to do my part...

I had a nazi attack me in the meeting because of my confession...But I know I dont want what he has!!  I am so glad I was able to be honest about it...I know I would drink for sure if I tried to hide it!!

Read your post again as if it were written by someone else and see how it fits for
you, the before the middle and the end.  I'd throw in hanging with user also and
the fear stuff.

My early sponsor taught me to separate myself from all things alcohol which included
a wife who was cross addicted...alcohol and drugs.  I dabbled with her and you can't
find the subject "dabbling" anywhere in my Big Book.

I'm in support of you doing the right thing.  I was drug and alcohol free and sober
thinking, feeling, acting and elevated spiritually 9 years before I attended recovery
as an alcoholic.  I was a member of recovery working the very same steps, traditions
and concepts and a friend of Bills via his wife Lois.  My intention was to be separate
from the disease of alcoholism the disease I was born into.   My sobriety date is
when?

Keep coming back cause this works when your work it.   ((((hugs))))

I was never much into smoking weed other than the couple of years that coincided with my early drinking.  The people I hung around with smoked but I did it largely because they did - we smoked and drank, and I much preferred the drinking.  When that crowd scattered after college, it was just me in the working world and I pretty much stuck to alcohol, with the occasional pot but at a party where someone else provided.  I didn't care for the procurement process. 

I actually did smoke weed once about 6 months *before* I came to AA and quit drinking so my MJ sobriety date is actually earlier than my alcohol sobriety date.  Because I did indulge in pot smoking recreationally, and in conjunction with drinking, I'd consider smoking it to be a relapse... for me.

OTOH, a few months back I took vicodin for one day.  It was prescribed... post surgery.  I didn't like it, and it didn't really do much for the pain and after the first day I didn't need it anyway.  Vicodin and narcotics were never my thing back in the day - if they had been, I'd be VERY reluctant to take them even prescribed, and in fact I was very reluctant to take it at all.  My dr. gave me the script when I first turned up with a kidney stone, but I didn't fill it - the pain was manageable with aspirin and ibuprofin.  When I had the procedure to smash & grab the stone, it kind of left some potholes in the urinformation superhighway if you get my drift, hence I used the Vicodin for one day... and it really didn't do much good.  So I'm not counting that as a relapse, thank you

But... I have no business smoking weed, even if I was never "addicted" to it.   For one thing it's illegal - and it would be pretty embarrassing for me to say "Well I'm sober 21 years but I just got a misdemeanor marijuana possession case...".  And well, there's just no reason for me to do it, it's just a slippery as going to a wine tasting as fas as I'm concerned.  My main recollection of smoking pot is that it made my throat burn like hell, and made me paranoid.  The cure for both back then was beer.  You can see where this goes.

Barisax

jonijoni1 wrote:

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Welcome to MIP ChaplaineF

IMHO, if I puffed a joint, I would see that as a relapse because I let my thinking get me all the way to putting an addictive substance - no matter how small the amount- into my body. I am learning that sobriety means picking up the phone before doing anything of the sort. If I took a half a valium, or a quarter of a percocet that didn't belong to me, or a couple of tiny grains of heroine, or one puff off a crack pipe, I would consider that I was sick enough to put ANY of that in my body without first picking up the phone, and had relapsed. Of course, this is just simply how I see it if it were me (and it has been in the past, and led to worse relapse when I did not own up to it and start back at Step 1 and Powerlessness). Honesty, Openmindedness, Willingness.

I would also be afraid that my disease would start telling me, "well, since it wasn't a relapse, I'll do it one more time...." Recovery is not about getting actually drunk or high. To me, it's about Powerlessness, which includes people places and things. If I picked up and drank a shot glass of beer, I must not have though I was powerless over alcohol. Same applies for other addictive drugs which are not prescribed to me. Just my opinion, take what you like and leave the rest.

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I'm gonna have to go with Joni on this one.  For me, it's not what I did but the reason I did it.  The program says "to thine own self be true", so the choice is yours and yours alone.  If it were me, I would go with my gut, which these days is basically my HP guiding me toward the right things to do.  I feel this is one of the circumstances where sponsorship is very important.  I'm glad I have one that's not afraid to call me on my shit and help me see what the truth is today.

 

Brian