Recovery question?

Question

I have been attending AA meetings for about a year now. Several times I’ve heard "If you put anything into your body that effects you from the neck up, you're not considered sober." I'm assuming they're talking about cross addictions like taking pills, smoking crack, etc. but then those same people will run out after the meeting and light up a cigarette.

I am not a smoker and never have been, but I know nicotine effects people otherwise it wouldn’t be so addictive. If so, wouldn't this be a hypocritical statement that they’ve made?

Answer 1

I agree. In my past, I've been in a rehab twice within 10 years a part. I know what you mean about smokers. It seemed that even at AA meetings 85% of them would be outside smoking, while the other 15% were inside eating hard candy. I know this is kind of a sharp solution, but if you don't like being around it, don't be around it. I agree with you that it is hyocritical behavior because it does just as much damage from the neck up as does pills, pot, or booze. At the same time, be patient with them. Some of them may actually be trying to stop but haven't reached that point yet. Some addictions are harder than others to handle, wouldn't you agree? I'm doing really well now. Of course if I wasn't, I wouldn't be answering this...I wish you the best of luck in conquering your demons. Let the smokers smoke. Just stay clear of 'em if it bothers you. Worry about YOU getting well, and you'll do even greater!

Answer 2

one addiction at a time ! please.
I never had a drink for most of my life ! but i do know that taking prescription drugs does almost the same thing as drinking a shot of vodkah. or tequilla or wine or lots of beer.

if taking a prescription drug makes a person NOT sober than it cannot be called Medicine it is more like another poison.

On the other hand it is not hypocritical to stop drinking and then work on not smoking.

however when i said i had never had a drink most of my life I meant to add since high school, and i can tell you being stoned on life was a major Tribulation for almost 20 years, wicked peole would poison and pollute the very air i breathed, so much so, that i would end up not sleeping for ten years. the last 3 years I would only sleep ten minutes a day and one day a month.
If i took a sleeping pill i might get 2 hours of sleep. until one day I only got 1 minute of sleep and tried to fall asleep all day. and each time i would fall asleep i would immediately wake up, several times. Until i moved out the apartment i lived in for ten years and began living in my car, i had no peace of mind for lack of sleep. When i did sleep in my car I gained 40 lbs because of the lack of activity due to so much sleep in the first month.
Being so HIGH on the drugs i was poisoned with became a debate on whether i was sober or NOT. I had forgotten what true sobriety was. I found that it takes about 5 or 6 weeks to be separated from all evil toxins before Just one dose of poison became metabolized. i litterally suffered 2 winters in alaska living in my car and enjoying life more fully because i was not being poisoned.

Answer 3

I have 2 years sober witout AA. I take pain pills when prescribed, and I definitley have "Addictive Tendencies" towards anything that makes me feel even slightly good. I try to avoid taking anything unless its a must and ordered by a doctor. The day will come when you break a finger and get a weeks suply od vicodins out of it, but remember that you were once an addict. That means you can be again. Not just an alcoholic. You were an alcohol addict and you can become an addict of something else more easily that the avrage Joe. You are fragile when it comes to any type of "high". Just avoid highs.

Answer 4

I am a long-time sober member of AA. I've had 4-5 major home groups in different states and cities and there is one thing I know: group personalities and beliefs differ. Early in my sobriety my home group convinced me to dump my antidepressants (I'm bipolar) and I wound up in the looney bin for a month. And I know another thing: EVERYTHING affects us from the neck up. The polluted air, barometic pressure, cardio-vascular disease, aspirin, coffee, tainted water, cigarettes, stress, meditation, etc.

So, practice our principles in all your affairs. An unwritten principle, but understood, is the idea of taking care of your side of the street and letting others do the same. Don't take their inventory; recovery for ourselves is a full-time job. God Bless, read the Big Book, go to meetings, call your sponsor faithfully, blah, blah, blah. It works!

Answer 5

Yes, it is. But, nicotine doesn't have an intoxicating effect as the drugs you mentioned. But tackle one addiction at a time. Keep up the fight and keep going to meetings. My prayers are with you.

Answer 6

Cigarette smoking will not cost someone their lives in an auto accident like pills or alcohol can. That is why the emphasis on staying "sober".

Answer 7

Well these people are definitely hypcrytes.But so are all the other people who are countless .Lot of the parents are the same.I have heard a lot of parents give advice to young people that they themselves cannot practice.So do teachers .Here what you pointed out is another classical example.There is a saying that the mother crab says to her young to walk properly when she herself doesn't.So the point of th matter is not to find fault with the lecturer but to be better ourselves

Answer 8

Probably but its not your job to oversee their addictions. Its your job to take care of your own sobriety. And smoking cigarettes does not affect people nearly as much as drugs or alcohol. So quit worrying about it, its not worth the energy.

Answer 9

i agree with you. Bu the statement "neck up" may be reffering to your brain more so than your lungs. Maybe that is how they justify it, even though any of those substances will affect your entire body.

Answer 10

Yes it would be hypocritical in the make believe, non socially accepted world.