How much clean and sober time does switch have? poll

[Spare Chaynge]

How much clean and sober time do you have and what is your definition of clean and sober, and why.

[Dickon]

The cat's a day over 4 months clean and sober. He defines it in the NA way, i.e. no mood altering drugs except for caffeine and nicotine. Why? Because I've seen so many people quit opiates only to drink or smoke pot compulsively. I'm not dogmatic about this, and if someone was 5 years off opiates and took a glass of wine once a week they'd still be clean and sober(-ish!!)

There are a lot of people chain smoking and drinking inordinate amounts of coffee and tea and worst of all energy drinks, who still seem to be the wrong side of clean and sober! So it's less about what you use, but more about how you use it.

I'm not a smoker, but I do sometimes "need" a cup of tea or coffee. I am seriously considering giving that up, then maybe meat, then perhaps sin, and sex, and perhaps I'll eat only fruit, and only in small quantities. Ah but by doing this, it would be a manifestation of addictive perfectionism!!! But seriously, I've got as far as meat before, but never quite managed to be a caster of first stones [i.e. without sin to those not au fait with the Bible].

Someone on here had quit heroin, was on oodles of methadone, benzodiazepines, alcohol, and a handful of strong pharmaceutics, and claimed they were clean! I was less than convinced.

Dickon

[nate81]

I don't like the word sober because I doubt anyone is really sober at all. Even if a person did no drugs, caffeine, tobacco, or alcohol. AND that person never took things like nyquil, sleep meds, benadryl, or any other mild but altering drugs, they still have the mental and physical changes that the body itself can create.

What people want when they say "you should get sober" is for the abuse of a given substance to stop. If the abuse is gone, they say "I'm sober". They may still have an occasional drink, they may have a smoke or take a pill once in awhile. If there is no abuse, then it's acceptable. By that definition, my former drug abusing friend has been clean more than five years. He has a couple beers a month, he has taken a few hydrocodone's, even had some yay-o one time. He does not abuse anything so feels safe saying "I'm sober".

[chillinwill]

Red Rock has over 10 months clean now and has abstained from heroin that long. Now he does drink occasionally and will occasionally use psychedelics but his psychedelic usage has decreased a lot in the last couple of months or so. His definition of being clean and sober is that one doesn't have to have total abstinence unless that is what is required by them. His definition means that their usage is no longer causing any kind of problems in their life.