Well, apparently smoking is not allowed or considered sober if you are in NA. I was not aware of this, so I will apologize to @785 for giving them my opinion, as I thought NA followed the AA guidelines. I was wrong about that.
So…while I do believe we all have the right to make our own decisions regarding what constitutes sobriety and recovery for ourselves…I will say that if you are following NA, apparently using any substance would qualify you as ‘not sober’.
Hopefully someone who is familiar with NA can help educate myself, and perhaps others, on this as well.
Again, sorry for not knowing that NA and AA have different guidelines around substance usage.
I have been vaping at every meeting I’ve been to since I quit cannabis. They were all online meetings due to the Corona virus. I’ve even seen people smoking cigarettes during Zoom meetings and literally no one I’ve spoken to during those meetings gave one tiny rat’s ass about other people smoking or vaping. As long as it’s not a mind altering substance ofcourse.
That’s my understanding, but also I don’t work NA (I’m AA). Just understanding taken from others in it, and only in the strictest of terms.
Of course I also know NA smokers and vapers. That’s their business though. Cuz I believe the same adage of “mind your own program” applies as well. Nicotine is a weird edge case to me, so I don’t judge. Hell, I still vape.
We must be honest with ourselves and whatever greater thing we believe in on where our trouble lies. No one can do it for us.
And if we aren’t being honest, consequences will usually sort it out.
Btw, I hope you realize we are all addicts here. At least, I don’t think I have seen one person on this forum who isn’t addicted to any sort of substance. You can be sober for years, but the addiction is still there. Even food can be an addiction for some of us, for that matter. Just sayin’
I’m a member of NA. I’m a non smoker. My sponsor smokes. I came into NA to stop smoking cannabis. My sponsor one day broke a girl down because she said she was sober from drugs but she had been drinking. The drinking did eventually lead her to relapse. People are going to do what they want to do. If you get resentful about wanting to force change you will likely suffer and end up becoming a hypocrite. We need to focus on our own recovery and be there for the still suffering addict. NA does not wish to engage in controversy. As members The primary purpose of an NA group is to carry the message of recovery to the addict who still suffers. The group provides each member with the opportunity to share and to hear the experience of other addicts who are learning to live a better way of life without the use of drugs… It doesn’t say in there that we demand anything of anyone. It says we share the message of recovery. Perhaps if you’re not a smoker and you’re not in NA for smoking it’s not your job to dictate to smokers why recovery from smoking looks like? If you are a recovered smoker perhaps you can try share the message to the addict that still suffers. Just a thought. But I think the resentful attitude your taking is more controversial and likely to take away from the primary purpose.
Perhaps put it forward in a group conscience that you don’t want tobacco at group meetings. But good luck because caffeine is a drug to and many NA groups actually buy tea and coffee. So yeah I think you’re taking the wrong approach. Try and save the world and watch yourself get left behind.
Actually you can make a lot of other things to an or DOC as well, shopping, work, sex, training, eating, no eating,video games, gambling and so on it’s all about how you handle it and why you’re actually doing it. NA as you wrote doesn’t require you to be totally clean from everything it only requires that you have a wish to stop. Tobacco and caffeine does mess with the same signals and receptors in the brain as other drugs, but so does everything you use in an “addiction” way. Some people do quit smoking, but for others that’s the only way they can stay in track relax or stay sane. We all find our ways, personally I don’t see either caffeine or cigarettes as a problem, it’s all up to you. Also most of the time you don’t smoke tobacco to the point where you can’t manage daily life or work, and you don’t drink the amount of coffee that’ll make you sick.
I’m not a tobacco user, and I drink one jar of iced coffee every morning (Yes it’s a jar, a Mason jar) but that doesn’t mean I’m not clean, the coffee doesn’t buzz my mind, neither does the sugar in it. And it defenitly doesn’t lead to an urge to take any other drunks for lunch. Alcohol is a little different at least for me, if you can handle it and have like one beer an no more then it’s up to you to make the choice or not. And that’s also the most important thing to remember, it’s all upto you, at all times and that’s who you should focus about. No one have the right to judge anyone else’s recovery or usage, and you don’t have the right to demand that everyone follows your path or stay completely of everything that doesn’t cope with your personal beliefs. That’s not what it’s all about. If NA craved that you had to stay away from everything they wouldn’t even be able to help people who does relapse, and that happens to most of us.
