+PEth in WHPS? with a job?

LMRN2003, MSN, RN · May 15

Honestly, if it was one drink 5 days ago, it may not even produce a positive result. As far as punishment, I'm not sure what they will do, exactly, because I wasn't in a Diversion program, but I had folks in my group that were. I imagine they will add time to your overall program and may have you refrain from working for a short period of time. They will also likely have you write a statement. Don't beat yourself up over this as we all have relapses. Not really sure how I feel about your sponsor "reprimanding" you, either, as if they've never had a slip up. It happens. We are all human. Forgive yourself, learn from this, move on. You are not alone and please reach out if you need someone to vent to or talk to. I will certainly not reprimand you. Ridiculous.

Healer555 · May 15

As stated above, your test may have been negative. Hopefully thus doesn't happen again but if it does I wouldn't tell on yourself in the future.

At best you're looking at more time.

Good luck

Universe93B · May 17

LMRN2003 said:

Honestly, if it was one drink 5 days ago, it may not even produce a positive result. As far as punishment, I'm not sure what they will do, exactly, because I wasn't in a Diversion program, but I had folks in my group that were. I imagine they will add time to your overall program and may have you refrain from working for a short period of time. They will also likely have you write a statement. Don't beat yourself up over this as we all have relapses. Not really sure how I feel about your sponsor "reprimanding" you, either, as if they've never had a slip up. It happens. We are all human. Forgive yourself, learn from this, move on. You are not alone and please reach out if you need someone to vent to or talk to. I will certainly not reprimand you. Ridiculous.

Healer555 said:

As stated above, your test may have been negative. Hopefully thus doesn't happen again but if it does I wouldn't tell on yourself in the future.

At best you're looking at more time.

Good luck

OP says "5 days ago" they got drunk and they got selected for a Peth test. A peth test is positive after 5 days still, if you "got drunk." A peth test is only negative immediately if you have not drank in 4 weeks AND you drink probably less than 3-4 standard drinks. Otherwise, a peth is VERY sensitive and remains positive for over a week if you drink more than 4-5 drinks.

Healer555 · May 18

Universe93B said:

OP says "5 days ago" they got drunk and they got selected for a Peth test. A peth test is positive after 5 days still, if you "got drunk." A peth test is only negative immediately if you have not drank in 4 weeks AND you drink probably less than 3-4 standard drinks. Otherwise, a peth is VERY sensitive and remains positive for over a week if you drink more than 4-5 drinks.

Not always. If it is 1 or 2 drinks. Not all of us drink a ton and get drunk. Depends on the person

SheelaDavis · May 18

I wish you all of the best, but if you got drunk 5 days ago, sobriety is actually Not going well. Sobriety means not drinking and.......you just drank? You could argue that sobriety WAS going well, but present tense that "it's going well" might not be the best choice. If you drank enough to get drunk and you have a Peth within 10 days of that timeframe, its highly likely you will test positive but not guaranteed.

As for your sponsor reprimanding you, that's a good thing. Keep your sponsor! This person knows what they are doing. They did the right thing by recovery standards. As for one poster stating concerns about whether or not your sponsor has ever slipped as a reason for him pr her to not reprimand you is of Zero Concern to you. With recovery, you do you. You don't worry about whether or not your sponsor has ever slipped. Also, if your sponsor did ever slip, hopefully their sponsor reprimanded them also. As for us, "all being human," yes we are, bit being 100 percent human has zero meaning regarding an alcoholic who chooses to keep drinking WITHOUT a reprimand from your sponsor. Because your sponsor thankfully Is Human is and was the reason for the deserved reprimand.

Understand a reprimand by a sponsor is not a reprimand to You, (the person). It's a reprimand to your behavior which is different from You as the whole person. We don't judge People (the whole person). We absolutely Do and should judge, the Behavior done by people. That's called sponsorship and recovery and it's why you are in a monitoring program. It's not so much about You, but it absolutely is about past Behavior by you (which is not the whole person). There's a difference here. Before we use statements like "don't judge," it's important yo keep in mind that we shouldn't judge the person as a whole, but judging behavior is a good thing. We have people in Americs called Judges and we have prisons for criminal behavior. When I went 105 in a 55 mph zone, me telling the police officer to "Not judge Me" doesn't work well. When I said this to him, he told me I'm not judging you as you seem like a nice person, but you ALSO just went 105 in a 55 and I just judged on the spot that you were speeding and here is your ticket. My point is....your sponsors reprimand to you isn't about You the whole person, but it absolutely is about your behavior to choose to drink.

If your test is Positive, your time will be extended. That's nearly automatic. I hope your test was negative and that you are back on the sobriety train and do well. It'd likely you get at least an additional year or morale. Why? The fact that you are/were living in a sober living home and chose to drink relays to the BON and your monitoring program that you can't control drinking even when the consequences of doing so could be disastrous (such as you now getting kicked out of your sober living home). Rightfully or wrongfully, that tells them, you need much more monitoring time. I hope you don't get any additional time and had a negative test, but I have to be honest, it sounds like you actually do have lots of recovery work to do.

Universe93B · May 20

Healer555 said:

Not always. If it is 1 or 2 drinks. Not all of us drink a ton and get drunk. Depends on the person

OP said, "I got drunk with a few friends to celebrate my birthday." Let's get real - that doesn't mean 1 or 2 drinks. I agree, less than 3 drinks, the Peth won't get above 20 and is negative (I've done my own tests).

But if you "got drunk" or drank more than 7 or so, the Peth will remain positive for 10-14 days. If you drank 12 or more, it will remain positive for 21-28 days.

Healer555 · May 20

Universe93B said:

OP said, "I got drunk with a few friends to celebrate my birthday." Let's get real - that doesn't mean 1 or 2 drinks. I agree, less than 3 drinks, the Peth won't get above 20 and is negative (I've done my own tests).

But if you "got drunk" or drank more than 7 or so, the Peth will remain positive for 10-14 days. If you drank 12 or more, it will remain positive for 21-28 days.

2 drinks and I'm drunk. I used to have 1. We Don't all drink like fish

Universe93B · May 20

Healer555 said:

2 drinks and I'm drunk. I used to have 1. We Don't all drink like fish

That may be true about you, but read between the lines. People don't come on here asking about 1 alcoholic drink and worried about a test after 5 days.

Regardless, we'll never know since OP hasn't made it back in here.

SheelaDavis · May 20

Universe93B said:

That may be true about you, but read between the lines. People don't come on here asking about 1 alcoholic drink and worried about a test after 5 days.

Regardless, we'll never know since OP hasn't made it back in here.

Exactly. Common sense. Also....keywords.....Birthday. Ever seen a 15 minute or 30 minute "2 drink birthday celebration"? I haven't. Again, very possible the poster had only 2 drinks, but again.....ODDS.....Common sense and ODDS say......far more than 2. Also, PLANNED. Ever seen a random birthday party Spring up? That's weird. Most people PLAN them. Other keywords used from a recovery perspective and alcoholic which is myself. SPONSOR. That means......overwhelmingly likely an alcoholic and not just a sponsor used to "get through the monitoring program." Sponsor in the OP's statement even went as far to her telling on herself (which is good thing and good sign for her) but it means she is active with her sponsor and that means........she's an alcoholic. Alcoholics again..........going by ODDS.....do not have only 2 drinks at a Birthday party if they choose to set down and drink. A Non-Alcoholic can easily do that and only have 1 and stop on a dime. An alcoholic who has Planned a Night Out, For her Birthday Party, at a place where there is Alcohol, and who states they got drunk going by odds, doesn't have only 2 drinks. Especially if you study the Bandwagon Effect. When an alcoholic falls off the Bandwagon, they fall hard initially 95% percent of the time with getting DRUNK....not Buzzed....DRUNK because they see themselves as temporarily having failed in recovery, so they rationalize to themselves, "what the heck, now that I have drank, I might as well go all the way."

Based on the above....overwhelmingly likely she had more than 2, and being an alcoholic, even without drinking for a long time, they need more than 2 to get drunk. Lastly, notice how she hasn't responded. That's not a good sign. I'm hopeful the test was negative but MORE hopeful she is back into sobriety and doing well. A clue of concern about her sobriety is her use of the word "Snitch." That's a dangerous word, even though she stated she "snitched" on herself. Snitch implies or hints at "being comfortable with secrets" in recovery and secrets are nasty for maintaining sobriety.

I stated above in a previous post that her sponsor did the absolute right thing by reprimanding her. That's TEXTBOOK on how a sponsor is suppose to act when a person they are sponsoring slips or falls off the bandwagon. Reprimanding and Compassion are done at the same time, they don't have to be mutually exclusive. The one poster questioned whether her sponsor did the right thing. That's a dangerous statement and the poster who questioned the actions of the sponsor was simply and likely trying to comfort and make the OP feel better and cheer her up, but that's not how you do it. That's actually the 100% wrong thing to do, even though she didn't know any better. The OP needed to be reprimanded by her sponsor according to over 100 textbooks or more written on recovery since the 1940's and that method works better than any other method when the person being sponsored slips, and that coupled with compassion and understanding which are done at the same time.

Healer555 · May 20

Universe93B said:

That may be true about you, but read between the lines. People don't come on here asking about 1 alcoholic drink and worried about a test after 5 days.

Regardless, we'll never know since OP hasn't made it back in here.

I'd panic if I had a sip of alcohol during this monitoring agreement to be honest. It's hard to know how I metabolize alcohol.

Universe93B · May 20

Healer555 said:

I'd panic if I had a sip of alcohol during this monitoring agreement to be honest. It's hard to know how I metabolize alcohol.

Eating a banana is the same as taking 1 sip of alcohol. These are calculations and kinetics that we know because of science and research and you should also have basic understanding of since we are all in a science field.

Live a little and don't let monitoring destroy your quality of life.