In my opinion, society, at least in the U.S., and consequently other places makes too big of an issue out, 'sobriety.' They make it such a black and white issue, when it's really not.
There is a reason, our tribal ancestors had a wacky and crazy medicine man/woman.
As long as you can take care of yourself and whatever habits you have, at the same time, there's no problem.
Most of the sobriety stuff is a stay-over from puritanical people of the old days; and that was mostly hyper-church people and wives with abusive husbands, or husbands that were a bit rowdy. And in those days, you couldn't really get a divorce; but, what you could do, is gang up on your husband, with the power of the church behind you, to try and control some one else's behavior if you didn't like it. That eventually lead to prohibition, which lead to sketchy moonshine, bathtub gin, gangsters, speakeasys, etc..
Eating a lot of red meat and fast food will send you to an early grave. Too much sugar can give you diabetes as you age. Even enjoying sports like running can destroy you, if you do it long enough. And let's not even mention people who are thrill seekers. You probably have a greater chance of dying by jumping out of an airplane than by just driving your car; and people die quite often just driving their car.
As long as you aren't creating problems for other people and can take care of yourself while taking care of any habits you have, no problem.
There was a time in my life where I thought, life without pot wasn't worth living; but, I did eventually give it up. I kind of gave it up by accident. I quit so I could get a better job, at the time; but, that didn't happen. Then eventually, I had been out of the loop for so long, I couldn't get access to it anymore, and by that time, I didn't really miss it. I found new joy in learning new things (programming, languages, reading up on stuff, etc..) And now, it's just been so long, I don't really trust myself to be able to handle all that stuff anymore, heh.
So, I kind of quit by accident, not really intending to. Sobriety isn't really a big deal, either. You just have all these idiots who come out of AA or whatever and talk so much ****, like they conquered the world by having a little bit of self control and not stealing or acting like a dumb ****.
I don't buy all that addict ******** though. You have, 'recovery centers,' for rich people, where they just literally pay thouasands and thousands of dollars to live in a resort without drugs. There are people who literally believe you can be, 'addicted to being in love.' You have all this, "you must admit to being a powerless addict or else, and being in, 'recovery,' is FOREVER until you DIE. Like, that's crazy cult talk.
Being in, 'recovery,' is a temporary condition, and when it's finished, you have 'recover-ed,' past tense. I mean, if you are a diabetic and don't have access to insulin and being within 100ft of any sugar is life threatening to you because you have no self control or have self-destructive tendencies because of psychological distress, then, that's fine. If that means you can't have anyone in your life who eats sugar, then that's what you gotta do. But, I just feel like a solution like that, begs for a bit more...
Either you're a rational individual with free-will, or your not. And if you aren't, then what are you exactly?
Some people are just habitually self-destructive, they don't understand why, and they may never understand why, and in such cases, perhaps that's when we enter la-la land and make-up whatever crazy **** we have to, to do the crazy **** we need to, to survive; and I guess that works for some people.
Even aiming to be healthy, can be destructive, if your too hard at it. Like too much milk can make you sick, or too much water can make you sick.
Some days I just physically (and mentally) ache from the pain of my life; but, what can you do? It's usually a temporary thing. Usually I just treat myself to a nice glass of juice, or some ice cream, and maybe meditate (those things don't really help much, mind you, but they are minor comfort when the passage of time seems the only remedy, in the end.)
Sometimes we eat to cover up the pain of life. Sometimes we drink to cover up the pain of life. There are a million ways we can try to cover up the pains of our life, that don't even involve drugs at all; and those things can often be destructive or self-destructive.
And isn't that the condition of life? As per Eeastern Philosophy, 'life is suffering.' That is the base condition of what it is to be alive. We desire, therefore we suffer. You need food and water to survive, and we need each other to greater and lesser degrees; and we need love. And when we are in great pain, we may, 'feel,' powerless, to help ourselves. We may even be in a situation where there is nothing we can do alone, to help our self, maybe. And those are hard times
. But, some philosophies teaches us, if we observe, if we are still, if we study ourselves, we can hopefully come to know the roots of our distress, and root them out.
That's why the lotus flower, I believe, is such a common theme, in Buddhism. It symbolizes the flowering of consciousness, perhaps, that others, and quite possibly ourselves, can come to know. And there is a tendency to place great importance on compassion, for others AND for ourselves.
But isn't it queer how the popular trends in psychology, simultaneously want to, 'empower,' us, yet also convince us, 'we are powerless?' I call hogwash.
When the pain gets too big to be able to deal with your usual way though, you may have a problem, so it might be prudent to work on those issues, if you can, before they get worse.
It may very well be as simple as, 'good habits and bad habits,' and that a great deal of good habits for one, may be bad for another and vice verse; but, life, I think, is the complicated bit, and I think it drives everyone of us, completely insane, at least at one point in life, if we aren't all crazy already, walking around with our own special blend of half-crazy, just to get by, if even that..