It's said it takes as many years to be 'better' as it did to reach the point where use was no longer an option...problem is relapses and slips (I'd call this a slip), add to that time frame, how much so, is anyone's guess.

Good that you realize that it's a no go to go on a mission, that going through the withdrawal was enough and nothing is worth going through that again.

I know avoiding placing yourself in such situations is the ideal, but a rather unrealistic one...one can't always not be in a place where whatever DOC is available and offered...one can, however, find excuses to leave, even if there's no where else to be...at least no where of great importance to anyone but yourself.

Alternate places to be when in a compromising situation. Calling a friend, gotta feed the dog? Good book waiting to be read, a movie on TV, a meeting, call a sponsor or meeting member?

You can have 50 opportunities and find 49 excuses not to...it's that 50th one that is the one that trips you up, or maybe it's a 100 or a 100,000...

A friend once told me something she learned from a man with over 30 years clean...it sounded pretty darned good to me...she thought so too since she shared it...

He said something like this...
"We're addicts. We act on our feelings, we have to learn how to think. Later when we've mastered the thinking part, we can think about how we feel and then and only then, make a conscious decision on whether or not to act on those feelings"

It was there, you were there, it was free...too easy...sounds like action on feeling to me.