12-Step Recovery Program

Introduction to the 12-Step Recovery Program

Drug addiction is such a lonely disease!

As they become more dependent on their drug of choice, people isolate themselves, cutting themselves off from family, friends and activities they used to enjoy.

Even when they want to come out of that world, they think they can or must do it alone.

This is Not true!

Other Information

Don't want to stop

The last thing a person needs at the very beginning of recovery is to be alone.

The addict will say,

“I’ll cut back,” or

“I just have to have the will power to stop doing drugs.”

One addict told me that the only way for him to get clean was for him to do all of the work, there was no other way. What he was not considering is that as human beings, we are not wired that way. We are wired for relationship. We are not meant for isolation.

Moreover, what if I told you that you can’t do it all on your own strength, that you need something from somebody else? The 12-Step recovery process for recovery was first created in the 1930’s, by Alcoholics Anonymous, but over the last 70 plus years, over 250 self-help groups have adopted these steps.

Why? Because they work!

In my group discussions at a residential drug rehab center, we discuss how people are body, mind and spirit. Granted, our spirits can be strong and our determination staunch, but the greater power is outside of us. That is the power that only God can provide.

Please consider using the addiction 12-step program

There are an abundance of web sites and books written about the addiction programs, and we’ll share a few of them with you to give you a broader base of understanding and point you to a few excellence resources. The 12-Step program is steeped in tradition and firmly supported by spiritual truth, give us all a model of humanity that points us to a better life, a stronger relationship with our neighbors, and an eternal loving relationship with the one who made us.

As you look through the 12-Step Recovery program, think of them as a process. Like a path you walk on to go from A to Z, only you must take all of the steps and go through each in order, otherwise the path does not lead to your final destination. You go at your own pace and move forward as you see fit. Along the way, remember that these steps were written by people just like you, who needed help and had the courage to accept the help. Regardless of your addiction, 12-Step offers improvement for the human condition.Enjoy your reading. Maybe you like Rev. Buchman and Bill Wilson will go through a spiritual experience of your own. If you do, please share it with us.

The 12-Step Program

Please review each step and try to either begin following them yourself or enroll in a local program. Let’s take a look at the steps. You will see quickly that the process includes others and that we are not meant to go through this alone.

These 12-Steps were written for alcoholics. When you see alcohol, insert your drug of choice.

Step One: We admitted that we were powerless over alcohol--that our lives had become unmanageable.

Step Two: Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

Step Three: Make a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God, as we understand Him.

Step Four: Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

Step Five: Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

Step Six: Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

Step Seven: Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

Step Eight: Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

Step Nine: Made direct amends to such people whenever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

Step Ten: Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.

Step Eleven: Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

Step Twelve: Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to addicts and to practice these principles in our affairs.

Common Questions about 12-Step Recovery

Other Web Site Links

Click here for information about drug addiction treatment programs

Click here for information about drug addiction mental health issues

Check out addiction 12-step recovery program link 12step.org
and http://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org


Still Don't Understand it?

Still have trouble understanding 12-Step? Click here for some humor that may help!

12-Step Recovery 12-step-program

Summary:

12-Step recovery has worked for millions of people struggling with addiction and it can work for you if you allow your higher power to help.

HOW TO USE THIS SITE:

This site contains five MAIN pages that EVERYONE should read:

ABOUT…

SYMPTOMS…

CAUSES…

EFFECTS…

TREATMENT…

Read these five pages and learn what you need to know to spot drug addiction in:

Yourself... Your Family... Your Friends... Your Community...

The rest of the pages are there for your reference to explain important topics in more detail.

Finally don’t miss the Spiritual and 12-step sections to fully explore how understanding THE SPIRIT can lead to recovery!