12-Step Support for a Lifetime of Recovery
Simple Path Recovery includes 12-step integration into all therapy as an immediate foundation of addiction recovery. The 12-step model is based on the theory that compulsive people underAlcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Marijuana Anonymous, Cocaine Anonymous, and so on. As such, stand one another and are relatable. This group of recovering addicts and alcoholics know where you’ve been, they're familiar with your thinking patterns, and they can relate to your fears. Likewise, they’re willing to provide the kind of help that only another addict or alcoholic would understand. 12-step programs provide immediate addiction support in just about every quantifiable town in the United States and around the world. The meetings are everywhere and the only requirement to join is a desire to stop drinking or using drugs. They are self-supporting through member contributions (like donating a dollar or two to help pay for room rental and coffee provided). Most people in long-term recovery will tell you that they couldn't have achieved their milestones without the help of Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous and more.
Florida Addiction Treatment is Only the Beginning
Our South Florida drug and alcohol rehab helps you get clean and sober. It is the beginning of the recovery process. During addiction treatment, you learn about the disease of addiction, triggers, coping and how to take better care of yourself.
Additionally, you begin the process of getting honest with yourself and uncovering long-hidden fears and misguided beliefs that may have held you back from achieving your potential. In addiction treatment, you are in a safe, secure and supportive environment. You have the appropriate setting in which to begin the recovery process. Here, you are away from the distractions and pressures of past people, places and things. The reason treatment professionals at Florida drug rehabs get you started with 12-step integration is that it will always be with you (meetings are everywhere). This is the foundation needed to continue working the 12-steps and create sobriety accountability.
Who Are Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous?
In short, Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share their experiences, strength and hope with each other. They do this to solve their common problem and help others recover from alcoholism. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. The same would apply to Narcotics Anonymous or other related 12-step programs.
Anyone who thinks they have a problem with drugs or alcohol can attend. It is open to all ages, genders, education levels, races and religions.
The people who attend 12-step meetings come from all walks of life. They are the newly-sober, those coming back after relapse, the old-timers, and everything in-between. One thing they all have in common is that they want to remain sober. They support others with the same goal. No one will pry into your personal life, and they typically only go by first names. This principle is why 12-step treatment groups have the word “Anonymous” in their names.
The 12-Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous
The 12-steps are excerpted from the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. AA’s 12-Step approach follows a set of guidelines designed as “steps” toward recovery. For the most part, all 12-step programs adhere to the same principles but with addiction-specific language. For example, an AA 12-step meeting might only talk about problems related to alcohol.
The 12 Steps
- We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.
- Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
- Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
- Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
- Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
- Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
- Humbly asked him to remove our shortcomings.
- Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
- Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
- Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
- 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.
- Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
The 12 Traditions
The 12 Traditions communicate to the members of Alcoholics Anonymous as a group, the traditions are the core governing literature of Alcoholics Anonymous. Most 12-Step meeting groups have also tailored the 12 traditions for their own recovery plans.
- Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon AA unity.
- For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority–a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.
- The only requirement for AA membership is a desire to stop drinking.
- Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or AA as a whole.
- Each group has but one primary purpose–to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
- An AA group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the AA name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
- Every AA group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
- Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
- AA, as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
- Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the AA name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
- Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio and films.
- Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities
Most substance abuse experts agree that an evidence-based treatment program, personalized to the individual’s needs, is the most successful approach to achieve and maintain abstinence. At the same time, it is a general consensus that 12-step program exposure during rehab is important. 12-step programs offer sober support that is available 365 days per year, without cost, in every quantifiable community worldwide.