Addiction Treatment Services – Self Help

12 Step Meetings

Addiction treatment services are available in many self-help programs free of charge and can assist  a client, family or loved one, employee or friend a great deal in the process of starting to look at themselves  with some sort of honesty.

While sobering up is a very important  aspect of recovery it is only the beginning…

The goal of every 12 step group is to be available to support every recovering addict in their ongoing and continuing challenges of living one day at a time without the use of  their negative substances and behaviors.

 Self Honesty

• Recovery is a big topic, especially for people with multiple addictions.
• All addiction recovery is like peeling an onion. It occurs in layers.
• Firstly, in order to attain any recovery some honesty has to enter the addicts life. Maybe only a small bit of honesty at first, but some honesty is necessary.

Programs patterned after Alcoholics Anonymous

Fellowships in this section follow reasonably close variations of the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous.

There are approximately 1200 self-help programs today using varying versions of the 12 steps this is a partial list taken from Wiki

12 Step Meetings

You can usually get the location of an appropriate 12 step meeting by calling the Alcoholics Anonymous office in any community. Simply tell them you wish to deal with your specific addiction and they will let you know which 12 step groups are available in the area.

A call to a local community help line may provide links to other services that cost money or have their own agenda’s and would not be as effective.

Generally speaking, 12 step meetings are either:

•  Open to all people.
•  Closed to members only.

There are some other types of meetings that are aimed at specialty groups such as

• sexual orientations
• agnostics or atheists
• male or female groups

These groups often have some guidelines that make them specialty groups All seem to offer good recovery basics and support.

Open Meetings

The most common definition of an open meeting is one where family or friends or other interested individuals are welcome to attend. The sharing at these meeting is generally not as in-depth and more on a public information basis.

Closed Meetings

The most common definition of a closed meeting is one where only folks wishing to recover from their specific addiction are welcomed.

For more information on various 12 step meetings in your community please consult your local telephone book or contact your local crisis information service.

What to expect at a 12 Step Meeting

• There is usually no last names required or compulsory fees.
• A basket will usually be passed for small contributions to pay rent, literature and other small expenses such as birthday cakes for members achieving milestones in recovery.
• Addicts are expected to share their experience, strengths and hopes.
  • A member or prospective member may choose to share or to pass as they wish.
  •  Whining and blaming are discouraged
  •  Individual issues are best discussed with a sponsor.
•  It is expected that the condition of anonymity be respected to provide everyone with a safe haven to recover in.
• A new member may ask for a temporary sponsor and a list of phone numbers of folks who are willing to assist.
• After the new member has been to a few meetings that member may wish to choose a more permanent sponsor.

Who you see here, What you hear here, Let it stay here is the common motto of 12 step groups

History of 12 Step Meetings

All 12 step meetings have evolved in some form from the Oxford Group who was the pattern for Alcoholics Anonymous in the 1930’s

The evolution from the Oxford group has created 12 steps from the  6 recovery steps  Bill W. paraphrased:

1. Admitted hopeless
2. Got Honest with self
3. Got honest with another
4. Made Amends
5. Helped other without demand
6. Prayed to God as you understand Him

Which later evolved to AA’s Present Day 12 steps

12 Step Tools

Multiple addicts are usually simply folks with addictive personalities that reach out for solace and escape from troubling or foreign situations and feelings.

Though the symptoms may seem fragmented they are merely diversified from the common mainstream 12 step recovery programs. These programs, one at a time, provide positive relief and personal growth to many more selective addicts, but may prove disillusionment to multiple addicts when they do not receive the same quality of recovery as their more singular brothers and sisters.

All 12 step recovery programs use these tools to one degree or another, we have adapted them here for people using multiple programs.

• Make A Daily Recovery Plan – Detail all addictions ( even socially acceptable ones ), check out all medications, find 12 step programs that deal with the specifics, abstain from specific addictive behaviors.
• Attend Recovery 12 step Meetings – Source out and attend specific 12 step recovery programs that suit your specific addictions. Attend one meeting per week for minor addictions. Attend more for active and destructive addictions. Use the help offered and don’t try to gain acceptance for other addictions at non specific meetings.
• Sponsorship – Source out and obtain a sponsor for each specific addiction.
• Telephone – Contact your specific recovery sponsors daily. Calling in specific daily recovery plans is helpful. Make sure they are to the specific sponsor. ie; don’t call your food plan to your AA sponsor.
• Literature – Read program approved literature only for each of your specific addictions. Many outside publications focus on the problem where 12 step programs focus on the solution.
• Writing – All 12 step programs suggest writing out your feelings, journal writing and doing written inventories. Try to keep these journals program specific will eliminate the overwhelmed feeling of rolling everything up into one big ball.
• Anonymity – Many 12 step programs use the anonymity feature as an important recovery tool. Multiple addicts can use this to keep from feeling different at each program by not revealing outside program connections when they are not comfortable.
• Service – Sharing your recovery with others who need it is a healing experience. Take your talents and creativity to advantage of others.

Hypnotherapy is sometimes a great tool for recovering addicts.

The Dean of Addictionz

Working the Solution with Multiple and Addicts of all types

• 36 Years Personal Recovery Experience in several Self Help Programs
• Addiction Recovery Outreach Trustee, NW Region Webmaster, Newsletter Editor and contributor for various Recovery Associations Publications
• Published in several major recovery publications:  AA Grapevine, Al-Anon Forum, Overeaters Anonymous “Voices of Recovery” and “Lifeline”, Gamblers Anonymous “Bulletin” &”Toastmaster” Magazine 
• This AddictionZ.com website is featured in Melody Beattie’s current “Codependent no More Workbook”
• Over 45 years successful contracting business experience working with over 2000 employees and Penitentiary halfway house temporary staff.
• Sponsoring many recovering multiple addicts with long term good results
• Recovery weekend workshop leader in Western Canada & US Pacific NW
• Author “You Can’t Unscrew Somebody Workbook” for relationship makeovers
• Author “Sex Inventory Workbook” for sex issues
• Author “Drunk Driving Workbook”  for safety
• Author “Breaking The Cycle of Gambling Addiction” arrest the money drain!
• Author “Breaking the Cycle of Compulsive Overeating” get healthy!

Here is a thought!
Why don’t you book your sober recovery style vacation with us in beautiful downtown Victoria BC Canada at our Gingerbread Cottage Bed and Breakfast. Over the years we have had lots of therapists, recovering addicts and health professionals stay at our idyllic B&B steps from the Salish Sea. Oh and we have gourmet breakfasts too! Vanessa makes a fantastic Austrian Apple Strudel! see more on our B&B website…

Please leave your comments below, and I will be sure to answer them. If you want one of the publications but truly cannot afford it leave a comment with your email address and I’ll send you a free one…

This website is about recovery – not making money – but it wouldn’t hurt to pay a few web hosting charges if you  decided to visit one of the sponsors ads… I have kept outside ads to a minimum so it’s not so frustrating to read. Hate those pages with an ad between every paragraph.

Have a great One Day at a Time! Dean 🙂