The Process is Easy to Follow
Get the tools to thrive in your recovery.
12 Step fellowships offer the most accessible solution for people seeking recovery from addiction. If you are looking for something you cannot find here, simply Google the 12 Step program of your choice in your hometown and you will find it. The process is easy to follow:
- Find and attend a meeting.
- Connect with others who are overcoming addiction or have overcome issues similar to those you are facing.
- Find a sponsor.
- Work through the 12 Steps with your sponsor.
- Recover and begin to build an extraordinary life.
Organizations to explore:
- Alcoholics Anonymous
- Narcotics Anonymous
- Overeaters Anonymous
- Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous
- Al-Anon
(offering support for friends and family members of people who struggle with addictions) - CoDependents Anonymous
(offering support for people who are seeking healthy relationships) - Adult Children of Alcoholics
(supporting people who grew up in alcoholic or otherwise dysfunctional homes) - Gamblers Anonymous
- Debtors Anonymous
(Supporting people who habitually and addictively end up in debt) - AddictionResource.Net
(Find drug & alcohol rehab center near you)
Alternative Recovery Programs
Once a foundation of recovery is in place with medical attention and support from a 12 Step Program, alternative recovery programs can be a very helpful and stabilizing force of positive living.
The Yoga of 12-Step Recovery (Y12SR)
Nikki Myers’ Yoga of 12-Step Recovery combines the practice of yoga with the 12-Steps. Y12SR offers an integrated approach to recovery, which includes universal 12-Step meetings (meaning all addictions are welcome in the same meeting) followed by a yoga practice. This format of meeting is catching on like wildfire. There are over 100 Y12SR meetings currently that regularly meet across the U.S. I believe we will soon see Y12SR meetings everywhere across the country. Nikki offers 2 regular trainings—the Intensive and the Leadership Training—to teach people how to use the 12 Steps, yoga and meditation together in the treatment of addictions of all kinds. This is an outstanding resource.
In the Rooms (Online Recovery)
InTheRooms.com (ITR) is an online social network for people in recovery and also their families. I consider it to be one of the greatest uses of technology there is. It is important to get out to meetings and connect with people as much as you can, but I also see the immense value that ITR provides. If you are housebound, infirmed, sick, tired, nervous about connecting face-to-face, or enjoy having a meeting from home, ITR has you covered.
Smart Recovery
While I have no direct experience with SMART Recovery, I feel compelled to include it here because it offers a popular alternative to the 12-Step path. The fact that it stresses self-reliance and self-empowerment, makes it markedly different from the 12-Step approach. I have heard good things, though about their program, so in the spirit of “there is no one way,” SMART recovery appears to have provided a solution for some people.
CHOICES in Healing & Recovery, Inc.
The core mission at CHOICES in Healing & Recovery, Inc. is to provide trauma informed care in behavioral health. CHOICES welcomes adults living with mental health & substance use disorders whether they choose abstinence, moderation or harm reduction from alcohol, drugs & behaviors, a non-spiritual/secular, or spiritual recovery model; to take mental health or substance use disorder medication, reduce or discontinue. CHOICES! In name and mission: through trauma informed peer support group alternatives, peer workshops and leadership training, and clinical supervision & CEU training for providers.
