Recovery Options for a New Life

The 12 step programs branched out from Alcoholics Anonymous and all operate more or less along the same principles of the 12 Steps and 12 Traditions of AA. If you are not sure if you have an addiction problem in a certain area then you can ask specific questions as a guide. The question I ask myself - "Is the activity placing unreasonable demands on my time and energy, will it place me in legal jeopardy or endanger my mental, physical or spiritual health?" There are more specific questions that each 12 step program uses in its literature that can guide you.

An important thing to remember with recovery is the 3-D's: Desire, Determination and Diligence.

Desire:

Desire is the foundation for all recovery quests. You cannot help someone without the desire in them to be helped. Desire is what gets us taking that first step in the right direction when all seems hopeless. Have you every tried to give advice or help someone in need and they respond: "I don't care." They lack the desire or at least this is what they say. Desire must come from within, you cannot force someone to change, they must change themselves. But, before a desire to change can be manifested, one must come to a "realization" that a change needs to occur in ones life.

Determination:

Determination serves two purposes here. When something is "determined" it is accepted as fact. We have determined that we are powerless over our addiction and our lives are unmanageable. We have determined we must abstain from certain people, places or things that we cannot comfortably have in our lives. We are in the process of determining a new set of rules on how to live. We have also determined what injuries we have caused and what needs to be repaired through taking personal inventory.

Determination serves a second purpose and that is it keeps us on the long road to recovery. We cannot keep on this long road without being determined to change our lives day in day out. Whether it is debt recovery, clutter, restructuring our complex lives or losing weight it all takes time and determination to stay on the path of recovery. Many distractions, detours and set backs along the way, but we should always be determined to keep pointed in the direction of recovery.


Diligence:

Diligence keeps us from going backwards once we finally arrive at the recovery place we are aiming for. It takes diligence once we get to where we want to be to maintain that serene spot, otherwise we fall back on our old "natural" ways of living. Once you get sober and abstinent from your drug of choice, once you lose the fat, once you pay off your debts, once you clean up the clutter, it takes diligence to keep you that way.

Most of the following programs are on the web via a search.

ADD / ADHD Anonymous
Adult Children of Alcoholics
Alcoholics Anonymous
Al-Anon & Ala-Teen
Arts Anonymous
BODA (Business Owners DA)
Cancer Anonymous
Clutterers Anonymous
Co-Anon
Cocaine Anonymous
Co-Dependents of Sex Addicts
CODA (Codependents Anon)
Compulsive Eaters Anonymous / H.O.W.
Computer Addicts Anonymous
Couples Anonymous
Crystal Meth Anonymous
Debtors Anonymous
Divorce Anonymous
Dual Recovery Anonymous
Emotions Anonymous
Emotional Health Anonymous
Families Anonymous
Fear Of Success Anonymous
Food Addict Anonymous
Gam-Anon
Gamblers Anonymous
Herpes Anonymous
He-She Anonymous
HIV Anonymous
Incest Survivors Anonymous
Jews in Recovery
Lesbians Anonymous
Marijuana Anonymous
Manic Depressive Anonymous
Messies Anonymous
Money Anonymous
Nar-Anon Family Groups
Narcotics Anonymous NA
Nicotine Anonymous meetings
Nine Step Pagans (I won't discriminate even if they only use 9 steps.)
Overachievers Anonymous
Overeaters Anonymous
Obsessive Compulsive Anonymous
Parents Anonymous
Pills Anonymous
Procrastinators Anonymous
Rageaholics Anonymous
Recoveries Anonymous
Trauma Anonymous
Twelve Steps for Pagans
S-Anon
Sex Addicts Anonymous
Sex & Love Addicts Anonymous
Sexaholics Anonymous
Sexual Compulsives Anonymous
Spenders Anonymous
Survivors of Incest Anonymous
Vulgarity Anonymous
Vulganon
Workaholics Anonymous


Take Care,