There are many different ways in which people choose to recover from addiction. Most of the content featured on this blog is about twelve step recovery because simply it’s what’s worked for me. Here’s why AA worked for me and why I continue to work a 12 step recovery programme for my recovery…
In the early days it helped me stop drinking…
I’d previously tried therapy and using willpower to stop drinking and drugging, Neither worked for me. I was caught in an endless loop of misery and had to try something different. What did work was going to AA meetings, listening to other people’s experiences, speaking to other people in the programme and becoming part of AA’s recovery community. I found that AA’s structure helped me initially stay clean and sober where other things had failed. Even though things were tough at times during early recovery, I was able to stay sober so I decided the keep going and working the programme.
The compulsion and desire to drink left me…
After a few months of regular meetings and working the steps with a sponsor I noticed that the desire and compulsion to drink had pretty much left me. I still had the occasional thought of drinking (and still do, after all who doesn’t occasionally think about a cold beer on a hot day?), but the difference was the compulsion and need to drink regardless of whether I was feeling happy, sad, lonely, anxious or depressed wasn’t there anymore. This was a huge for me personally and gave me the strength and willingness to carry on going and working through the twelve steps with my sponsor.
I get to address the reasons why I drink and use…
Twelve step recovery works for me because it made me look at the reasons I drank and used. I was able to look at the thinking and behaviour patterns behind everything. I was able to look at the pain I’d caused others in my past and look to make that right. Knowing the reasons I drank now allows me to actively think and behave differently each day to make sure I don’t slide back into addiction.
I came into recovery because I wanted a life, I stay because I got one…
Physically stopping drinking, having the desire to stop leave me and seeing the patterns in my thinking and behaviour are hugely important into why AA has worked for me personally. The biggest thing however is I now get to live a happier, fuller life. Twelve step recovery is about living a more spiritual life, one where we look to live life by principles like honesty, tolerance, patience and helping others. Doing so has helped me rebuild my relationship with my family, my friends and most importantly with myself.
I’m not hanging on each day desperately trying to stay away from social situations and worried if I’ll relapse back into addiction. I’m able to genuinely live life today, a life without alcohol or drugs. It may not be perfect (life never is), but it’s a life today that is so much bigger and full of purpose, one that allows me to be free.
That’s why AA has worked for me, and it’s why I’ll continue to try and make 12 step recovery the most important part of my life each day…
