Can 12 Step Meetings Help with Heroin Withdrawal?

Yes, 12 step meetings can help with heroin withdrawal. Narcotics Anonymous is the most prominent of the 12 step heroin recovery programs. According to Narcotics Anonymous, their only rule is the desire to remain sober. With this philosophy, they offer a support structure, steps to recovery, and alternatives to addiction.

How the 12 Steps Help with Heroin Withdrawal

In a 12 step program for heroin recovery, you have to actively try to complete the 12 steps. The 12 steps give you a plan to focus on while you are in withdrawal. Focusing on completing the 12 steps provides a measurable goal. When you complete one of the 12 steps, the sense of accomplishment helps to drive you.

By breaking recovery down into small steps, it makes sobriety seem more obtainable than if you take it as a whole. The 12 steps help to keep you from breaking the recovery process into smaller more manageable pieces.

12 step meetings provide emotional support and a sense of community.

The 12 steps are the topic of discussion in many 12 step meetings. This discussion not only provides a distraction, it also helps you have a clear understanding on how to accomplish each of the steps. Each of the 12 steps of Narcotics Anonymous can be found at meetings and in the Narcotics Anonymous literature.

Help for Heroin Addiction

These 12 steps provide structure for a heroin addict. It is something to follow during the darkest parts of addiction recovery. Most people who attend 12 step meetings do so both while they are in withdrawal and as they recover. During withdrawal, an addict feels as if they are all alone. The meetings give them a sense of community. It is a form of group therapy without the traditional therapy setting. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, group therapy is one of the key treatments for addiction. This helps to show an addict that they are not alone, that others have gone through withdrawal, and that there is an end to it.

How do the Actual 12 Step Meetings Help with Heroin Withdrawal?

The meetings accomplish several things aside from showing an addict that they are not alone. The meetings:

• give a heroin addict a sense of community,
• allow people to share their thoughts and feelings about their addiction,
• help to establish a support structure for the heroin addict,
• give the addict something to do without the danger of being exposed to heroin,
• alleviate the boredom, and
• help guide the addict towards better alternatives to using heroin.

The meetings are more than just informative sessions, they are a community group. They give people who are lost a place to be and people to talk to when there is an issue. Most people who attend 12 step meetings describe a sense of friendship and comradery that helps them to understand they are not alone in their recovery.

For more information on 12 step programs and 12 step recovery feel free to call us at 1-800-895-1695. We can answer all of your questions about 12 step meetings and treatment for heroin addiction.