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Who Answers?5 Things You Should Know About the AA 12 Steps Process
Someone who’s made multiple attempts to stop drinking well knows how overwhelming the urge to drink can be. Before long, it’s not uncommon for feelings of helplessness and hopelessness to build with each failed attempt.
The effects of alcohol addiction don’t happen overnight, but rather evolve over months or years of excess drinking. In like manner, overcoming alcohol’s effects requires a solid plan that’s capable of meeting the obstacles and challenges sobriety brings.
The AA 12 Steps approach offers a proven plan for combating addiction’s hold over your life.
Please don’t hesitate to call our toll-free helpline at 800-781-0748 (Who Answers?) to ask about alcohol rehab treatment options.
Here are five things you should know about the AA 12 Steps approach and how it can help you overcome alcohol addiction’s effects in your life.
The AA 12 Steps Process – 5 Things You Should Know
The 12 steps provide the tools needed to live purposefully and avoid relapse.
1. It’s a One-Day-at-a-Time Process
The effects of addiction live inside the mind, affecting a person’s thoughts, emotions and behaviors. According to the journal of Social Work in Public Health, these effects don’t stop once a person stops drinking, but continue to influence his or her motivations and behaviors from day-to-day.
The AA 12 Steps approach is designed to help you develop the daily living skills needed to combat alcohol addiction’s effects on a day-by-day basis.
2. AA 12 Steps Becomes Your Roadmap in Recovery
Addiction impacts your relationships, your mental health as well as your ability to live purposefully and plan for the future. Having a plan in place that’s capable of addressing the widespread damage left behind by alcohol is essential to meeting the various obstacles and challenges that recovery brings.
AA 12 Steps offers a step-by-step approach for managing addiction’s effects and developing the coping skills and strategies needed to live a drug-free life.
3. A Built-In Support System
In essence, addiction recovery entails creating a lifestyle that makes it possible to manage your daily affairs on a drug-free basis. Creating a new lifestyle means cultivating the types of friends, activities and routines that correspond with your goals in recovery.
According to the Connecticut Department of Mental Health & Addiction Services, an AA 12 Steps program comes with a built-in support system made up of like-minded individuals who share similar goals for their lives. This same support system can prove invaluable during times when you need someone to talk to who understands what you’re going through.
4. Non-Judgmental
The 12 Step approach places a heavy emphasis on maintaining an attitude of non-judgment towards others, as well as towards oneself. The people that make up 12 Step groups all come from pasts riddled with alcohol abuse and all share a similar understanding in terms of the damage that alcoholism can cause in a person life.
5. Spiritual, not Religious
Some people may write off AA 12 Steps because of the role a Higher Power plays in the recovery process. It helps to keep in mind that the 12 Step approach views the concept of a Higher Power as a spiritual aid rather than a religious creed.
In this respect, the AA 12 Steps approach can help you overcome the heartbreak that alcoholism leaves behind by helping you develop hope and a growing faith in your ability to get well.
If you considering getting alcohol rehab treatment, we can help. Call our helpline at 800-781-0748 (Who Answers?) to speak with one of our addiction counselors about available treatment options.