Recovery from addiction or alcoholism is possible, but it is about doing it step by step, one day at a time. From the first time that man formented grapes into wine or ďrank the tea made from the poppy there has been addiction and alcoholism. For millenia humans have struggled with the ease and comfort that these substances have given us.
Today though, we have solutions to these problems. In ages past, the old saying once an addict always an addict has been the credo. Today there are tried and true methods of getting clean and sober, and staying that way.

Since 1935, when Bill.W was merely a few months sober and on a business trip, and happened to want to drink and instead called a local church in the area where he was doing his business, and got an address to a fall down drunk name dr. Bob and went and worked with him, the paradigm changed. Since then, through the birth of AA. The self help industry has grown up around them.

Recovery is more about the person than the drug or alcohol.

Most people, unitiated into the self help movement believe that simply putting down the bottle or drug will solve their problem. That is a big misconception, addiction/alcoholism as described in many forms of literature is a physical compulsion to keep using or drinking, and an obsession that centers in the mind that keeps the person trapped in a ever increasing cycle of self destructive behavior.

the drugs/alcohol are but a symptom of the disease that underlies the obsession/compulsion to keep going in the face of ever increasing evidence that there is a problem.

In order to recover from this most deadly of diseases there needs to be a complete psychological change in the mind of the person afflicted. Simply stopping using or drinking is not enough, because the person who was drinking or using themselves into an early grave, still remains. That person used drugs or drank and could not stop for any meaningful period of time. The disease of addiction centers in the mind, not the body.

That is why you will see time and time again, a peroid of abstainance and then a relapse back to the same patterns of self destructive behavior.

Our problem resides in our thinking, our attitudes, and our beliefs about the world and ourselves.

AA and the 12 steps

AA	12 steps

One way in which you can recover starts with the reorganization of the mind that could not stop. Now, in AA they use a process called the 12 steps, which are one of the ways to achieve the necessary changes sufficient to maintain full recovery. This is not for everyone. The main coponent of the 12 steps is getting in contact witha higher power, and taking a hard and honest look at your life barring nothing. Then admitting that what you have written to yourself,God, and another person of your choosing. Then,afterwards you work on trying to change the patterns that you have identified in the previous work.
After you have done all of this, you are to make alist of all people you have harmed and become willing to make amends to them all. Then the following step is going out and righting the wrongs of your past. A lot of people get caught up on this one because they feel it is about attaining forgiveness. It is not. It isn't even about saying sorry so much. What it is about is taking responsibility for the harms you have caused, clearing your side of the street. This is more about setting yourself free from any guilt or shame that keeps most addicts/alcoholics trapped in their cycle of self destruction.
The final steps are about maintenance of this new honest and God centred lifestyle through daily reflection on now your day went, where you could do better, and if you have caused any harm. Then meditation to help you stay centred and focused on this new person you have become and what you need to do to grow in this experience.
Finally and perhaps the most important of the maintaince of this new way of life is helping others who are afflicted, and walk them through this process which are the 12 steps

CBT- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

This is a rather new way to recover in comparison to the 12 steps. They have a book like AA but instead of calling it the big book, they call it the small book. CBT is more about changing the way you talk to yourself. They use positive affirmations and positive reinforcement. They believe that you can train your mind into reacting differently through information, affirmation and then finally application. As the name of the therapy, it is about about how you think.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) As part of an individualized treatment plan, we use CBT with clients as a way to help them identify self-defeating thoughts and behaviors which may often drive addiction.

This method works for some, be sure of that. But the long term treatment using strictly CBT is not known because these numbers have not been tracked. In the short term, I do know it works because I have seen it work in people.

conclusion

Addiction/alcoholism is a very complex issue which affects the whole person body, mind, and spirit. So recovery involves more than simply not using, depending on whether the person is a true addict and not just going through a phase. I can say this much.

I have never met a casual crack smoker, or a casual IV drug user in my life.

True Recovery requires an admission from the afflicted that they have a problem, without that you cannot help them. Also, recovery is a daily thing, you can't live on yesturdays recovery capital. You must work each day to stay planted in ĺife without drug or alcohol.

being in recovery is like walking on an escalator that is going down, but you are wanting to go up. If, you do nothing to support your new life you will be slowly taken down by the escalator until your life eventually looks miserable and you will drink again or use. So just to keep the disease at bay, you must do something each day that supports your new life. If you want to make a life that is amazing then you must do a little more than that. Like i said in the beginning recovery is simple, but not easy.

nothing worth having comes easy.

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