Does Alcoholics Anonymous Work?
There are millions of people all around the country and in other areas of the world that have an alcohol addiction. Unfortunately, there are many people who lose their life to an addiction. You don’t have to be one of them. You can seek addiction treatment for your alcohol addiction and get the help you need. The great news is that there are many ways you can get help from an inpatient treatment center. One of the best things they can do for you is to introduce you to the idea of AA or Alcoholics Anonymous. In fact, many 12 Step addiction rehab centers will allow patients to attend AA meetings or have people from outside the rehab come and hold these meetings at the center.
Inpatient Rehab Center and Success with AA
One of the most important things you should know is that many recovering alcoholics have more success with their recovery and sobriety when they attend AA while in and after they attend an addiction rehab center. The earlier you start attending AA meetings in your recovery, the more beneficial they can be for you.
When you first look into an addiction treatment center, you can search for ones that are 12 Step based. By doing this, you have a better chance of learning about the 12 Steps early on in your recovery. You can discover what these steps are, work on them during your inpatient rehab stay, and follow up with your recovering lifestyle while working the 12 Steps as well.
The 12 Steps
The 12 Steps are helpful for most recovering alcoholics. If you are unfamiliar with them, here they are.
- We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.
- Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
- Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
- Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
- Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
- Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
- Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
- Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
- Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
- Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
- Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
- Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
The 12 Steps can help you achieve a lot in your recovery journey. Whether you are just beginning your journey into recovery or you have already left your inpatient rehab center, these steps are going to help guide you through each tribulation, trial, obstacle, and good time.
Overcoming Your Addiction with AA
For every person who is recovering from an addiction or planning to, they need some sort of guide. They need a basis to their recovery. If you need to find your guide or starting point, AA can be the right start for you. There are many different ways that AA can benefit you during your recovery from an addiction to alcohol. Some of the many benefits that other recovering alcoholics have found include the following:
- Having a foundation for recovery
- Having something to always turn to in recovery
- Having a guide for each process in recovery
- Turning to something bigger than oneself
- Being able to follow through with a plan
- Having step by step instructions to working a recovery program
- Increasing the chances of success in recovery and with sobriety
If you want to receive the above benefits, you may want to start using Alcoholics Anonymous as your starting point. There are many different meetings one can attend for AA. You can look up local AA meetings in your area or start attending them while going to an inpatient rehab center.
Recovery and sobriety can be tough at times. There may be points when you don’t feel like you can stay sober. However, when you have a guide or a program to help you stay on the right path, this can make all the difference. Many recovering alcoholics have found that Alcoholics Anonymous has been there go-to for staying sober. If you have never been to an AA meeting, now is the time to check them out. You can see just how beneficial they can be in your life. Still need to start your recovery journey? Check into a 12 Step rehab program today.
