How 12-Step Works as Addiction Recovery Support

Published on: 11 October 2018 Last Updated on: 15 July 2024

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA), around 74% of inpatient drug rehab centers in America are based on the 12-Step approach. 12-Step is a philosophy pioneered by Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous (NA) in the 1930s that has strong foundations in Christianity.

The objective of 12-Step recovery programs is to enable people to achieve and maintain sobriety through the support of others and their belief in a higher power. In many respects, the 12-Step movement has been shown to be a force for good which is why it remains one of the most popular choices for addiction recovery support in the world.

12-Step treatment centers are not for everyone, particularly if they do not subscribe to any particular religion and their needs can be addressed by a wide range of alternative inpatient drug rehab centers that do not have religious components. However, in this article, we want to take a closer look at traditional 12-Step in terms of what it offers people with addiction illness and how the world’s oldest recovery support system works.

The History of the 12-Step Program:

The principles of 12-Step treatment centers were designed in 1938 by Bill Wilson, who based the concept on his own experiences and understanding of alcoholism. In particular, Wilson had seen how positively people struggling with alcohol responded when sharing their stories and experiences with others. In the early days of 12-Step’s history, Wilson put his program into writing into what is now known as the Big Book.

12-Step rehab centers originate from the Christian view of spirituality and are designed to provide encouragement for participants to seek help from a higher power than themselves. Although the Big Book was originally intended for people who did not want to attend meetings, it has since become a model for all NA and AA meetings around the world. Offshoots of 12-Step treatment centers now include Heroin Anonymous (HA) and Gamblers Anonymous (GA). These days, members are expected to “work through” the steps using the Big Book for reference.

How 12-Step Approach Works:

12-Step rehab centers are designed to allow people to support each other in achieving and maintaining sobriety while calling on their higher power for help. This is done through meetings in which members share their experiences, talking through difficult issues and congratulating successes. According to the journal Addiction Research and Theories, the kind of abstinence practice 12-Step is based on often accounts for high levels of positive mental health or “flourishing.”

A particular benefit of 12-Step is that it provides a structured framework from which people can surrender their addiction, process the experience and move on from it for improved mental health. An article by Psych Central suggests that following the 12-Step model arms members with the following tools for mental and emotional transformation:

Being able to recognize and admit that the individual has addiction issues
Surrendering to this fact and deciding to seek control with outer guidance
Developing self-awareness of addictive behaviors and how they impact others
Practicing self-restraint and building self-esteem
Achieving self-acceptance and being able to make positive changes
Having compassion for those affected by the individual’s addiction and others who are struggling with substance abuse

Through providing members with these experiences and tools, 12-Step can promote significant changes, helping individuals seeking to overcome addiction find a path to sobriety.

The 12 Steps, as outlined in the original Big Book are as follows:

The admission that the individual is powerless over their addiction
The belief that a higher power can help overcome addiction
Making the decision to surrender control to the higher power
Making a personal inventory
Admission to the higher power, themselves and another trusted person the wrongs that were done through addiction
Being prepared for the higher power to correct shortcomings in character
Asking the higher power for help in removing shortcomings
Listing the wrongs done to others and preparing to make amends
Connecting with all those hurt by addictive behavior to make things right unless it is detrimental to the person to do so
Maintaining a personal inventory and admitting when the person is in the wrong
Seeking enlightenment from the higher power through prayer and meditation
Sharing the 12-Step mess with others in need of support

Although there is no “one size fits all” approach to addiction treatment, the efficacy of 12-Step is undeniable. The main reason for the program’s success is that it focuses on providing mutual support as a means of achieving and maintain sobriety. The 12-Step recovery program shifts focus from the individual and their addiction to the group as a whole, with members bound together by a common spirituality and a shared desire to live a substance-free life.

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Ariana Smith

I enjoy writing and I write quality guest posts on topics of my interest and passion. I have been doing this since my college days. My special interests are in health, fitness, food and following the latest trends in these areas. I am an editor at Content Rally.

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10 healthy habits to improve your health

Your health is the single greatest asset that you can ever possess. It can determine how successful you will be in business and whether you will live to achieve your lifetime resolutions or not. You should, therefore, never gamble with your health by failing to take due caution to lead a healthy lifestyle. As part of the good health practices that you should endeavor to keep in your life, being disciplined forms the foundation for ensuring that you safeguard your health. Here are 10 healthy habits that can help improve your health. 1. Observe your diet: Your dietary habits have a direct effect on your health. Whatever you consume or fail to consume consequently affects your ability to lead a healthy lifestyle. When thinking about diet and its effect on your health, emphasis should be put on particular issues such as the kind of food you eat, eating habits or schedule, and the portions you consume. As part of the initiative to lead a healthy lifestyle and improve on your health, you should endeavor to consume a balanced diet in fair and well-distributed portions during breakfast, lunch, and supper. Your daily servings should comprise portions of proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vegetables, minerals, and water or fluids. 2. Exercise well: Physical exercise forms the backbone of maintaining a perfect body physique. Well-structured physical exercises impart your body with numerous health benefits including helping keep your muscles active. Aerobic exercises can also help with cardiac health through the maintenance of a good distribution of blood across every organ including the skin. Well-focused physical exercises can also help in maintaining a perfect balance of certain physical attributes such as body weight and overall body shape. When thinking about exercises as part of your routine, you should endeavor to maintain a perfect balance between the different kinds of body exercises you have, including aerobic exercises and body-trimming exercises. 3. Slotting time for health check-ups: Irrespective of whether you feel sick or not, health checkups are crucial when it comes to improving your health. Finding time to either visit a health facility for a health checkup or even utilize the Home Doctor Service for convenience when securing appointments with your nutritionist or doctor allows you to evaluate the progress you have gained so far in your bid to lead a healthy life. 4. Get sufficient sleep: Your sleeping patterns do directly or indirectly influence how healthy you will be. Without sufficient sleep on a daily basis, you will stand to lose out on your productivity while detrimentally affecting your physical health. As a recommendation, your body needs not less than eight hours of uninterrupted sleep to maintain the right physiological condition for body growth. Lack of sufficient sleep compromises your immune system, thereby leading to vulnerabilities to disease conditions. 5. Meditate often: Meditation is often disregarded when it comes to the observation of healthy lifestyles. However, research has shown that sufficient meditation on a daily basis does have physiological and mental benefits. Meditating sufficiently gives your body an opportunity to deeply relax, something crucial for your immune system. The practice is also crucial in helping control stress, anxiety, and other forms of emotional suffering that can take a toll on your health. Besides, meditating sufficiently helps in building mental awareness while improving your ability to control addictions. 6. Taking water, lots of water: Staying hydrated is a crucial factor in maintaining your body's health. The human body is 60% water while all other crucial organs in the body such as the brain, lungs, kidneys, bones, and muscles are comprised of between 60 and 85% water. The only way to stay sufficiently hydrated is to take not less than 2 liters of water on a daily basis. To help nature this habit well, you should endeavor to drink water even when you do not feel thirsty. 7. Socialize effectively: Being social, surprisingly, has a huge benefit on your health and can help much when it comes to your health improvement habits. Socializing with your friends helps brighten your moods through laughing and playing. This practice helps improve your mental capacity and general immune health through the production of certain hormones. Such hormones, when circulated in the body, help maintain a perfect physiological condition for a healthy life. Such a social life also helps keep away detrimental health practices such as stress and being frightened. 8. Cook for yourself more often: Sometimes, it pays to give yourself an additional challenge when it comes to your diet. You may, therefore, prefer cooking for yourself rather than eating out. Hotel or restaurant-prepared food does not offer you much of the flexibility that you often desire. Cooking for yourself ensures that you observe the strict dietary habits that you so much need to lead a healthy lifestyle. Also, the experience of cooking in the kitchen gives you a positive mental challenge. It also serves as an opportunity for social development that is crucial for your general body health. 9. Have a proper schedule: Whereas it may sound unbelievable, the kind of schedule you lead on a daily basis can directly influence your ability to live a healthy life. To enhance your health, you should endeavor to ensure that your day is well planned with activities being slotted rightly. Such planning comes in handy in helping keep away unwanted habits while also taking charge of your health. A properly planned schedule is the right platform that ensures that any health-based resolution you set in place is upheld and regarded accordingly. 10. Have a good interaction with nature: Nature has an indirect way of helping keep your body healthy. Interacting with nature more often as part of your routine schedule gives your body an opportunity to experience some benefits. You should, therefore, endeavor to factor in much time to take a break from your office or home enclosures and have a nature walk. Any sightseeing events such as strolling down the forest and beholding trees and birds help your body to relax as much as possible. Read Also: The Top 6 Vitamins And Minerals All Women Over 40 Should Take How To Live Healthily Even If You Have A Full-Time Job The Health Benefits Of Figure Skating Explained

Can Vaping Really Help You Kick Your Smoking Habit?

Even if you never thought you actually would, quitting smoking probably does occasionally cross your mind every now and then, right? The whys, of course, stem from both personal and social demands… It is a health risk, that girl you were dating didn’t like the smell, etc. But what else would you do while standing around the bar? And could you even break a habit that you have been accustomed to for so long? E-cigarettes are the millennial approach to either lessening or saying no to cigs once and for all. They bring all of the satisfying attributes of smoking without the adverse health effects, smell, or social trade-offs. And better yet, it can actually be cheaper as well as better for the environment. But the question remains: Can vaping really help you kick your smoking cigarette? No-Pressure Approach: Simply the thought of quitting smoking comes with a lot of anxiety. It’s hard, and we completely understand. Dropping it cold-turkey can leave you really sick, depressed, or in a cycle of emotional turmoil. But it doesn’t have to be that way at all. Making a trade-off with e-cigarettes, even if you just start off slow, can turn your habit around in a way that won’t feel completely forced. Most people who have used this method to quit have found that the pressure to quit is inherently gone and they feel like the transition is basically non-existent. Doesn’t that sound great? A Trade-Off: Some of us know that half of the habit is psychological, meaning that you really just need to have something in your hand that you can take a puff on. This aspect is another reason why e-cigs are an easy solution to the problem. Not only do we use cigarettes to carry our own personal habits, but we enjoy having them there during the conversation. It can seem like every social setting, especially bars, call for a cigarette. With social settings especially, it can be compelling to join the smoking crowd or step outside and even strike up a conversation with strangers while smoking. With e-cigs you will still be able to participate and not feel left out or awkward. As for culture, there really is nothing like smoking a rolled-up cig, but the e-cig generation is building, and most of us can say that it in itself is becoming closely connected to our culture. Once you get in the vape scene, you will fall in love with all of the different aspects, styles, vape flavors, and best of all, the friends that you can enjoy it with. Reduced Risks and Your Health: The bottom line for most of us is that we know smoking is very unhealthy for us. Our lungs, heart, mouth, all of it is affected by tobacco, and every day it persists is fewer days that we will see in the end. E-cigs have not rightly been proven to be healthy but they have shown results that make them much less toxic to our bodies than actual cigarettes. Most research has shown that a reduced risk of heart attack occurs when you drop smoking. Furthermore, most e-cig users agree that since making the switch, their lungs have been in better shape, which in turn helps them exercise more effectively. The overall trend moves toward feeling better each day, and that’s the part we like to hear. Attraction Is Real: We have all been on that date with that one person and had it all go down under because of the lingering, musky cigarette smell. It sticks to everything! The car, the bed, your clothes, hair, mouth. You name it. Smokers stink, and that can’t be changed. With e-cigarettes, the scent hardly lingers at all one the vapor is dissipated. Which means that your belongings are not ruined, and neither are your dating expenditures. All in all, e-cig users who have made the transition have been more satisfied than ever. Without fully submitting your lifestyle to the non-smoking cause, this is the best way to transition quickly and still remain happy. None of us are expected to change our ways overnight, but it sure does make it a lot easier when it still feels good. Read Also: Vaping In The Workplace: Legal Considerations Benefits Of E-Cigarettes Over Traditional Smoking

Things to do before bed for a perfect night’s sleep

Good sleep is usually described as how a baby sleeps. A baby is likely to enjoy quality sleep because they have no worries or anything that could hinder that perfect sleep. However, as you grow up, sleep quality tends to deteriorate because of different factors associated with adulthood. It is very important to have enough and good sleep as it has a significant effect on your body in terms of health and general activeness. You need to adopt the habit of sleeping early and having uninterrupted sleep time for about 7-9 hours every night. What should you do before bed to have a good night's sleep? Tidy your room. Study shows that people with clean and decluttered rooms tend to sleep better than those whose rooms are untidy and unkempt. Make your bed, fold your clothes and keep your room in order. Finish up your daily chores. Once the day is over, you should have finished everything you had planned for that day. Wash that blue cantilever umbrella you had planned to by the end of the day. By doing so, your mind will be able to relax when you get into bed. Eat dinner early. Most people will have their meals so late in the night that they end up sleeping late. It is better to eat early so that you can give the food time to digest. Doing that will actually help you sleep better. Make your bed comfortable. This includes changing your bedsheets into clean ones and getting the right sized pillow and mattress. You should also get s blanket that will shield you from the cold at night and is soft to your body as well. Take a warm bath. This helps to cool off your body and prepare it for sleep. Bathing with warm water will get your body temperature going down when you step into the cool bedroom from the shower. That helps induce sleep. Set the room temperature. You do not want a room that is too hot to sleep in or too cold that you cannot sleep. Regulate the temperature to what you feel is comfortable for you. Organize your thoughts. Going to bed with a lot of unorganized thoughts will keep you up for hours. Make sure you write down anything disturbing you and try to find a solution before you can sleep for better sleep quality. Switch off electronics. Things like phones, laptops, and TV should be switched off 2 hours to sleeping time. The blue light produced by these gadgets is not so good for your eyes when you want to sleep. Eat cherries. As I said, you should not eat right before bed. However, you can snack on some cherries as they are natural sources of melatonin which is a sleep-inducing hormone. Block any light from outside. You could switch off your electronics but there is still light coming from the outside. Total darkness is the recipe for sleep. Use dark and heavy curtains to block any light coming from the outside. Read a book. This is a good way to spend the last minutes before bed. Make sure the book does not require a lot of intellectual engagement and neither is it too exciting to take away your sleep. Listen to soothing music. There are people who cannot sleep in total silence. If you're one of these people, get some soothing music and play it in low tones right before you sleep. Spray some lavender scent into your room. Lavender is associated with having a calming and sedentary effect on you. It will help you sleep much faster and better. Conclusion : Don't deny yourself the opportunity to sleep better by ignoring some of these things that are necessary for a good night's sleep. In fact, these things are very easy to do and they can have a tremendously positive effect on your sleep life. Observe each one of them and make it a routine before you go to bed. Within a month or so, your body will have adapted to the change and you won't have to keep a reminder anymore. You'll be doing these things naturally. Invest in good sleep and your body will thank you for it. Make sure that everything is done to your preference for an easy time. Read Also : 5 Ways To Make A Big Statement In Small Bedroom 3 Tips On How To Plan The Best Cheap And Fabulous DIY Bedroom Makeover 5 Innovative Ideas To Lend Your Bedroom With More Space

How 12-Step Works as Addiction Recovery Support

The History of the 12-Step Program:

How 12-Step Approach Works:

11 Foods You Must Incorporate Into Your Diet for Great Skin

The Role Of Nutrition Therapy In Eating Disorder Treatment

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Ariana Smith

I enjoy writing and I write quality guest posts on topics of my interest and passion. I have been doing this since my college days. My special interests are in health, fitness, food and following the latest trends in these areas. I am an editor at Content Rally.

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10 healthy habits to improve your health

Can Vaping Really Help You Kick Your Smoking Habit?

Things to do before bed for a perfect night’s sleep

How 12-Step Works as Addiction Recovery Support

The History of the 12-Step Program:

How 12-Step Approach Works:

Share this Article

11 Foods You Must Incorporate Into Your Diet for Great Skin

The Role Of Nutrition Therapy In Eating Disorder Treatment

Tags

I enjoy writing and I write quality guest posts on topics of my interest and passion. I have been doing this since my college days. My special interests are in health, fitness, food and following the latest trends in these areas. I am an editor at Content Rally.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

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Follow Us

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