An
addict's life is a lonely one. It matters little whether the addiction is to
alcohol, narcotics, overeating, gambling, or even to another person. The
addiction turns its captive's attention inward. Eventually, the addict's main,
even only, focus is the addiction. It becomes his or her best friend
as well as worst enemy. Loved ones, family, friends, career, hobbies and other
interests fade into the background. Then they disappear entirely.
It is as though the addict becomes the addiction. There is room for little
else.
Fortunately, the resources to escape the despair and loneliness of addiction are
readily available in the East Bay. All that is necessary is that the addict be
willing to take the first step.
The Only Requirement for
Membership is a desire to stop________
Massachusetts and Rhode Island
offer a rich array of resources to deal with addiction and its effects.
Psychologists. Psychotherapists. Clergy. Counselors. Hypnotherapists. There are
many professionals from which to choose. Ironically, the best advice we can
often give anyone suffering from
an addiction is to attend a free program run entirely by the addicts themselves.
No professionals in sight. These programs are most often
based on the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. They are the12 Step Groups that
revolutionized the treatment of addiction in the
last half of the 20th century.
Hypnosis can help anyone
recover from a damaging habit.
I have many clients who attend 12 step programs who find hypnotherapy is
also very beneficial as an adjunct.
And, unless the problem
is still in its early stages,
I always recommend 12 step programs.
Of course, some people simply don't like groups or have tried
the 12 step programs without success. I am happy to see these on an individual
basis and often get wonderful results such as the
client whose comments are below.
Hi John!
I cannot thank you enough for helping make a major change in my life. When I
left after our session things were so different for me! I have such a positive
feeling about everything now!.....its really hard to describe! I have not used
(cocaine) since our visit . All I think about is how you said the quality of my
life will skyrocket..... and it has tremendously!!!!! Then those stupid thoughts
of using all go away.
I feel fantastic!!! I cannot thank you enough!!!!!
S.L.
(Woonsocket, RI)
12
step programs are available for an increasing variety of issues. These include
problems with alcohol (Alcoholics Anonymous), other drugs both legal and illegal
(Narcotics Anonymous), overeating (Overeaters Anonymous), gambling (Gamblers
Anonymous), sex and love addiction
(Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous). There are also sister groups to support the
loved ones, family and friends affected by the addiction. These program have
names like Alanon and Nar-Anon. They are recovery programs from the emotional
wreckage an addict leaves in their wake and are also based on the 12 Step Model
of Recovery.
It
all started in the 1930s when two "hopeless" alcoholics found each other and
discovered a simple technique for recovery. They were Dr. Bob, a physician in
Akron, Ohio, and Bill W., a New York stockbroker. Despite their professional
status, both men were by their own admission down-and-out drunks, incapable of
maintaining sobriety. Nothing the professionals offered worked.
The
program they designed centers around the idea of one addict helping another by
sharing his or her experience, strength and hope and dependency on a "Power
Greater Than Themselves." Quite a different approach from the mental hospital
model. They outlined their program in 12 steps. It should be stressed that 12
Step Programs do not require that participants buy into all of these steps. Many
people have trouble with the idea of God, however broadly defined. But the
programs emphasize that each member is free to define this "Power Greater Than
Themselves" as they see fit. They feel this makes the 12 Step Programs spiritual
not religious. This distinction seems valid when you take a look at participants
in our area's 12 Step Groups. In the same rooms, you are likely to find people
in recovery whose Higher Power is a traditional Judeo Christian notion of God, a
Wiccan's View of Gaia, Buddha, an Islamic God, Krishna or simply "I know there
is something greater than me and if there is a God I know that I isn't it."
None
the less, the 12 Step Programs are spiritual not psychotherapeutic. This means
that they seek to restore the human spirit to health
as well as the addict's body and mind. The experience of these groups is that
the addiction is a symptom of deeper, underlying issues
of character and spirit.
What can you expect if you
decide to step into a meeting?
No
one can make you change your life for the better. That includes a 12 Step
Program. But you can expect it to help in several ways. First,
you will not feel alone anymore. You will find and be accepted by a fellowship
of caring people who have been where you are and have
found a way out. They understand that the problems you are having changing a
behavior that the "normal" people in your life think should
be simply a matter of willpower. Second, you will have access to a sponsor to
help you make the changes you need in a committed one-to-one relationship. A 12
Step Sponsor is a recovering addict who has achieved a good recovery that he or
she is willing to share with you. The relationship can often last for many years
as the two recovering addicts come to support each other over time. Third, 12
Step Programs are safe and anonymous. If you decide it is not for you, no one
will pursue you. No calls. No visits. The programs work on attraction not
promotion. And anonyminity is assured. This means that the only people who will
know you dropped in to check it out are those who are at the meeting. And they
are pledged not to reveal anyone's identity. And, rest assured that 12 Step
groups have an impressive record of keeping people's identities secret. Even
with celebrity addicts. Even in small communities like ours on the East Bay.
Fourth, you will have access to a rich knowledge base of what works and what
does not in achieving sobriety from the addictive behavior or substance. Fifth,
it is free. Small donations are accepted. But the 12 Step Groups are
self-supporting through their own contribution. No professionals, remember?
Meetings typically take place in church basements, schools after hours and
community meeting halls. Usually the group pays a small rental fee to these
organizations. If you are financially
strapped no one will say anything if you choose to leave without putting
anything in the basket that gets passed around at the end of the meeting.
Taking the first step.
If
you think a 12 Step Program might be helpful to you, why not make the call. It
is safe, anonymous and free. Plus, for many people it works,
these programs often work miraculously where other techniques have failed. The
person who answers the phone may be a volunteer or an
answering service. He or she will give you a list of meetings near your home.
They will identify some as "open" meetings and some as "closed." Open meetings
are for the general public. You need not identify yourself as someone suffering
with an addiction to attend. Closed meetings
are set aside for addicts only. Which one you attend is up to you. No one will
quiz you. And it is okay to go if you are actively in your addiction. Drunks are
welcome at AA meetings. Drug addicts at NA meetings.
The 12 Steps of Recovery
1. We
admitted we were powerless over alcohol (substitute drugs, food, gambling, sex,
love or any other addictive substance or behavior)
that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to
sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we
understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of
our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends
to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so
would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly
admitted it.
11. 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.
12. 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 Promises of the 12
Step Programs
We
are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. We will not regret the past
nor wish to shut the door on it. We will comprehend the word serenity and we
will know peace. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how
our experience can benefit others. That feeling of uselessness and self-pity
will disappear. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our
fellows. Self-seeking will slip away. Our whole attitude and outlook upon life
will change. Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us. We will
intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us. We will
suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.
Are these extravagant promises? We think not. They are being fulfilled among
us-sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will always materialize if we work
for them.
from pages 83 and 84 of the third edition of "Alcoholics Anonymous"
The
next step is up to you and it is as easy as picking up the phone and asking
where and when there is a meeting near you. To make it even easier, here are the
numbers in Rhode Island. Similar groups are available in MA:
In my hypnotherapy
practice, I use hypnosis to help people in 12 step programs to adopt the program
they have chosen more easily while also building self-esteem.
However, as with anything
to do with human beings, some people don't respond as well as others to the 12
step approach. Maybe they have a problem with the spiritual nature of the
programs. Or maybe they don 't like joining groups. I am happy to see these
individuals for one-on-one hypnotherapy often with wonderful results. Here is
one:
Hypnosis Scheduling Instructions
To schedule
your first hypnosis appointment or arrange a free 15 minute consultation to
see whether hypnosis is right for you:
