The 12-Step Program’s Benefits in Treatment

Drug abuse has affected a significant population of people worldwide. Most governments and private organizations have put in place institutions to help in drug addiction rehabilitation. The 12-step program is a very effective strategy used in the recovery process. It is geared towards empowering the recovering addict to introspection and taking responsibility for their own outcome in life.

Most modern rehabilitation institutes implement various 12-step based programs into their treatment plans as a both viable and proven method of recovery. Through these programs, such as AA(Alcoholics Anonymous), NA(Narcotics Anonymous), or CA(Cocaine Anonymous), long-term sobriety has seen to be achieved based on the concept of giving up one’s own will, looking at themselves internally, and working with others. Simple maintenance of abstinence is found to be nearly impossible for the true addict or alcoholic, therefore he or she must seek outside help from a power greater than, and other than themselves. There are many who are opposed to this idea, and opposition to such ideas, according to history and studies show that relapse will inevitably follow if reliance on self-will is reverted to. For many, accepting responsibility for one’s own alcoholism and addiction looks like trusting in something greater than themselves to achieve long-term sobriety.

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The 12 Steps

We admitted we were powerless over our addiction—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 addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

The 12 Traditions

Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon unity.
For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority—a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.
The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking/using.
Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or the fellowship as a whole.
Each group has but one primary purpose—to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
A group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the fellowship name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
Every group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
The fellowship should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
The fellowship, as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
We hold no opinion on outside issues; hence the fellowship name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films.
Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities

Everything is Under One Roof!

Long-term sobriety is facilitated at Level Up Lake Worth through individual counseling, group therapy, and 12-step program meetings all under one roof. Our policy of total abstinence is enforced by mandatory urine-analysis and breathalyzer tests. The penalty for violating these policies is often met with serious intervention, and potentially even dismissal from our program entirely. We at Level Up believe that accepting responsibility for the choices you make is vital to the recovery process and necessary for overcoming obstacles in your future. Deferring blame to someone or something else only impedes the recovery process.

The Argument From the Other Side

Non-12 step based groups might protest that if the individual understands and accepts that alcohol and drug abuse is a choice that they made and that it is not a result of inheriting an addiction gene from your parents, but rather it is a learned behavior, then the individual will see that they do not need counseling and therapy for the rest of their lives. For alternative non-12 step programs, the answer is not in a disease model, but rather in learning to make different choices. 12-step groups believe that if one is an addict or alcoholic, they will not be able to stop on their own, no matter how much effort, but there is hope for them if they are willing to accept that they are powerless and seek help.