12 Step Rehab

The most popular addiction treatment centers today are of the 12 step variety. However, because they are the most popular does not mean most effective. It is important to understand that just because a treatment center is a 12 step based program, that the drug addict or alcoholic is going to walk out of the treatment center prepared with the recovery tools necessary to survive. We constantly hear about the alarming fail rate of addiction treatment centers and that alcoholics and addicts need to go through them several times. The reason for this is many addiction treatment centers that are of the 12 step base are to short, that is 28 days or less and they leave without the tools ever being applied. There is very low probability that anybody can quit a drug addiction habit or an alcohol habit in 28 days. In addition they are expected to walk out of the alcohol treatment center and find their way to a Narcotics Anonymous or Alcoholics Anonymous meetings on their own. When searching for the correct 12 step rehab you should consider the following things to increase the success of the treatment center you choose:

1. Length of Stay – 90 days or longer for inpatient treatment is always a better option and should be the first thing considered. Make sure they learn the tools of addiction recovery in the center. If a drug addict or alcoholic leaves without knowing how to apply the tools they are likely to fail. Remember, anybody can stay sober while in rehab, the challenge is when they leave.

2. Focusing on the cause – unfortunately most addiction treatment centers focus on symptoms of the alcoholism or drug addiction rather than treat the cause of why they are self medicating.

3. 12 Step is a life tool- in order to have success with the 12 step programs, drug addicts and alcoholics must commit to a life time of meetings, sponsors, and step work. No addiction treatment center can be effective if a person leaves without a plan.

Below are the 12 Steps and 12 Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous. It is interesting to know that nowhere in these steps does it tell you that you can not drink or that you have an addiction or disease. This is because the steps are designed to improve the quality of your life so that you do not have to drink. If the 12 step program was worked the way it was suppose to and was not taken so far of base over the years it probably would be one of the most effective addiction rehabilitation methods today. Unfortunately many treatment centers today lack the ability to teach and prepare people on how to apply and accurately work the 12 step model of addiction treatment.

These are the original Twelve Steps as defined by Alcoholics Anonymous:

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—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. Other twelve-step groups have modified the twelve steps slightly from those of Alcoholics Anonymous to refer to problems other than alcoholism.

The Twelve Traditions

These are the Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous, they are similar in all twelve-step fellowships.

1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon A.A. unity.
2. For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority – a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience.
3. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.
4. The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking.
5. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or A.A. as a whole.
6. Each group has but one primary purpose-to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
7. An A.A. group ought never endorse, finance or lend the A.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
8. Every A.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
9. Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
10. A.A., as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
11. Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the A.A. name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
12. 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.