Real Recovery Sober Living believes in the power of the 12 Step program. When paired with a community of people recovering from alcohol use disorder or substance use disorder, a 12 Step program can help you achieve long-term sobriety.
In fact, we believe that the 12 Step process is invaluable to your sobriety. Its tools and principles set you up for success by guiding you to get sober and remain sober. Although you engross yourself in a community that actively supports your recovery, the program itself hinges upon remaining relatively anonymous.
The 12 Step process was founded by people suffering from addiction for people suffering from addiction. The 12 Step process and subsequent literature are based on 12 clear-cut steps, 12 traditions, and firsthand accounts and stories.
The History of the 12 Steps
The origins of the 12 Step approach begin with a man named Bill, who suffered from alcohol use disorder, and a doctor named Bob, who helped Bill in his recovery and contributed to building the foundation of the ideology that would become the 12 Steps.
Bill struggled with alcohol dependence and addiction for decades. He had been a businessman on Wall Street at the time of the 1929 stock market collapse. He made it out better than others, not losing his entire wealth; however, he did see it best to move his trajectory elsewhere.
Bill’s story continued into a downward spiral that saw him quickly succumbing to alcohol abuse on multiple occasions. His recollections are living stories that many who attend Alcoholic Anonymous meetings would consider relatable, even by today’s standards. His story includes traits you may recognize, including:
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- Losing friends due to excessive and constant drinking
- Using activities as an excuse to drink — for Bill, this was golf
- Being kicked out of a friend’s place due to alcohol consumption
- Losing a job because of alcohol — in his case, brawling with a taxi driver while drunk
- Entering a hospital for alcohol withdrawal, then leaving and drinking more
- Hiding alcohol throughout his house
Bill’s story only changed once he met up with an old drinking buddy who had since become sober and was going on and on about a process of achieving long-term recovery. As they talked, Bill drank. For hours, his friend spoke on the naturalistic approach of what would become the 12 Steps. Eventually, Bill achieved long-lasting sobriety with the help of his friend and Doctor Bob, whom he met when going in and out of the hospital due to alcohol consumption.
The 12 Step process forms the foundation of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), Narcotics Anonymous (NA), and related anonymous organizations. Additionally, supportive groups like AlAnon and NarAnon exist as a way for family and friends of those suffering from addiction to gain practical advice and grow in a community that is focused on recovery.
To successfully traverse the 12 Steps, you need a community to support you. These organizations exist for that reason. Furthermore, as they are people just like you, they lead off by suggesting open arms and no judgment for past and current persons suffering from alcohol use disorder and/or substance use disorder.
What Are the 12 Steps?
Getting to know the history of the 12 Steps is just the beginning; delving in, learning, and practicing the 12 Steps is a whole other ballgame. 12 Step programs are some of the first routes to recovery that many people struggling with an alcohol or substance use disorder will explore. These programs often prove to be a person’s first effective experience with tools that work to help them get sober.
However, 12 Step programs carry a certain stigma. The 12 Step process incorporates spirituality in a way that has been perceived and misinterpreted in a wide variety of ways. The idea that religion is fundamental to the 12 Step process is a misunderstanding of the program.
The concept of releasing the power that a substance has over you by accepting a higher power is pervasive throughout 12 Step literature. In Bill’s story, he refers to that higher power as God; however, higher power can refer to anything you might want to hand over the control that a substance or alcohol once had over you. For instance, for an atheist or agnostic, a higher power might mean the laws of nature or science.
To understand the role of spirituality in the 12 Steps, it helps to know the literal language used in their principles. In short, what are the 12 Steps? They are as follows:
- Admitting you are powerless over alcohol and that your life has become unmanageable
- Believing that a power greater than yourself can restore you to sanity
- Deciding to turn your will over to the care of your higher power
- Creating a searching and fearless moral inventory of yourself
- Admitting to your higher power the exact nature of your wrongs
- Becoming ready to allow your higher power to remove your defects of character
Asking your higher power to remove your shortcomings - Making a list of persons you harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all
- Making direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when doing so would injure them or others
- Continuing to take personal inventory and promptly admitting when you are wrong
- Improving your conscious contact with your higher power and meditating on how to carry out the program
- Leading others suffering from addiction with the same program and practicing the program’s principles in your daily life
The 12 Steps form a basis for rehabilitation and progress. As individual goals, they move you forward, giving you a focus in your recovery. As a whole, they provide you with a resource for helping yourself and others. The 12 Steps enable you to lend yourself to a larger community with whom you can hold yourself accountable.
Learning the 12 Steps in depth begins with attending a 12 Step meeting, whether it be for alcohol use disorder or substance use disorder. While completing each step takes a different amount of time for everyone, you can generally expect to finish them within the first six months of continuous sobriety. Although each program has its unique differences, they will all require you to do your due diligence and commit to self-improvement wholeheartedly.
Attending multiple meetings increases the success rate of the 12 Steps. While those new to the 12 Step program may initially find the process tedious, the longer you stay in the program, the clearer your insights will become.
What Are the 12 Step Traditions?
Supporting the 12 Steps are the 12 Traditions. The 12 Traditions of 12 Step programs influence the success of these long-standing collectives. Their purpose is to uphold the group’s success and survival. Without the group, the individual cannot survive. The 12 Traditions are as follows:
- Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends on our unity.
- For our group purpose, there is but one ultimate authority – your higher power. Our leaders are only trusted servants; they do not govern.
- The only requirement for membership is the desire to stop drinking or using.
- Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or 12 Step programs as a whole.
- Each group has but one primary purpose – to carry its message to the person who still suffers.
- A 12 Step group ought never to endorse, finance, or lend the 12 Step program to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
- Every 12 Step group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
- 12 Step groups should remain forever nonprofessional, though service centers may employ special workers.
- 12 Step groups ought never to be organized.
- 12 Step groups have no opinion on outside issues.
- 12 Step groups public relation policy is based on attraction rather than promotion, to maintain personal anonymity.
- Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all 12 Step traditions, ever reminding members to place principles before personalities.
Following the 12 Steps While Recovering in a Sober Living Home
Real Recovery Sober Living is a community built around the reintegration of those suffering from alcohol or substance use disorder into the real world and the rest of society. We believe the foundation of reintegration is practicing and helping others through the 12 Step process.
Simply quitting drinking and using has proven to not be enough for so many, as addiction is a progressive illness that can creep back into your life quicker than expected. In a sober living community like Real Recovery Sober Living, you can expect to participate in regular 12 Step meetings, be led through the 12 Step program by a sponsor, find a homegroup for accountability purposes, attend weekly support “house meetings” to discuss your recovery and progress, and abide by a curfew to avoid temptation and relapse.
These rules and regulations change throughout your stay with a sober living community as trust builds and you become more likely to remain sober. With the help of following a 12 Step program and the support of a likewise community, you will be on your way to achieving long-term sobriety.
Invaluable 12 Step Literature for Your Journey
As time passed and 12 Step groups have grown wide and far around the world, 12 Step literature has become a popular guiding force for newcomers and oldtimers alike. This literature provides a place for stories and history, incorporating principles and tools for those struggling with an alcohol or substance use disorder to overcome their obstacles and attain successful healing.
Perhaps the single most well-known recovery publication is AA’s Big Book. The book covers the short-form and long-form versions of the 12 Steps as well as the 12 Traditions. Also included in this book are stories by the founders of AA and those who traversed addiction to achieve sobriety. The Big Book lays a foundation for those wishing to get sober.
The Twelve Steps and the Twelve Traditions is a collection of essays written by Bill, the founder of A.A.’s 12 Step program. The book discusses the principles of individual recovery and group unity and is a valuable resource for anyone looking to explore the concepts and structures behind the 12 Steps in greater detail.
Lastly, Daily Reflections is a unique publication that constitutes a calendarized version of discussion topics for 12 Step groups. The book is used to spark conversations about sobriety and the process of recovery.
12 Step programs and the ideas they stand on are fundamental aspects of recovery to many people in recovery. If you or a loved one struggles with addiction to drugs or alcohol, cast aside any previous conceptions of what the 12 Step approach entails and invest in your future health.
At Real Recovery Sober Living, we combine a 12 Step approach with strong community integration, placing you alongside peers in recovery who will encourage you and hold you accountable. The structure of our unique programs works in harmony with the 12 Steps so that you can both overcome addiction and reform your life as a member of our sober living community.
Real Recovery is Florida’s largest and best-rated sober living community that focuses on building a stable and safe environment for our members. Our mission is to understand where you are now and help you get where you want to be, as an individual and as a member of your community. Call us at (727) 290-9156 to learn more.
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