Most people who seek help getting sober will be those who find it difficult to stop drinking on their own, or simply realize that they need some type of help. Their first approach may well be to some type of health professional, directly to Alcoholics Anonymous or to some type of rehab / treatment facility.

Staying sober can involve many things, but tends to be rooted in the understanding that alcoholism is a progressive illness, and that recovery is a long term process requiring on-going work of a therapeutic / spiritual nature.

What it Means to be Sober

In recovery terms, being sober has pretty much always meant not drinking any alcohol. In recent years the use of the word sober has widened to include anyone who is in recovery from any form of addiction, addictive behaviour or substance abuse.

The freedom of recovery is that people can choose for themselves what helps them, and what doesn’t help them. This includes language as well as the different approaches to recovery and different 12 step programs

• Getting Sober
• Early Recovery
• Mental / Emotional Health Early Recovery
• Life in Recovery, Sober
• Support Systems
• 12 Step Programs

Alcoholics Anonymous

Alcoholics Anonymous is often seen as the go to point for people who have a drink problem and are looking for help in getting sober. AA has meetings throughout the world, and has been the vehicle through which many people have got sober and been able to rebuild their lives.

The AA recovery model is known as a twelve step program, based on the experience of its early members, who used a number of spiritual and therapeutic methods to arrest and reverse the effects of chronic alcoholism.

• AA – What it is and how it works
• AA and The Recovery Process
• AA and The 12 Step Programme
• AA Meeting Types and Formats
• Criticism of AA
• AA – FAQ
• AA and Mental Health
• Special interest Groups
• AA Recovery Articles

Al-Anon

Al-Anon grew out of the experience of the wives and families of the early members of AA. They came to realize how much they had been affected by the drinking of the alcoholic in their life. This usually started with them feeling a need to try and control the drinking of the alcoholic, which grew into full scale unmanageability

• What is Al-Anon
• The Role of Al-Anon
• Types of Meetings
• Al-Anon 12 Step Programme
• Criticism of Al-Anon
• Al-Anon Recovery Articles
• Al-Anon FAQ
• Al-Ateen / Adult Children of Alcoholics

Adult Children of Alcoholics

The phrase adult child or adult children of an alcoholic refers to someone who grew up in a home that had been affected by alcoholism. Normally this would be one or both parents or caregivers, or could be a generational effect of an alcoholic relative.

The trauma of growing up in an alcoholic home would normally make a child or children adapt in such a way that their identity or sense of self would change into one of survival, often including addiction to alcohol and/or other drugs as well.

The personality traits developed would continue into adulthood, and often define how the person related to themselves, other people and the world in general.

Recognising the context for their life, recovery through a 12 step program, normally Al-Anon or ACA, allows the person to heal those childhood wounds and live their life as a healthily functioning adult

• 12 Step Fellowship
• Healing and Recovery
• Inner Child
• Recovery Articles

Rehabs

Many people come into recovery through a rehab or treatment center. Rehabs are normally residential, but there are often day programs available as well, depending on location.

Rehabs normally base their own recovery programs on the 12 step model of Alcoholics Anonymous, and will normally encourage residents to attend 12 step meetings as well.

A rehab may have its own detox facilities, or arrangements with a local clinic facility to oversee a medical detox on their behalf

• Alcohol and Drug Rehab
• Rehab Recovery Programmes
• Therapy, Counselling
• Types of Rehab: Christian, LGBT, Women
• Costs, Insurance
• Aftercare and Long Term Recovery

Emotional Sobriety.

Emotional Sobriety is a phrase often used in recovery. It normally refers to dealing with the underlying emotional drives that can fuel someone’s alcoholism, allowing someone a much greater sense of inner peace.

This process can start from day one or year twenty of recovery. There is no set time frame, it comes as a response to being sober and developing a sense of self-awareness

• What is Emotional Sobriety
• Anger
• Fear
• Hope
• Trust
• Faith

AA and the God Question

Many people coming into recovery have had some experience of religion at some point in their life.

Unfortunately a lot of these experiences haven’t been good ones, and have left scars that have put people off any mention of the God word or anything to do with spirituality.

This has always been an issue within AA, since its earliest days, and has led to many people either shunning AA, or believing they have to compromise their integrity to believe things they don’t.

One way forward is to understand that AA is a body of experience that people can use in any way they find helpful or not, including the God word and related issues.

• History of 12 Step Fellowships
• Role Of Spirituality in Recovery
• Role of Religion in Recovery
• Spiritual Practices in Recovery
• Non-Christian Approaches to Recovery
• Criticism of Spirituality / Religion in Recovery
• The Power of Spirituality in Recovery

Thinking for Yourself in Recovery : AA and the Cult Dynamic

People often ask or refer to AA as being a cult, either in a very jokey way, or in deadly earnest. The reality is that any group of any organisation can develop a cult mentality or cult dynamic, and AA is no exception to this.

Cults are primarily about control, about controlling someone’s mind as well as their behaviour.

AA’s path to recovery, both program and meetings, should be the total opposite of this, recovery should be a path to freedom.

The issue of control is central to people’s active alcoholism.

Step 3 in the book Alcoholics Anonymous refers to this need to control what is going on around them, people, places and things, as the core problem in an alcoholics life.

It can take a long time for people in recovery to change this need to try and control life, Sadly some people  never seem able to and this can lead to serious issues in personal relationships.

This can also lead to formation of certain recovery groups that are effectively cultic in nature –

• Developing an Independent Voice
• Balancing Help and Individuality
• Dealing with Groupspeak
• Critical Thinking Skills
• Spirituality and Individuality
• The Cult Dynamic in Recovery