sober
12 Step Program

How Gentle is a 12 Step Program?

Being gentle and being kind, especially to oneself, are in many ways at the heart of recovery from alcoholism but often get overlooked by a more macho do-or-die culture. Early Recovery It is probably fair […]

sober
12 Step Program

What is a Dry Drunk?

Dry Drunk The term dry drunk is used a lot in AA and in recovery generally. Some people find it helpful, other people find it a bit judgmental. Whatever it may mean to people, its […]

sober
12 Step Program

When Alcohol Stops Working ………..

One of the benefits of going to meetings while getting sober is that people hear stories that help them understand their own alcoholism, even if they don’t fully understand it at the time. One of […]

sober
12 Step Program

Spirituality and Religion in Recovery

There is much talk in Alcoholics Anonymous about spirituality and religion, and the mix between the two. There is a fairly simple reason for this. Many people who look to get sober have had bad […]

sober
12 Step Program

What is Emotional Sobriety?

Emotional sobriety is a phrase that was used by Bill Wilson in a Grapevine article, entitled The Next Frontier: Emotional Sobriety, published in 1958, some 20-plus years after he got sober. Originally a letter to […]

sober
12 Step Program

Al-Anon

Al-Anon is perhaps the 12 step fellowship most closely associated with Alcoholics Anonymous. In the early days of AA virtually all members were men, and their wives would go with them to meetings and normally […]

sober
12 Step Program

12 Step Programs

This can be a slightly confusing term for some people. It originates from the organisation Alcoholics Anonymous, which developed a recovery program based around 12 specific steps, which are really statements of experience of what […]

sober
12 Step Program

Rehabs and Treatment Centers

Many people who get sober do so in a rehab or treatment center. Many people are familiar with the idea of a rehab, but perhaps less clear about what happens there. Most rehabs are residential, […]

sober
12 Step Program

What is an Inner Voice?

When people talk about an inner voice in the context of spirituality, they are normally referring to an inner intuitive sense of direction in their life. This sense of there being an inner world, and […]

sober
12 Step Program

Acceptance and Surrender

It has become almost something of a cliche in society nowadays to use the adage that you cannot cope with a problem unless you first admit it. Not that this is a new or novel […]