Health and Human Services
Addiction Recovery Through Service
We propose the Federal Government provide a facilitative role to connect people who want to recover from addiction to people who have worked all 12 Steps and now carry this message to others who still suffer. Not only recovery from addiction to alcohol and drugs, but recovery from many other symptoms of addiction as listed below.
Background
Twenty years after the program Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) began in 1935 it was estimated that 75 to 94% of the people who came to AA and worked the 12 Steps got sober. In Joe McQ’s Book Carry this Message he stated at that time in 2002 fewer than 5% of those who go to their first AA meeting get sober. WHAT HAPPENED? Many of us who suffer from addiction drifted away from the path the founders of the twelve steps wrote down for us and many of us will die or want to die without that path.
The Twelve Steps came with instructions which are found in the Big Book of AA. They describe in Chapter Three that our thinking is the crux of our problem and that drinking is but a symptom. There are many symptoms/addictions: alcohol, codependency, drug addiction (including prescription drugs), gambling, overeating, sex/porn addiction, spending addiction (debting), etc. These instructions work for ALL addictions and teach us what the real PROBLEM is, what the SOLUTION is and HOW to take the ACTION necessary to recover from this hopeless state of mind and body – to get from the PROBLEM to the SOLUTION.
“The only requirement for membership is an honest desire to stop drinking.” page XIV, Big Book of AA. What does that mean? We don’t want to live like this anymore! No matter what we try, we’re miserable. We can’t get enough alcohol, drugs, sex, food, money, prestige, approval, attention, control, etc. And we could not stop trying to get someone or something on the outside to make us feel better on the inside. With enough pain we come to a desire to stop living like this for good and all and begin practicing these principles in all our affairs. That’s what’s required for membership. We simply say, “I want to stop. I can’t live like this anymore.” This is Step One.
When the newcomer is approached by a person like them who has recovered, it gives them hope, and he or she asks for help. These are Steps Two and Three. The recovered person passes on these precise instructions. Recovered is different from cured. If we go to the doctor with a broken arm and follow instructions we will recover – but we will still be breakable. Steps One through Nine get us recovered and Steps Ten, Eleven and Twelve worked each day, keep us that way. That’s how seemingly hopeless people all over the world, like us, found they could work the 12-steps and recover too.
Implementation
People suffering from the disease of addiction are found in physician offices, urgent care clinics, emergency rooms, hospitals, case manager and social work agencies, clergy offices, psychiatry and psychology practices, employee assistance programs, shelters providing food and warmth, etc. True addicts are beyond human aid and need a spiritual solution – connection to a Higher Power of their own understanding. There is currently no specific source where staff at such venues can connect suffering addicts with those actively practicing the spiritual solution described above. We will assist the government in developing a website similar to this example [https://www.primarypurposebigbookstudy.com/] which can be provided to the above professionals and volunteers. Recovered addicts participating in the recovery meetings found at the website offer to help and provide their names and phone numbers at the end of each meeting. Once contacted by those seeking help, sponsors quickly (usually within less than two months) pass on their experience, knowledge and instructions for working the 12 Steps.
Tradition seven (7) in Alcoholics Anonymous and in other 12 Step Groups states that each group will be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions. To be clear, we do not propose the government fund the groups, meetings or provide payment to those who will be helping addicts in their recovery. Providing help to other addicts seeking recovery without any fees is the cornerstone of recovery and each recovered addict will ultimately learn from their mentor (called a “sponsor”) that participating in this service is required to achieve and maintain recovery and experience the promised life of happy usefulness.
Addiction recovery through service to others has proven to be a successful spiritual solution worldwide since 1935. The government can facilitate restoration of addicts through connecting them in service to each other. Together we can bring back the 75% success rate of 12 Step Recovery and Make America Healthy Again.
From Page 152 in the Big Book of AA:
“Near you, alcoholics (and other addicts) are dying helplessly like people in a sinking ship. If you live in a large place, there are hundreds. High and low, rich and poor, these are future fellows of Alcoholics Anonymous (programs of recovery). Among them you will make lifelong friends. You will be bound to them with new and wonderful ties, for you will escape disaster together and you will commence shoulder to shoulder your common journey. Then you will know what it means to give of yourself that others may survive and rediscover life. You will learn the full meaning of “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”