Stop being an alcoholic is a very difficult task, sometimes impossible. To stop drinking with the help of narcologists many can, and to stay in a state of sobriety for a long time can only a few. Help in this difficult occupation can the numerous groups of mutual aid, called in the people by the societies of anonymous alcoholics.
Alcoholics Anonymous Groups
Anonymous alcoholics are an ordinary society of people, designed to help each other achieve and maintain a sober lifestyle. Members of such groups are not interested in the age or social status of each other, in the group can be called a fictitious name, and no one will require the beginner no evidence.
The main thing that this group is aimed at is mutual support, the opportunity to speak and be heard in their problems. Here, everyone understands how fragile the abstinence from alcohol, so no one as a consolation will not ask the partner to get out of trouble with a glass or drink a beer in the evening.
The only thing that focuses on is sobriety.
How the
meetings take place Each group consists of 30-50 people. The community is led, as a rule, by a former alcohol-dependent person who managed to hold out for a long time in a state of sobriety.
The purpose of attending classes is to rethink one's life, gain spirituality and new aspirations, re-educate the alcoholic and guide his thoughts into a new, non-alcohol-related channel.
Achieving these goals for the meeting is built on some principles:
- the principle of partnership;
- principle of mutual assistance;
- belief in yourself and in people who are with you near.
Group members meet weekly. During the meetings, participants discuss current affairs, emerging problems, help each other with advice and share their experiences. The friendly support of the same dependent person helps to keep from using more than the advice of the most titled doctor-psychotherapist.
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At all meetings, the basic dogmas that the society lives by are read out. These rules are called "12 steps".Although they contain a certain religious component, nevertheless no system of worship is imposed on the members of the group, they need faith to accept themselves and change their lives.
Alcoholics Anonymous are self-sufficient, however, there are no mandatory weekly donations in the group. As a rule, any meeting ends with the fact that each participant donates any amount for the current needs of his community - renting a room, a tea ceremony, books.
On the video the meeting of anonymous alcoholics:
12 steps
The program of mutual assistance of alcoholics patients provides for mandatory adherence to certain canons that were developed at the origin of anonymous alcoholics in the USA by its creators.
The twelve steps that an alcoholic must undergo to get rid of heavy addiction are:
- Recognize yourself as a sick person, whose life is controlled by alcohol. Perhaps this is the most difficult step - dependent people rarely consider themselves so, usually taking any next dose of alcohol is any excuse, only not a painful addiction.
- Recognition of the fact that there are more powerful forces capable of guiding the patient to the true path of sobriety.
- Give yourself and your will to those higher forces in which this person believes - the tasks that the third step takes. For some, these forces will be the forces of nature, for others - God, the third believe in astral forces. The main thing is to entrust your will and your consciousness to this unknown "manager".
- Cognition of their deepest moral qualities, which led this particular person to a serious illness. This is a very difficult step, which not everyone can wish to heal. But even here the wise companions who have already passed the way of knowing oneself come to the rescue.
- Recognizing your previous attitudes and values as incorrect. At this stage, it is important to transfer all your inner feelings and feelings of guilt to the higher mind and people in the external environment, to acknowledge all your mistakes.
- Absolute readiness to get rid of its shortcoming.
- Prayers to God about getting rid of your shortcomings. The step is connected with humility before the higher powers.
- Drawing up a list of people to whom there is a sense of guilt. A powerful psychotherapeutic technique aimed at purifying your "I" from a deep sense of guilt and resentment.
- Redemption of guilt for all who have been hurt. This step contributes to the complete cessation of the guilt that destroys the feelings, smoothing out their impartial actions towards others.
- Continuous self-analysis and self-transformation, self-improvement. Without internal aggression caused by a sense of guilt, it becomes very easy to move on along the path of sobriety.
- Prayer for the best powers of peace and spirituality, the desire to live further in sobriety.
- Help newcomers who came to the group, the application of the principles of spiritual life in all spheres of life.
These 12 steps should be done by every newcomer who turned to a group of anonymous alcoholics for help. And let at first it seems not quite clear, the meaning of each step is explained in detail to each dependent person who came for help.
12 Steps of Anonymous Alcoholics:
12 Traditions of
It's little known that in addition to the 12 mandatory steps that an alcoholic should make on his way to recovery, the society has certain traditions.
They, as usual, also 12:
- Unity and community of the group are paramount. Personal well-being depends on the cohesion of the team. This, of course, does not mean that everyone is obliged to follow certain immutable truths. Nevertheless, if all alcoholics go amicably towards the goal - sobriety - then the chance that someone will break is really small.
- Understanding that the higher mind is the most important authority. None of the leaders of society has the right to order or exclude other people from society.
- To be an active member of the society of anonymous alcoholics you need only one thing - a firm desire to quit with alcohol forever.
- No group is in any way dependent on the others.
- The main goal of each group is to bring to the consciousness of alcoholics those spiritual values that help on the path to healing.
- Anonymous alcoholics are not a commercial organization, they do not support any business projects. No external financial perspective should distract team members from the main thing - a sober lifestyle, self-knowledge and the desire to bring their ideas to other patients.
- All groups of anonymous alcoholics are self-sufficient.
- A professional can work in any group, however the society should remain independent of the opinion and assistance of qualified specialists from the outside, since only an addict can deeply understand the problems of his fellow-soldier in misfortune.
- There should not be any rigid hierarchy in the activity of the society, nevertheless, it is possible to create some structures that will directly subordinate to each other in order to maintain the connection of members of society and solve organizational problems.
- The Society does not participate in public discussions that are not related to alcoholism.
- The Society guarantees anonymity to all its participants. Any propaganda of the group's ideas is carried out at the expense of outsiders.
- The main principle of the group is complete anonymity.
All these principles are indispensable for any community of anonymous alcoholics, wherever it starts its activities.
Reviews of practicing doctors
Despite the fact that the society of anonymous alcoholics promotes high figures of healed patients, the attitude of Russian specialists to this program is not so enthusiastic. And the Orthodox Church did not even recognize these cells as sectarian.
Narcologists, who have been watching alcoholics for many years in different periods of their illness, unequivocally say that in Russia this program has not caught on. Why?
First, a person who admitted to being sick is, in principle, ready for therapy. Then why should he go to some incomprehensible assembly, where, having met with the same alcoholics, he could easily find himself drinking companions and fail? Why should not he go to the clinic or undergo a good rehabilitation course with a competent psychotherapist?
The second point - society is inspired by the idea that in case of violation of principles a person will die. This strong sense of danger contributes to breakdowns in 95% of alcoholics.
Reviews of alcoholics
If you read the reviews themselves dependent on alcohol, then everything is not so unambiguous. Some patients claim that only the program of anonymous alcoholics helped them to leave a serious illness in the past and to find peace of mind and peace. Others can not accept the necessity of permanent life in the group and start thinking about moving to sobriety groups under the Orthodox church.
In any case, everyone finds their own hook for sobriety in the endless cycle of drinking and eating. The main thing is to realize your illness and take at least some steps to recovery, be it 12 or less. The main thing is not to stop halfway, but to overcome the cravings completely.