In your research of drug and alcohol rehab centres, you have likely run across something known as 12-step addiction rehab. The 12-step strategy is rather common in the UK and throughout the world. It is a strategy that has enjoyed a proven record of success ever since being developed more than seven decades ago.
We’ll explain the 12-step recovery process in just a minute. First, what is it that brings you to our website? Are you here because you suspect you might have an abuse or addiction problem? If so, there is no better time than right now to begin the process of getting the help you need to recover. All you need do to start that process is get in touch with us.
If you are here out of concern for a friend or loved one, we want to help you as well. We know you cannot force the individual you are thinking of to enter rehab. However, should that person make the decision on his or her own, you’ll want to be ready with information about available treatment options. We can give you that information if you contact us.
History of the 12-Step Programme
Throughout the 1920s and early 1930s, alcohol manufacturing, transportation, and sales were all illegal in the United States. However, that did not stop people from drinking. By the time Prohibition ended in 1933, America was facing alcoholism at an alarming rate. Two recovering alcoholics, Bill Wilson and Dr Robert Smith, founded Alcoholics Anonymous in 1938. They developed the 12-step rehab programme for use in their local fellowship.
The programme did not become the official strategy of Alcoholics Anonymous until it was published in a 1939 book chronicling the success rates the fellowship was seeing. Once published, it became the standard programme of rehab treatment for all Alcoholics Anonymous fellowships across the country. By the late 1940s and early ’50s, other organisations were asking permission to use the programme after seeing how successful it was. It is now the standard for most types of addiction recovery around the world.
The 12-Step Principle
It is interesting that most 21st century rehab clinics classify addiction as a disease even while using the 12-step rehab programme. What makes it so interesting is that the 12-step programme is one based on individual behaviour and spiritual outlook rather than clinical disease. In essence, we call addiction a disease but treat it as a behaviour.
In the original 12-step programme, the 12 steps to recovery were written as follows:
- We admitted we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had become unmanageable.
- Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
- Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God, as we understood Him.
- Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
- Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
- Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
- Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
- Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
- Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
- Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
- Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
- Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
In an attempt to make rehab more secular, a number of groups and rehab facilities have altered the original 12-step programme to match their general philosophies. The one thing common to all of the variations is the same, however: the need for the addict to take personal responsibility for him or herself and their actions.
Why It Works
The secret to the success of the 12-step programme is the core of personal responsibility. Upon entering rehab, the average addict sees some external circumstance or other people as the root cause of his or her addiction. They are unable to recognise that they alone are responsible for their actions, thus exacerbating the addiction cycle. The 12-step programme changes this by forcing the addict to do an abrupt about-face.
This about-face is necessary given the fact that the only true cure for addiction is permanent abstinence. Moreover, achieving permanent abstinence requires a decision by the addict to take responsibility for him or herself and their future actions. There is no medication or surgery that can do this for them.
How It Works
A rehab facility utilising the 12-step approach takes advantage of a number of therapies that are integrated into the 12 steps. In most cases, medically supervised detox is the first therapy. Detox is necessary in order to conquer the physical addiction to drugs or alcohol. After detox, the client is put into an extensive rehab programme.
Rehab utilises a number of different behavioural therapies aimed at retraining the recovering addict’s thinking processes. It includes cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), group counselling, individualised counselling, and life skills training.
Time to Act
Whether you are visiting our website for yourself or on behalf of someone else, please take comfort in the fact that the 12-step programme is very successful. It may sound frightening, but millions have completed it and gone on to permanent sobriety. You can too.
Rest assured that throughout your treatment you would be receiving the best care from trained and compassionate professionals who have your best interests at heart. Their goal is to do whatever it takes to ensure you live an addiction free life after you leave their facility. That’s what it’s all about.
If you are ready to begin the journey down the road to recovery, we are ready to help you. Make that choice to pick up the phone or send us an e-mail. We will immediately get to work for you.