12 Step Program redux

I'd like to offer a non-higher power version of the 12 steps. The version I have written is godless and instead focuses on personal accountability over 'the devil made me do it' excuses. It worked for me, and I am alone in my efforts in a den of drug users.

Your input would be welcomed, pro of con; so long as you come with an open mind and intelligent response.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/7764942/addiction_and_the_...

0 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Pikato on March 21, 2011 at 11:16pm

Thanks a lot for bringing up this topic for discussion.I'm also an addict and i'd problem searching for help in the internet and everywhere else regarding this particular topic.The people(recovering addicts) i know out here who are sober,clean for a long time always tells me to go to meetings or rehab ( i've gone to rehab twice already) if i want to stay clean,but it pisses me off because whenever i go to a meeting,they talk to me about higher power and when i tell them that am an atheist,they just tells me to start believing in a higher power for my sobriety for my own sake,as if i can do that,like just changing my cloths or hairstyle or the frames of my glasses (hahaha....).i know some of them genuinely wants to help me out but none of them really gets me,they can't see it from my point of view.Well,just knowing that someone else think,felt or feels like what i did and do cliche' it might sounds but really i don't feel so lonely anymore.Again,Thank you very much.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by JD Stockman on March 22, 2011 at 12:33pm

In a lot of cases, the 12 steps in their original format do help people and for them, there is nothing wrong with them. If it works for them, it is because of two things: either they are Christians or have a flexible understanding of what "God" is.
I suspect, however, that the reason it doesn't work is for a lot of people is because they are Atheists (obviously) or they are lying to themselves or their concept of "God" and are, in truth; non-believers.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by JD Stockman on March 22, 2011 at 12:35pm

wierd... my comment was edited down by a few paragraphs

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by JD Stockman on March 22, 2011 at 12:36pm

thank you for the compliment by the way

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Aim on March 31, 2011 at 6:17pm

Thanks, JD.

I'm sober almost 28 years. I haven't been to a 12 step meeting in 9 years. When we know better, we do better, eh?

I don't recommend the program anymore, at all. The fear that is influenced into unsuspecting, often vulnerable minds is not fair, honest or necessary. Besides the God push, it is often said that if you don't continue to go to meetings, help the new comer, be of service, have a sponsor, and read the big book, that you'll likely go back to drinking/using. It is a commonly held belief in the program, that if you don't have a God, that you have no spiritual defense against the first drink, as if your own ability to choose otherwise isn't enough.

The last time I went to a meeting, I was asked to share from the podium. I let them know they were far more powerful than they had been lead to believe. I talked about the power of intent, and focus and conscious choice. After I sat down, a man with 10 years more time than me, told that same room of people that if they wanted to learn about any of what I spoke of, that they could take a class at UCLA and end up in a bar afterward. Powerlessness is defended in the meetings, as is the idea of "disease."

There is something to be said for thought patterns. I'm no neurologist, but it seems to me that any extended amount of time that I focus on the thought to drink or use drugs, I begin to feel as if taking the action is more and more appealing. It begins in my head, every time. If I allow myself to become emotionally attached to the thought to get high, chances are, given enough time, I'll get high. Apparently, every time those thoughts have run through my head, I redirected my thinking to thoughts that had nothing to do with using.

I thought you might be interested to know about SMART recovery as well. A 4 step program based on "scientific knowledge."