Patrick Meninga

Help for Beating Addiction

Straight advice on how to achieve success in recovery from addiction and alcoholism. A no-nonsense guide that gets right to the point and highlights critical actions to take.

What is the secret to tackling a complex problem such as addiction?

Newcomers to recovery will stumble and fail in high numbers because they fail to take action in a few key areas.

Most people think that it is a problem of knowledge, that the chronic relapse victim simply doesn't know how to stay clean. This is untrue because there is no great secret to recovery but there is some hard work involved. So it is a question of conviction and taking some real action in your life.

There are many struggling addicts who have continuously relapsed and keep returning to a 12 step program, completely mystified as to how they can not "get it." They think that they are failing to grasp a key concept of recovery, but in fact what they are doing is failing in terms of execution. It is not a lack of knowledge that defeats them but a lack of action.

Overcoming addiction requires work. It is not going to happen if you are sitting at home on the couch and trying to wish your problem away. There are several alternative programs for staying clean and sober but the most popular ones are 12 step based such as AA or NA. Regardless of which program you follow, the key is in taking action.

None of the recovery programs out there are special or have the secret sauce that the other programs are lacking--it doesn't work that way. You can be sober if you follow virtually any recovery program. The key is in actually following it. You have to take action and do the footwork if you want to reap the benefits.

One of the biggest keys is in finding a way to connect with others in early recovery. Many will do this and still relapse, but the support you get from networking with others in recovery cannot be denied. If you are serious about making it through early recovery then you are going to need help and the best way to do this is to find others who are on the same path. Whether or not you believe in the 12 step program is irrelevant because anyone can benefit from the peer support you can get from that fellowship.

Now this peer support part of recovery is important in early recovery but later on as you enter long term sobriety then something needs to change. The reason for this is because what got you clean and sober will not keep you clean and sober. The tactics you use for early recovery can only carry you so far and eventually you will need to make the shift towards personal growth. If you do this then you can enjoy a lifetime of recovery instead of becoming dependent on meetings and possibly relapsing.

It is not that meetings are bad for the recovering alcoholic or drug addict, but only that a dependency on them that is bad. If you are afraid to quit going to meetings after a few years of recovery then something is wrong. You want to try some different avenues of personal growth so that you do not become entirely reliant on meetings.

Once you motivate yourself to start focusing on personal growth then you can move past the typical recovery path that is primarily meeting-based, group therapy style recovery and start enjoying a new life of sobriety.

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