Why Mutual Self-Help Groups?
How do mutual self-help groups increase hope?
Participation in Twelve Step mutual self-help meetings can help you to recognize that
- other people have problems very much like yours
- other people have found solutions to their problems
- other people have developed the skills to live in balance
- other people have gone from hopelessness to having hope
You will also learn that other people care about you, care about your recovery, and are willing to help you in your recovery by sharing their own experiences and successes.
How are people in Twelve Step groups able to stay sober and improve their lives?
By sharing their experience, strength, and hope with one another.
What are the only two requirements for joining and participating in a Twelve Step group for co-occurring disorders?
A desire to stop using alcohol or other intoxicating substances.
A desire to manage emotional or psychiatric illness in a healthy and constructive way.
What is an example of things that people often lose when they are using alcohol and other drugs?
Friendships.
Money.
Time.
Jobs.
Health.
This is the support one person gives to another by expressing warmth and concern.
What is affection?
How do mutual self-help groups stop secrecy and isolation?
One of the most common reasons for a failed attempt at sobriety is that people suffer their embarrassment, shame, and hurt in secrecy, keeping their addiction a secret and trying to go it alone.
Attending a Twelve Step group can help address and alleviate these negative feelings.
What is the one requirement for membership in a Twelve Step fellowship?
The desire to stop drinking alcohol, using other drugs, or doing another compulsive behavior.
What is a simple suggestion for recovery often encouraged by Twelve Step groups for co-occurring disorders?
Today, I will be free of alcohol and other intoxicating substances.
Today, I will follow a healthy plan to manage my emotional or psychiatric illness.
Today, I will practice the Twelve Steps to the best of my ability.
When drugs become a part of your life, why do you usually have less time for old friends?
Drug users spend increasingly large amounts of time and energy trying to obtain, use, and recover from the effects of drugs.
If they associate with people, they are usually the ones who share an interest in getting and using alcohol and other drugs, because those are the activities that are important to them.
This is support that involves listening to concerns, sharing opinions, and possibly giving advice.
What is counsel?
How do mutual self-help groups reduce guilt and shame?
Listening to members of a mutual self-help group talk about their failures, successes, fears, and hopes helps you to understand that talking openly about such issues reduces guilt, shame, and blame.
Why is honesty important in a Twelve Step program?
If you fake it, you cannot expect a meeting to be of any help.
A commitment to sobriety and mental health involves honesty.
Why should a person with co-occurring disorders (i.e., alcohol addiction and depression) attend a Twelve Step meeting for co-occurring disorders, instead of just AA?
Traditional Twelve Step groups, such as AA, have a single focus, which some call a "one-disease, one-recovery" model.
People with co-occurring disorders have recovery needs that are not addressed with this narrow focus.
The average person who attends AA might not understand the special recovery needs of people with co-occurring disorders, such as the importance of prescribed medication.
How do alcohol and other drugs affect trust in friendships?
When alcohol and other drugs become and important part of people's lives, trust becomes much more difficult.
The need to use the substances might become stronger than the desire to do the right thing.
People who use alcohol or drugs often make promises that are not kept.
This is material support or the support of providing some service.
What is assistance?
How do mutual self-help groups increase your self-efficacy?
At mutual self-help meetings, you meet people who have had similar experiences.
You will learn how others have dealt successfully with risky situations.
This, in turn, can help increase your confidence in handling similar situations.
Why is it important to trust the Twelve Step program and the people in the program?
If you do not try to trust the Twelve Step program and the people in the program, your progress will be slow.
How can you get the most out of Traditional Twelve Step meetings?
Focus on your sobriety from alcohol or other drugs.
Refrain from talking about your use of appropriately prescribed medications.
Ignore recommendations from other members about medications.
Remember that the focus of traditional Twelve Step meetings is sobriety.
Why is there a strong connection between substance use and violence?
Alcohol and barbiturates can cause people to lose control and do things that they would not normally do.
Stimulants, such as amphetamines and cocaine, cause people to become irritable and act impulsively.
Alcohol and drug use can lead to overdoses, illnesses, and accidents.
Who can help support people who have experienced serious losses?
Family.
Friends.
Professionals and service organizations.
Self-help groups.
Religious and social organizations.
How do mutual self-help groups increase your coping skills?
As you attend meetings, you will hear other people describe strategies that they used to avoid relapse, reduce stress, and manage their medication issues.
You can also learn coping skills from others for dealing with your high-risk areas.
Also, simply attending mutual self-help meetings is a direct way to handle cravings and intense emotions.
What is a key characteristic to look for in a sponsor?
Someone who has several years of sobriety and mental health stability.
Someone who maintains a healthy lifestyle and is not struggling with major problems.
Someone who is an active and regular participant in Twelve Step meetings and is actively working the Twelve Steps.
Someone who relates well to you and respects you, even when you don't agree with him or her.
Someone for whom you do not have sexual or romantic interest.
What is The Serenity Prayer?
God, grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can,
and wisdom to know the difference.
What are two types of triggers that are often "lost" during sobriety?
Rituals: behaviors that occur before, during, and after drug use.
Paraphernalia: things, such as a shot glass, a pipe, crack vials, syringes, or rolling papers.
How do drugs and alcohol affect identity?
When people first use alcohol or others drugs, they still believe that they will not become addicted, and many of them do not become addicted.
Addiction can become your identity.
Recovery involves gaining a new self-image while at the same time losing an old one.