Back to Understanding the Twelve Steps: Understanding the Twelve Steps features: Clear, easy-to-understand interpretation of the Twelve Steps — the vital building blocks of recovery Checklists that summarize the tasks and objectives of each step The Twelve Promises — the positive changes you can expect in your life if you follow the Twelve Steps What happens at Twelve Step meetings and why it is important to have a sponsor The experiences, strength, and hope of other recovering people.
From Library Journal This highly accessible guide to the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous comes at a time when the popularity of such programs are at an all-time high. About the Author Terence T. Gorski is the president of The CENAPS Corporation, a training and consultation firm specializing in recovery from addictive disease and relapse prevention therapy.
He is a popular speaker and conducts training and workshops in more than twenty different cities each year. He is the clinical director of the National Relapse Prevention Certification School, which trains counselors and therapists in relapse prevention therapy methods. This book describes the single, most effective program for the treatment of alcoholism. That program, of course, is Alcoholics Anonymous, best known as A.
twelve steps | Terry Gorski's Blog
Alcoholics Anonymous is a worldwide fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength, and hope with each other in an effort to recover from alcoholism. It is a voluntary fellowship. No one is forced to belong, but millions of voluntary members benefit greatly from their involvement. If you want to make Twelve Step programs work for you, you need to understand the fellowship of A.
This book is intended to help you do just that. Many people find the miracle of sobriety by working the Twelve Steps. Since nothing else has worked for them, many believe that the Steps are mystical and magical, and, as a result, these same persons fail to search for and identify the underlying principles that make them work.
The miracle occurs because working the Twelve Steps allows people to use powerful principles of recovery. Those who are willing to dig beneath the surface and truly understand the principles upon which the Steps are based are better able to use the principles in their lives. The primary purpose of A. It was never intended to be all things to all people; however, A. These related fellowships are developing as separate organizations so that A.
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Knowledge of the Twelve Steps is of critical importance to all recovering people for two reasons: As a result, they are the most widely used lifeline for people recovering from chemical dependence, codependence, and other compulsive or addictive disorders. As a result of the Traditions, A. There are no medical professionals, as such, involved in designing or running A. Although medical professionals do join as members, they have no more or no less influence on the organization than other members.
Twelve Step programs do not provide medical or psychiatric treatment or psychotherapy. If you are involved in any Twelve Step program that has a psychotherapist in charge who runs it like a therapy group, be cautious. You are probably not at a Twelve Step meeting.
This situation rarely, if ever, occurs in A. If you are attending a Twelve Step meeting that is run by a psychotherapist who individually counsels the members, it is not a Twelve Step meeting; it is a therapy group. It is important to learn the difference, because Twelve Step meetings are based on the Twelve Steps of A. Members can be assured that they are not going to be solicited for donations or asked to get involved in anything else.
Individual members of A. There are no restrictions. But they are not allowed to present themselves as A. Nobody is forced to do anything in A. It is one of the few organizations I know that supports the inherent constitutional right to do what we want.
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There is no coercion to participate on any level. You are welcome to attend meetings and work the Steps. For most members, however, their involvement progresses through a number of levels. At the first level, they attend meetings. At the second, they read Twelve Step literature and discuss it with other members of the program.
At the third level, they get a sponsor who can show them how the program works. At the fourth level, they start working the Twelve Steps. As members start to grow and change — a result of attending meetings and working the Steps — they are ready to move to a fifth level of involvement and begin sponsoring others. After they gain experience as sponsors, they are then ready for the sixth level of involvement, general service work, guided by A. General service work is designed to benefit A.
Individuals help themselves first, then they help other people in the program, then they help the program as a whole. In summary, the levels of involvement are as follows:. You start working a Twelve Step program by regularly attending meetings. Working a program means you need to get actively involved, participating at the meetings you attend. No one in a Twelve Step program is obligated to say more. Most people, however, want to say more because they find it both enjoyable and beneficial. The more open and honest your comments, the faster you get well. Many members suggest attending ninety meetings in ninety days.
There is no rule, of course, that you have to attend exactly ninety meetings in the first ninety days; go as often as your lifestyle allows. But keep in mind that the more meetings you attend, the faster you will get well. Meetings are the lifeline to sobriety. When you attend meetings, you take a needed time-out from an alcohol- and drug-centered world and remind yourself that you are an alcoholic, cannot safely use alcohol and other drugs, and that you need the fellowship of other sober alcoholics to stay sober.
The second level of involvement is to read Twelve Step literature and discuss your reactions, both positive and negative, with other members. The early members of A. These books provide the basic principles needed to begin living the sober life. After you feel comfortable going to meetings, making comments, and reading the basic literature, the third level of involvement is to get a sponsor.
A sponsor is another member of the Twelve Step program who has more experience at recovery than you do. In order to get a sponsor, you must have participated in the program long enough to get to know people. Listen to the comments of others. Try to find someone you respect and admire, someone who knows more than you do about the program and can show you the ropes. In the business world, a sponsor is called a mentor. You find a sponsor who has the type of recovery you would like to have, ask him to teach you what steps he took, and then try to do those things in your recovery.
A therapist does not take the place of a sponsor. You need a Twelve Step sponsor even if you have the best therapist in the world. A good therapist will encourage recovering people to become involved in Twelve Step programs and to get a sponsor. The relationship between regular attendance in Step Programs and improved treatment outcomes is well established. This is why Step Facilitation , which is an evidenced-based practice, regular attendance at Step Meetings, and systematically working the steps with a sponsor has been strongly recommended to support Relapse Prevention Therapy RPT.
When addiction professionals recommend Step Programs as part of an addiction recovery program it is import to be aware of the controversy and legal opinions related to the question if Alcoholics anonymous and other step programs are religious in nature according to the law.
This controversy is explored in an in-depth blog: Here is an abstract of a article reporting on a six-month followup study regarding A. Gossom and his associates studied the relationship between attendance at Alcoholics Anonymous AA meetings prior to, during, and after inpatient treatment and treatment outcome was studied. The research sample included patients in an inpatient alcohol treatment program who met ICD criteria for alcohol dependence. The following results of the study were seen:. It is concluded that adequate aftercare services are often lacking and that AA is a useful aftercare resource.
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Is attendance at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings after inpatient treatment related to improved outcomes?: A 6-month follow-up study. Alcohol and Alcoholism, 38 5: Long-term recovery is possible. It happens all the time. The proof is all around us. Some people achieve long-term recovery after their first attempt. Others find long-term recovery after one or more relapse episodes. Some people die of the disease. Relapse is more often a temporary setback than a sign of permanent failure. Many recovering people have several relapse episodes and they learn vital lessons from each one and eventually achieve long-term recovery.
Addiction is a chronic lifestyle-related disease. The antidote for addiction is to live a sober and responsible life. My primary message is this: I am not saying that relapse is a necessary thing or a good thing. I am just saying that relapse tends to be part of recovery from chronic lifestyle related illnesses, of which alcoholism and drug addiction is one. Expect the best in recovery and work to achieve it. Have an emergency Plan B to stop relapse quickly and get back into recovery.
I hope you will never need to use Plan B. Having a Plan B, however, can save lives should a relapse occur. Gorski , Author , April 25, Recovery can be a long road home, but many people make the journey and arrive safely. This is demonstrated by a study by Keith Humphreys, Rudolf H. This means moving rom an acute care treatment model to a chronic care model is important to improving long-term recovery rates. Acute Care Treatment Models focus upon intensive up-front treatment at high levels of care, often medically supervised detoxification and residential rehabilitation while neglecting ongoing coordinated long-term continuing care.
In contract, Chronic Disease Management Models for the treatment of alcoholism focus upon improving long-term recovery rates by providing effective stabilization services matched to patient needs, managing relapse by stopping it quickly should it occur, and supporting ongoing recovery that changes as the needs of patients change over the course of a lifetime. It is important that addiction professionals become familiar with the effectiveness of Long-term Chronic Disease Management Approaches to the treatment of addiction.
The following outline can be used for presentation summarizing the Humphreys et al study. Feel free to use it in your public presentations. Long-term studies of the course of alcoholism suggest that a variety of factors other than professional treatment influence the process of recovery. This study evaluated the role of these factors in predicting remission and psychosocial outcome over 8 years. In this study a sample of previously untreated alcoholic individuals was recruited at detoxification units and alcoholism information and referral services. At each contact point, participants completed A self-administered inventory that assessed their:.
My name is Marti MacGibbon and I am an addiction treatment professional, award-winning author, a professional humorous, and an inspirational speaker. I specialize in addiction, trauma resolution, recovery, resilience, and all forms of inspiration. I am also a person in long-term recovery from addiction, with 18 years chemical-free.
Terry Gorski for his life work. Terry has dedicated his life to creating practical systems of recovery that are describe step-by-step skills that can be learned and used. He presents these skills in clear, easy-to understand, and no-nonsense language. He has always put recovering people and their families first. His primary goal has to help people to live sober and responsible. His methods have always fostered a movement from dependence, to independence, and then to interdependence.
His methods are always collaborative and respectful. He believes in rational thinking and sober responsible living. Terry Gorski has dedicated his life to helping addicted people and their families to learn effective skills for helping themselves to recover. In Get Up , he shares the knowledge he gained on his journey, from being afraid of the step philosophies to embracing them, motivating others to join him in their own efforts to get clean.
Sinister, a spoken word artist, poet, and performer, well-known on the West Coast for his grabbing, truthful, funny performances, puts out his own story, no frills, no excuses, and no holds barred. He offers a tough-love approach to recovery for all those, like him, who are turned off by traditional recovery books. Sinister got sober using the step program, has stayed sober, and now he leads the very group he joined on his path to recovery.
In Get Up , he shares the stories and the steps that come from the self-identified scum bags who just might save your life. He talks straight to readers about how to make it work if they can't buy into the program right away. For example, Higher Power can be a whole lot of things-Thor and metaphor among them. He helps readers to accept the group in spite of their differences, rather than walking away. Read more Read less. Add both to Cart Add both to List. One of these items ships sooner than the other.
Buy the selected items together This item: Ships from and sold by Amazon. Customers who bought this item also bought. Page 1 of 1 Start over Page 1 of 1. Addicts Talk About Living Sober. Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. Here's how restrictions apply. From Publishers Weekly This self-help book for the substance-abusing artistically—and atheistically—inclined is both a ringing endorsement of AA and a brilliant piece of literary performance with poetic and savagely funny insights.
Conari Press October 1, Language: Start reading Get Up on your Kindle in under a minute. Don't have a Kindle? Try the Kindle edition and experience these great reading features: Share your thoughts with other customers. Write a customer review. Read reviews that mention higher power self help bucky sinister great book step program highly recommend thank you bucky step meetings recovery steps sober god a-team approach funny honest misfits self-help sobriety addict.
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Top Reviews Most recent Top Reviews. There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. This guy's approach to AA and the Twelve Steps is unique and refreshing. Not into the whole "god" thing?
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No problem, he shows how you don't need all that religious talk to make this sober support system work for you. Read it years ago while I was in nursing school. Recently read it again and bought two copies - one for a friend in need, and one for me to keep around as a reference.
Highly recommended for anyone working in substance abuse and for anyone outside the mainstream who just might need a little help climbing up on the wagon. Bucky has a no nonsense approach to recovery. I love the humorous way in which he explains his journey into recovery and the jargon he uses. A person in my life is an actively drinking alcoholic and would qualify as being out of the norm.
I thought this book might resonate with him. I read it first and liked how it's laid out. Now we'll see if my loved one uses it to help with sobriety. My name is Barbara and I'm a Normie. I've spent my whole life surrounded by addicts of diverse flavors but I never got hooked on substances -- work and shopping, that's another story. Somewhere along the line I picked up a basic drug and alcohol counseling certificate because I was doing so much of it around the kitchen table. And, various shrinks have sent me to lots of different 12 Step meetings over the years but they didn't take.
Especially read it if you are a loner, a non-joiner, a biker, a gangsta, an artist, a punk, a tatoo "installer", diagnosed with Asberger's, or enjoy any other condition that makes you feel "different", "special", or not fitting in. Bucky absolutely NAILS that condition and with wild hilarity, can totally motivate you to seek help in getting rid of whatever you want to get rid of. Get Up is the self help book for people who dislike self, help, and self help groups. It's wonderful, even if you're a weird Normie with a zany sense of humor. This is the best book I have found for People who have a hard time getting into AA because of problems with "God" issues.
The writer has an excellent way describing how you can find your own Higher Power without it having to be a "God in Heaven".