Should I Complete The 12 Steps While I’m In Treatment?
You are here:
Treatment programs are often considered a launching point for recovery. During the short time in treatment, you are working hard to process as much, learn as much, and practice as much as you can for a very good reason. Your hard work in treatment is working toward a simple, realistic, important goal: staying sober. Inside of treatment, you have daily accountability like living in a treatment facility, randomly being screened for drugs, and knowing that if you relapse you could be kicked out. Once you’re on your own, perhaps in sober living, transitional care, or independent, you have to put those practices and information to the test one day at a time.
The reason treatment programs have such a wide variety of options in therapy types, healing modalities, exercise, and philosophy is that nobody recovers the same way. What will work tremendously for one person will not work at all for another person. Offering different ways to connect to recovery and make some meaning in recovering allows people to discover what works for them. Some people don’t respond well to the 12 steps, for example, because they cannot conceive an idea of a higher power and choose to remain atheist or agnostic because that is who they are. Millions of people around the world, of different cultures and religions, speaking different languages, have found the 12 steps to be invaluable to their life. Founders of AA and authors of the 12 steps spent much time creating a spiritual program for living that reflected what they believed to be spiritual values, drawing from many religions, philosophy, and science. What they developed has been unchanged since it was debuted in 1935 and has helped countless individuals create change in their lives.
Starting the 12 steps in treatment is helpful, if you are intending to finish them after treatment. Making it a goal to complete all 12 steps before graduating treatment helps you gain a tremendous amount of skill and knowledge in addition to other therapies. Not only will you be more equipped to handle your life in recovery, you’ll graduate being able to give back and help others by sponsoring them through the twelve steps.
Design For Change requires that every client complete the twelve steps while they are in treatment. Our innovative residential treatment programs give clients the tools they need to find freedom and build hope in recovery. Our programs are changing lives one step at a time. For information, call us today: (877) 267-3646
