Support Groups

There are not many places in the world where you will find more honesty and courage than in an addiction meeting. It is an amazing experience unlike any other that helps in so many ways for a recovering addict or alcoholic.

• They can help you decide if you have an addiction. Any person can go to a support meeting and hear another person’s story and decide if there are any similarities between their story and your own. It helps you overcome the denial you may be holding about your own addiction. You can see and understand that literally anybody can be battling with addiction no matter his or her background, religion, financial status or race. Addiction is a battle; it is comforting to know that you are not alone.

• You meet people going through the same thing as you. The premise behind a group is that you feel stronger when you belong to a group who are doing the same thing as you are. Peers can model healing from each other. The person, who has already been where you are, helps the new member. An addict’s first reaction is to deal with it in their own because addiction and alcoholism is an isolating disease. These groups give people the chance to reach out and ask for the help they need.

• It shows you that recovery is possible. When you see that other people have recovered from addiction and are not longer in a hopeless state of mind, it helps others develop the confidence they need to change their life as well. One of the fears many addicts and alcoholics have is that their life won’t be as interesting and feel smaller once they get sober. Support groups give others a chance to meet new people whose lives are bigger and more fun now that they have stopped using.

• You learn other people’s techniques for recovery. These meeting are a resource where you can ask others in the same boat as you how they handles certain situations.

• These meeting are a judgment free zone. Many addicts and alcoholics have a lot of difficulty sharing their emotions and experiences because they are afraid of feeling judged or as though no one will understand them. The people in these groups won’t judge because they have heard it all before and likely experienced some of the same things your afraid of sharing about.

• Support groups are a safe place to go. If you are having a bad day, or need to get out of harm’s way, you can go to a meeting. It is especially useful when you feel ling using. Spend a couple hours in a meeting and when you come out you will feel better and motivated again about your recovery.