There are many roads that can take someone down the path of recovery.

Many people find that they are at a point in their lives where change is necessary.

Finding the right tools to facilitate change is vital to make recovery happen.

Often it takes hitting rock bottom before people realize just how out of control their lives are. There are many steps to recovery.

Realizing that you must begin this journey is hard to understand, but once you’ve made the decision to change, here some of the steps to recovery.

 

Steps To Recovery

 

1. Reaching Outside of Yourself

There are a lot of moments of reflection when beginning the process of recovery. Reflecting on past experiences, pulling from memories and events to help find the next step. One of the first steps to recovery is reaching outside of yourself.

You realize that you need help.

You seek others support in finding the right help.

It can be a very humbling experience to admit to yourself and others that you are in a situation where you are out of control.

 

2. Finding Help

Finding the right form of help is another step to recovery.

Many people reach out to friends and family for guidance at this time. Residential treatment is a great logical next step for those that have found themselves battling substance abuse. Substances are powerful forces that interrupt the normal process of our bodies.

They can stimulate or depress several normal functions.

These substances can also be extremely dangerous to stop taking cold-turkey. It is important to find the right medical help as well as the right mental health when beginning the steps to recovery.

 

3. Following Through

Once you’ve started the steps to recovery, it is important to see it through.

There may be times that you want to quit. It’s important to remind yourself often of your goals, motivation for change and why you decided to begin this process.

There are many different levels of motivation. One motivation that provides quite a bit of social support is our beliefs or religious perspectives.

The system of beliefs that we surround ourselves with, whether they relate to a deity or spirit or another level of consciousness, can provide us with support.

 

12 Steps Programs

One of the most popular systems of recovery are the 12 Steps programs through Alcoholics Anonymous.

For those of you that haven’t been to a meeting, here are the steps as outlined in this program:

1- We admit we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had become unmanageable.
2- Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3- Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4- Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5- Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6- Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7- Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

8- Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9- Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10- Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11- Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will or us and the power to carry that out.
12- Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

http://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk/About-AA/The-12-Steps-of-AA

 

Creating A Culture For Healing

There are many different recovery programs that involve steps within the program similar to the one in A.A. but they include other things besides just alcohol addiction.

There are programs for people that have problems with debt, drugs, eating, etc.

These programs provide structure for recovery and help guide people through a very challenging process. While these steps may not fit every persons’ experience exactly, there are many people that have benefited from joining these programs.

The point of progressing in recovery is to ensure that the right changes can be made.

It’s all about finding where things went wrong and re-working your life in a way that will allow you to move forward. The goal of recovery isn’t to be mediocre. Recovery gives people a chance to participate in living life to its fullest.

These steps to recovery provide structure and support.

 

Meetings are a great tool in addition to residential or outpatient therapy. Recovery is a big deal – and it is important to keep that in mind.

This is hard, but this is worth it. Find the right help. Find the right medical attention. Those that work in the field of addiction recovery all have a story and compassion for the events that occur in some one’s life.

You can find happiness and we can help.

If you or someone that you love may be looking to find the right steps for their recovery journey, please call our admissions team: 888-358-8998.