Alcohol use disorder (AUD) and substance use disorder (SUD) are two of the leading preventable causes of premature death and disability on the planet. Developing a chemical dependency can happen to anyone, but genetics, family history, and trauma predispose some people to addiction. Addiction destroys lives, families, careers, and dreams. 12-step therapy, when combined with professional New Hampshire addiction treatment programs, is many people’s best hope for getting sober and reconnecting with their life’s purpose. Contact Bonfire Behavioral Health by calling 603.617.4815 to learn about how participating in our 12-step program can provide a foundation for your recovery.
What Is a 12-Step Program?
The 12-step program aims to help participants initiate and sustain AUD and SUD remission while improving psychological well-being, interpersonal skills, and coping mechanisms. Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous (NA) use the 12-step program as the backbone of their community-building support meetings. During meetings, members share personal accounts of their alcohol and drug addiction. They also share recovery experiences and help one another practice the principles encompassed in a 12-step program. Many of the programs we offer at Bonfire Behavioral Health incorporate components of the 12-step program, including:
- Residential addiction treatment program
- Partial hospitalization program
- Intensive outpatient program
What Are the 12 Steps?
The 12-step program is a set of principles designed to guide participants through a course of action for problems associated with drug and alcohol addiction. Rehab centers across New Hampshire use the 12 steps to guide their instruction and promote healing. Following the 12 steps has helped countless individuals change their lives for the better. The 12 steps include:
- Step 1: Admitting we are powerless over alcohol (any addiction) and that our lives had become unmanageable.
- Step 2: Coming to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
- Step 3: Making the decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of a higher power.
- Step 4: Making a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
- Step 5: Admitting to our higher power, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
- Step 6: Being ready to allow our higher power to remove our character defects.
- Step 7: Humbly asking our higher power to remove our shortcomings.
- Step 8: Making a list of all the people we harmed and showing the willingness to make amends to them all.
- Step 9: Making direct amends whenever possible, except when to do so would injure them, ourselves, or others.
- Step 10: Continuing to take a personal inventory and promptly admitting when we are wrong.
- Step 11: Using prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with our higher power, praying only for an understanding of our higher power’s will for us and the power to carry out that will.
- Step 12: After experiencing a spiritual awakening as a result of this process, we try to carry this message of hope to other alcoholics and addicts. We practice these principles in all our affairs.
Working through these steps, with the help of a mentor, can help those in recovery make lasting changes in their lives.
Addiction’s Impact on the Economy
The economic burden associated with alcohol and drug dependency is colossal, amounting to more than $250 billion annually in the U.S. alone due to lost productivity, crime, and increased healthcare costs. Many Dover residents don’t realize just how much money they spend on alcohol and drugs.
Healing Starts at Bonfire Behavioral Health
If you are concerned that you have become dependent on a substance that is harming yourself or others, contact Bonfire Behavioral Health today. Call our team at 603.617.4815 to learn how our life-changing programs, including 12-step therapy, can help you or a loved one start living a more joyful, connected, independent life.