Daily Recovery

10% Happier, Dan Harris, & Meditating For Recovery

Today I would like to discuss with you a podcast, app, and subscription service called 10% Happier, founded by Dan Harris of ABC’s Nightline & weekend airings of Good Morning America. I am first going to give you a little background into the story behind 10% Happier before I give you my own opinion of the service and describe my experiences thus far with it. It is my intention that this piece becomes a part of a larger series of posts in which we explore the ideas of meditation and mindfulness, and the various ways to practice them, as a core part of one’s individual recovery program and the potential benefits they have to offer.

As I mentioned already, 10% Happier is a podcast, app, & subscription service offering a substantial resource of information about meditation as well as a library of streaming, guided meditations to help get you started. The podcast features in-depth interviews with subject matter experts in psychology as well as people who have made meditation and mindfulness a central focus in their lives. It offers a glimpse into the many benefits of a regular meditation practice, but also addresses the challenges that come along with it. The app and accompanying subscription service opens to members a large library of individual, guided meditations, full-length courses for both beginners and experienced members, as well as, ‘talks,’ which are a more expansive collection of lectures and interviews available exclusively to members.

Dan Harris, the founder of 10% Happier, is a co-anchor of ABC’s Nightline and Good Morning America, who found the healing powers and serenity of meditation after suffering a serious panic attack on air, while he was being broadcast live into the living rooms of thousands of confused viewers. In his book and in interviews, he describes the anxiety he had dealt with his entire personal and professional life as well as the fateful panic attack which led him to take a leave of absence from work, during which he discovered meditation. One thing I quite like about Dan Harris is that he doesn’t claim that meditation is some magical cure-all that anybody can easily tap into and drastically change their lives. On the contrary, he describes how meditation can give you a subtle, yet inherently powerful, way to manage and cope with your emotions and stresses of daily life. And it is from this that 10% Happier gets its namesake.

My father has been meditating for over 30 years and has always tried to get me interested in the subject. It was not until I entered recovery that I became willing to look into it as a potential way of dealing with the deep and disturbing emotions that come with the territory. The first way he way able to get me looking into meditation was by suggesting I attend the Buddhist 12-Step meeting in our area, which I did and became pretty interested in meditation as a part of my recovery.

He had described the 10% podcast to me and put on an episode while we were in the car together one day so that I could hear it for myself, and during it Dan made an advertising pitch for the app and subscription service. As an addict newly in recovery, I don’t have a dime to my name at the moment, so what caught my attention was a line in his promo that instructed those without the financial means to purchase a subscription to simply send him an email and he would be happy to help in any way he could.

So send an email I did, telling them about my addiction and my newfound interest in meditation and mindfulness, and in return I was given a complimentary one-year subscription to the 10% Happier app and access to the library of guided meditations that come with it. Since then I have listened to at least one, if not more, guided meditations on the app, which are grouped into categories for dealing with particular emotions. There are meditations focused on relieving stress, dealing with difficult emotions, getting to sleep, and many, many more. I simply choose a meditation according to how I am feeling at that moment, and I give it a shot.

I am not extraordinarily, ‘good,’ at the whole meditation thing yet, if that is something you can be. My mind wanders constantly and I do not necessarily have good posture as instructed. Yet I can feel the benefits working the more time and intention that I put into my meditation practice. I feel calmer, more aware, and don’t feel like I am on such an emotional rollercoaster every day of my life. When I have intense cravings, I put on a guided meditation. When I can’t sleep, I put on a guided meditation. And while I can’t yet say precisely what it does for me, I certainly feel the benefit. It has become one of my primary tools for coping with the emotional burden of recovery.

Further, the fact they were willing to give me a one year subscription free of charge proved to me that their hearts are in the right place. Dan Harris clearly isn’t about the profits he may get from the subscription to his app or his book sales. He genuinely wants to help people discover one method of coping with the stresses of our lives and to share the benefits of a daily meditation program, just as he was able to do for himself. For this I am extremely thankful, and I told them as much in my email replies, and I look forward to continuing my research into the subject and most importantly my daily meditation practice.

Please do yourself a favor and check it out. If you can’t afford it, send them an email.

G.M.C, 2.3.2020, Day 76

Finding a Sponsor

In recovery, fellowship is the single most important concept and the most essential tool for remaining sober. Building a network of fellow addicts in recovery allows you to tap into a treasure chest of opportunity; It is extremely common for employment opportunities to arise out of relationships built within your recovery network, genuine, healthy friendships develop and provide you with not only company and entertainment, but also and most importantly the essential support that you most certainly will require frequently throughout your recovery. There is a very good reason why fellowship, and the sponsor/sponsee relationship, is central to 12-step programs.

All of this brings me to a topic that I am currently struggling with, and that is the task of seeking out and asking someone to be your sponsor. For somebody like me who is somewhat reserved in group settings, it can easily be an intimidating prospect to ask someone to be your sponsor. Not only that, it is difficult to get to know somebody well enough to even know whether or not you would want them to act as your sponsor. Hearing somebody share for five minutes an evening during an hour-long meeting hardly gives you any real insight into them as a person, let alone whether they would be a good match for you.

So what do we do? How do we go about this first crucial task of our recovery?

What exactly does a sponsor do?

For starters, I think it is important that we clarify what a sponsor is, as well as what a sponsor isn’t. The duties of a sponsor are to act as a mentor and spiritual guide, if you will, as you work through the steps. In meetings, I often hear stories of people who call their sponsor thirty times a day each time something stressful happens or they are experiencing some type of trigger or craving. Your sponsor isn’t a therapist; They aren’t there to hold your hand through every little challenge you face throughout your day. As I said earlier, the role of your sponsor is to assist you and guide you as you work the steps and to provide assistance in strengthening your specific program.

Please don’t get me wrong though, if you are having a moment of difficulty in your recovery, you should absolutely call your sponsor to let out steam and ask for help and guidance in dealing with the situation. They are there to help you in any way they can, but just remember that their primary role is to guide and mentor you as you work the steps of your program.

Don’t put an unreasonable expectation on them to be your personal therapist who should be ready to pick up the phone at any moment to help you get through some minor personal crises. If you want a therapist, in fact if you are in recovery you probably should have a therapist (something I will address in a later post), make an appointment with a licensed professional and do it the right way.

For therapy, go to your therapist. For advice, guidance, and wisdom as it relates to your program as you progress through your steps, talk to your sponsor.

Picking a Sponsor

Picking the right person to act as your sponsor is important. Your personalities should mesh productively together. Please note that I used the word productively, not necessarily ‘nicely.’ Depending on what you want out of your sponsor, you may not want somebody who is afraid to give their true and honest opinion regarding a decision you are making in your recovery. As somebody put it last night in a meeting, you don’t necessarily want somebody who is going to, ‘cosign on your bullshit.’ Choose somebody that is going to nudge you in the right direction and constructively encourage you during your recovery and who provides guidance, clarification, and insights into the steps you are working, but not somebody who is going to stand by and simply watch you make poor decisions that may lead to a relapse.

You want somebody who has worked, and is working, the steps themselves. If a sponsor is supposed to be somebody who provides guidance while you work your steps, they better have worked the steps themselves at some point and they certainly should still be actively doing so.

They don’t necessarily have to have a ton of clean time either. They should have at least a little while, say a year or so (don’t hold me to that though), but they don’t need to have multiple years or decades of experience in recovery to impart any wisdom they have gained during their own recovery. Recovery is an incredibly difficult process, and anybody with any amount of experience with it at all probably has some wisdom that they have earned through experience that may be useful to somebody else.

They don’t have to be significantly older than you. They can be your age or even younger. All that matters is that they have the ability to impart wisdom that they have earned in their recovery and assist you while you work your steps and better your life.

Changing sponsors

At some point after you have found your first sponsor, you may decide that you need to find another one. This is okay. You are not bound to any one person. If you feel that you have outgrown your current arrangement and would like to find someone else, do it. If you are having problems with your sponsor, don’t get along, or simply don’t like him or her, dump them and get a new one. If a sponsor gives you a hard time for wanting to find somebody else for any reason at all, you should probably consider that as evidence in and of itself that you need a new sponsor.

I am open to suggestions….

As I mentioned already, I am currently looking for my first sponsor myself. I am merely sharing with you the knowledge that I have already gained through meetings and conversations with people in recovery. I am by no means an expert on the topic, and seeing as how I don’t even have a sponsor yet myself, I might not even be qualified to discuss it.

If you have any words of wisdom for me, it would be much appreciated. You can find my email address and phone number I use for this blog on my Contact page. Please, reach out. I would love to hear what you have to say. Or leave a comment below.

Nonetheless, I hope this helps you in your search for your sponsor or at least helps you understand what it is you should be looking for.

Much love to you all.

G.M.C., 1.31.2020, Day 73

(Picture at top located @ https://pin.it/zq63bn7h2chxf7)

Things you need to know about cravings & triggers

During the detoxification process and in the first days & months (and years, for that matter) of your recovery, you are absolutely going to experience triggers and cravings that temporarily put you at a much higher risk of relapse during these events. The intensity of such events can be quite high, and for a few moments you will again experience that sense of madness, or insanity, that you may have felt when you were in active addiction.

It is absolutely crucial to be educated about these topics so you can develop tools and strategies to effectively deal with them and retain your sobriety despite these events

CRAVINGS

Addiction to most narcotics is typically characterized by two distinct types of cravings. The first of which are physical cravings, which are the symptoms your body exhibits and associated with withdrawal. These symptoms can include sweating, vomiting, diarrhea, nausea, a racing heart and many others. This type of craving also causes emotional symptoms such as irritability, restlessness, insomnia, and others.

The second classification of cravings are mental, or psychological, cravings. This type of craving is associated with your emotional attachment to a substance and can occur simultaneously with physical cravings in the earliest stages of recovery, but as time moves on and your physical dependence on the drug begins to wane, the cravings you experience will be of this latter classification.

TRIGGERS

Triggers are very closely related to cravings, as a trigger is defined as an event that causes a craving to take hold. As was the case with cravings, there are two main classifications of triggers: internal and external.

It is very important to know how to identify the triggers that affect you the most so that you can develop a strategy to avoid putting yourself into a situation in which you may be triggered, or at the very least minimizing the impact that such a trigger may have on you.

External triggers are defined as people, places, actions, or objects that induce thoughts and cravings related to your particular drug of choice.

People that you associate with your addiction, such as friends you may have used with, your connect(s), or even friends and family that may cause a heightened level of stress put you at risk of being triggered.

It is very important in recovery to develop a strategy that allows you to be successful; Unfortunately this may mean that you have to intentionally cut some people out of your life, at least temporarily. The people you directly associate with your drug use need to be the first to go. This may feel like abandoning your friends, but it is absolutely critical that you keep yourself away from the temptations that may lead you to relapse.

Similarly, you need to try to avoid places that you associate with drug use. The parts of town you used to visit to buy your drugs should generally be avoided. When they cannot be avoided you should never go there alone. At the very minimum, call someone in your sober network to stay on the phone with you while you drive through the area until you a safe distance away. This may sound silly or unnecessary, but it is crucial.

Make a list of the people, places, activities (activities may include concerts, games, anything that you used to do while you were using that may make you want to use again), and things that you associate with your drug use and write down ways that you can eliminate or minimize your contact with them. Again, when contact cannot be avoided, don’t go it alone. Have somebody healthy for your recovery ride along with you or keep them on the phone until the risk has passed.

Even more dangerous to your recovery, however, are internal triggers. This is because internal triggers are associated with your thoughts and emotions and thus cannot be simply avoided or minimized as I had suggested with external triggers.

Almost any emotion such as fear, guilt, anxiety, loneliness or even more positive ones such as excitement, happiness, arousal can be met with an increased desire to use. Boredom, relaxation, tiredness, and others still can all cause one to go into a craving.

The best way to handle these types of triggers, and you may be noticing a pattern here, is to have a healthy member of your trusted sober network on call at all times to be able to talk you through a period of dangerous thoughts.

Building a sober network and developing a fellowship with other recovering addicts is one of the best ways to manage triggers and cravings effectively. This is the main way that organizations such as NA are able to help their members, and anyone familiar with them will attest to that.

Cravings and triggers are NORMAL in recovery

I think that it is important to note that when (not if, when) you experience a trigger and/or craving for a substance it is completely normal. It is par for the course for a drug addict and you don’t need to add to your already overflowing sense of guilt and shame just because you have the desire to use. Everybody in recovery deals with these things and you are not alone.

So the next time you feel you are being triggered or having a craving, just as calmly as you can make a phone call to a trusted member of your sober network. Meet up with them if you have to. Whatever you do, don’t try to handle it alone. You are not stronger than your addiction and you will not be able to handle it by yourself. Do yourself a favor and let go of any reservations about asking for help, and call somebody that can help you through it.

If you can manage to do this you will be so much more successful in your recovery.

I have had a rough couple of days this past week with regards to cravings. I call somebody that can help me and I know that they will pass. Despite the thoughts my disease tells me, I don’t use no matter what. And it is in this way that I know I will be okay.

Have a great day today.

G.M.C., 1.29.2020, Day 71

Guilt & Shame: You are not alone

I heard something that I had never before heard the other day, a man at a meeting made the comment, “Guilt is what you feel as it relates to other people, shame is what you feel for yourself.”

As an addict, we carry around a whole lot of both. The madness & insanity that takes hold of us while in the grip of our addictions cause us to do a tremendous amount of harm to anybody and everybody that has the misfortune of being a part of our lives.

Unfortunately, we typically run off any person with any amount of sense and no real reason to stick by us, and the people that are left to try to deal with us are our families and our closest loved ones.

But we hurt them just the same. We lie to them. We steal from them. We manipulate by any means necessary if it helps us continue using.

The whole time we are doing so we are accumulating guilt and shame to such a degree that it is truly crippling. We lie in bed at night and cry from the misery we feel over hurting somebody close to us. But the following morning, when the time has come to get our fix, such feelings have vanished.

We are ready to do it all again. By any means necessary.

Today is my 70th day clean. Sometimes the past 70 days feels like an eternity, others I am reminded of how short a time period it truly is.

One of the most difficult things I have had to cope with these past two months or so has been the overwhelming sense of guilt and shame I am feeling.

I would be lying if I tried to say that my childhood was anything short of spectacular. I have two loving parents who gave me everything I needed, everything I wanted. Though I didn’t realize it growing up, they provided me with a picture perfect example of what a happy, healthy, & genuine relationship looks like.

I graduated with a B.S. in Electrical & Computer Engineering at Ohio State University with absolutely no debt, thanks to generous contributions to a college fund each year from my grandparents and also to my parents for covering the rest.

Instead of using all of these wonderful gifts I have been given, instead of capitalizing on the enormously advantageous position in life that was given to me, I fell deeper and deeper into my addiction. In the process of digging my way down, I inflicted tremendous pain on the people who love me the most.

I have stolen from my family. I have stolen from my friends. I have broken the trust I took for granted my entire life up to this point.

Now, at 28 years old, I have just returned to my hometown and to the home of my childhood a broken man and shadow of the man I was poised to become. My car was repossessed, the possessions that I didn’t sell for money to get high were stolen from me, I am in legal trouble.

I look around the neighborhood and see the people that I grew up with as they stop by to visit their parents; They have nice cars, they are taking care of children of their own, they are busy with good jobs and good lives.

But here I am.

It is difficult no to to dwell on these things, but I know that I am now on the right path. If I am successful in learning how to apply the tools I have learned in recovery to my daily life I know that I will regain everything that I have lost. If I put the work in trust will be earned once again.

I know that everything will fall into place if I can just stick to my program.

It is easy to look at the horrible mess you have created for yourself and your loved ones and to just say, ‘fuck it.’ It is easy to continue down the path of substance abuse that will ultimately lead to your death, but there is another option.

You can learn to live without drugs. You can get your life back. You are not alone in feeling the guilt and shame caused by your addiction. Give yourself permission to release those anxieties, worries, and fears and allow yourself to heal.

In time you will be very glad you did.

G.M.C., 1.28.2020, Day 70

B12 – The Buddhist 12 Step Meeting

Overview & Format

When I first started taking my recovery seriously a couple months ago, I really wanted to find a way to keep my mind not only occupied, but genuinely interested in whatever I was doing. An idle mind can put an addict at a significantly increased risk of relapse.

From the start, I planned on trying to regularly attend N.A. & A.A., but my father actually was able to point me to something a little more unique: a Buddhist 12-Step Meeting held at the Buddhist Dharma Center of Cincinnati. I briefly mentioned this meeting in my January 25th post about meetings, but I thought that it could be helpful if I went into a little more detail about this supplemental twelve-step program for anyone who may be interested.

The format of the meeting is simple; We start with a 20-30 minute guided meditation (led by an experienced member of the group) before reading from the current literature that is being studied. Currently, the group is reading through The 12-Step Buddhist, written by Darren Littlejohn.

After about 20-30 minutes of taking turns reading aloud from the book, the group begins to discuss that nights’ reading and anything they took away from it and/or how it relates back to their recovery. It is my understanding that literature is read on a rotating basis and when the group finishes one book, they then move onto another.
I think it is important to note that this meeting is intended to be a supplement to a traditional 12-step program, and not necessarily meant to be the central focus of any persons’ personal program. What you choose to share at this meeting is intended to be related to the reading that is being discussed.

Thoughts on this program

Prior to attending this meeting, I had no real experience with Buddhist principles or teachings aside from what I have learned in school and picked up from various sources over the years. I do not strongly identify with any formal religious group and tend to be a little on the skeptical side when it comes to anything religious in nature.

However, I very quickly noticed that meeting-goers were open about their motivations for attending the meeting; Some people just wanted to see what, if anything, Buddhist teachings could be applied to their own personal recovery, others were merely curious about it, and others still (a category that I include myself in) were just trying out what they saw as unique meeting opportunities and wanted to see what it was all about. I guess what I am trying to get across is that you do not need to identify or intend to identify as a Buddhist to attend the meeting.

There is a very common saying in A.A. & N.A. That applies very well in this situation: “Take what you want and leave the rest”

This I have always took to mean that you should have the awareness and ability to listen to what is being taught at a meeting or gathering of any type and decide for yourself what you would like to take away from it. You don’t have to agree with everything, but if there is any concept at all that you think you can apply to your recovery and that will help you be successful, by all means, utilize it.

Meditation & Recovery

Attending the Buddhist 12-Step meeting had a much larger impact than I ever could have imagined on me. After the very first guided meditation that I completed at the Buddhist Dharma Center, I noticed a marked change in my mindset. I was calm. I was less stressed. I was relaxed. It had been years since I had felt that level of calm, and I absolutely loved it.

What this meeting actually did for me was awaken an interest in meditation as not only a tool to help me be successful in my recovery, but also a tool to help me be successful in life in general. I felt so good after this quiet meditation that I went home and began researching meditation and found a vast amount of information on the topic on the internet.

I subscribed to related podcasts, borrowed some meditation DVDs from my Dad, and was actually given a subscription to a fantastic guided meditation service called 10% Happier after emailing them and explaining my situation. They gave me a one year subscription to all of their guided meditations free of charge, due to the fact that I don’t have the financial means to purchase it. I cannot possibly thank them enough for this, and I will be writing a formal review of and words of thanks to the 10% Happier organization.

In the end, it was the Buddhist 12-Step meeting that started an interest in meditation for me and the many ways it can help someone in recovery remain clean and be successful. For that I am extremely thankful and I look forward to my continued attendance at this meeting.

If you live in the area, I have linked to the Buddhist Dharma Center of Cincinnati’s website so you can find more information about how you can attend.

G.M.C., 1.27.2020, Day 69

Be grateful today.

Picture at top of page: https://pin.it/nlfecflgqhohs6

Intensive Outpatient Programs: My Experience at Sun Behavioral Health in Erlanger, KY

On January 27, 2020, I graduated from an Intensive Outpatient Program (I.O.P.) at the Erlanger, Kentucky location of Sun Behavioral Health, which was essentially therapist-led, group therapy for patients suffering from substance abuse that may or may not be accompanied by a dual-diagnosis of another mental health issue.

This particular program required attendance three days a week for three hours each of those days for six weeks (18 sessions), though I know that some facilities may have attendance and time requirements that differ from this. I think it might be helpful for somebody researching different levels of treatment if I shared a little about my experience in this program.

I think it appropriate to start by saying that I thought this program was nothing less than spectacular.

I started in the first day in a mindset very similar to the one I was in the day I attended my first N.A. Meeting; I was pretty skeptical about the whole thing. I had never been to therapy of any type, found it difficult to openly discuss my thoughts and emotions in a group setting, and was generally pretty uncomfortable with the whole situation.

Each session started with a ‘check-in’ sheet that patients were asked to fill out before taking turns discussing how they had answered the questions given at the start of the meeting. The check-in process was basically a device through which the therapist could gauge the patients current state of mind, observe any progress, and discuss any potential issues anybody may be having with their current medication.

After everyone had shared, we moved on to our daily discussion, which touched on a number of useful recovery related subjects. We created a relapse prevention plan and discussed ways to cope with cravings and effectively handle any triggers we may come across. Since I was in the program over the holidays, we discussed ways to constructively handle stresses, triggers, and emotions that may come about as a result of the holiday season.

I will admit that it took me a few sessions to get on board, but after I had listened to other people share their thoughts and experiences, I began to open up a little more to the therapists and the other patients in treatment. I can even say that I made a few friends that I have kept in close contact with.

Little by little, group therapy started truly helping me. It provided me with a number of valuable tools and strategies for dealing with the worst of my cravings, helped me effectively identify and manage my triggers, and most importantly helped develop my ‘sober-network.’

There were two full-time therapists that shared responsibility for the Intensive Outpatient Program who did an absolutely wonderful job connecting with patients and were actually able to provide a surprisingly individualized level of care. Any patient wishing to discuss anything sensitive were met with privately during breaks or before or after the session.

An on-site doctor was constantly kept in the loop with information regarding medication for each individual patient. Most importantly, both therapists were extremely easy to get along with and obviously very passionate about what they do for a living.

My experience at Sun was overwhelmingly positive. I graduated feeling like I had a number of new tools at my disposal to help me successfully navigate my journey through recovery.

G.M.C., 1.26.2020, Day 68

Things you should know about meetings…

An overview of the most common 12-step programs

If you have been through any amount of treatment, you will be very familiar with the attempts of facility staff members to convince patients to attend the twelve-step meetings that are typically offered at several times throughout the course of each day. The frequency of meetings vary from day to day and from facility to facility, but there are generally two organizations that offer regular meeting opportunities: Alcoholic’s Anonymous and Narcotic’s Anonymous.

Both organizations are examples of twelve-step programs focused on assisting addicts obtain and sustain sobriety by way of offering a fellowship of like-minded (or rather, ‘like-problemed’) individuals that meet regularly to discuss their disease and support one another.

Some individuals may initially be turned off, skeptical, or potentially intimidated by the groups’ spiritual focus and belief in a ‘higher power,’ use of regular prayer, or a number of other things that may be awkward or difficult for a newcomer to adjust to.

That being said, both groups carefully recognize a persons’ right to their own interpretation of what exactly the term ‘higher power’ means to them. I have to admit, I was and I’m still not necessarily a religious person; I was initially slightly skeptical of these programs for a lot of reasons.

But after attending a handful of meetings while I was in a detox facility and many, many more when I got back out into the real world and as I have navigated through the first 60 days or so of my recovery, it is hard to deny the fact that there are many people in attendance at these meetings who are living exponentially better lives than I had been in active addiction. What’s more is that they all will claim that their ability to take their lives back from addiction is directly due to their participation in their program.

Something is working for these people; There seems to be an undeniable spirit in attendance to these meetings of minds that helps the members of these groups obtain and sustain long periods of sobriety. They will be the first to tell you that it is not an easy thing to do, but if you can put aside your reservations, whatever they may be, and do your best to be in regular attendance and practice what they are teaching in your daily life to the best of your ability, you will see change for the better in your life.

At the very least, you are allowing yourself to be a part of a tremendous network of people who collectively offer a treasure-trove of opportunity for you to find a way to get your life back on track.

I have to admit that I often still feel awkward at these meetings, despite the fact that I have been attending a meeting every single day. I am not an extremely out-going person; I tend to get along with everybody I meet, but I am not one to go out of my way to talk to somebody new. I am very quiet in large groups of people whom I am not familiar with. I don’t share anything with the group very frequently. I just sit back and listen; I take it all in. That is what I am comfortable with right now, and that’s okay.

Despite my discomfort, I have continued to attend meetings, and I can literally feel a shift taking place in my mind. I am more open to spiritual principles. I am making an effort to incorporate the advice I hear into my daily life. Most importantly, though, I have somehow remained clean, which is something that up until this point I have never, ever been able to do.

Which meeting is right for you?

Try many different meetings!

I personally have developed a gravitation towards N.A. Meetings rather than A.A., but everybody has different preferences. Even if alcohol isn’t necessarily your specific drug of choice, everything that applies to an alcoholic applies to a drug addict, and vice a versa.

Further, there are a number of other groups and meeting types that are meant to be a supplement to a traditional twelve-step program. For example, I have been attending a weekly Buddhist 12-Step meeting at the Buddhist Dharma Center of Cincinnati in Northside, an urban neighborhood in Cincinnati.

There is a first a 20-30 minute guided meditation, in which the attendee sits quietly for the duration of the meditation while a more practiced member guides them through the process. After this, we read a selection from ‘The 12-Step Buddhist’ by Darren Littlejohn (the literature that is currently selected for the group, but we will move on to something else once we work our way through it) and then the floor is opened up for discussion about that nights’ reading and how it relates to our recovery.

I have found this meeting extremely enjoyable.

There is also a Yoga 12-Step meeting offered in my area that I look forward to trying out.

Different meetings each have a different vibe, even within meetings of the same type. You may very well feel very uncomfortable at one A.A. Meeting, but thoroughly enjoy another. Try out many different meetings and see what speaks to you. Everybody’s path is different, give yourself permission to seek out the best path for yourself.

There are also alternatives to the 12-step programs in general. SMART recovery is one such ogranization. S.O.S. Is another.

All of the organizations I have mentioned all have one major thing in common: They are all resources that can help an individual reclaim their lives from addiction.

Trying them out can be intimidating or uncomfortable, but do yourself a favor and try them out. There is a way out, you just have to put the work in.

GMC, 1.25.2020, Day 67