12 Steps

The Therapeutic core of the programme at Park View is the 12 Steps. Since the 1930’s, the 12 Steps has been a tried and tested means of overcoming addictions and has helped more people in the world suffering from addictions than any other method. The Steps are 12 suggested principles, a recommended course of action first published in the book, Alcoholics Anonymous in 1939, and which now form the basis of many fellowships and mutual aid groups around the world for a whole array of dependencies and disorders.

It is often misconceived that a 12 Step fellowship is a religious sect, which is perhaps understandable. However, 12 Step fellowships are not that at all. They are part of organizations who suggest, as a result of their own experiences, that a very real and successful way of dealing with addictions and the problems of life is faith in something other than your own resources alone. In terms of an addict’s ability to resist using drugs and alcohol, even if he or she is aware that it will land them in a whole heap of trouble, the required cognitive functions, reason, rationality, that which is needed to think things through, are the very things which are affected. It is not a simple matter of “making the right choices”, as we often hear people say, whether that be a family member in exasperation or a professional without the personal experience of addiction. This is what we mean in the 12 Steps by powerlessness; the addict lacks the power to make the decisions and carry out the things that they themselves know to be right. Another source, another power is required and it is possible to place the decision of whether to use or not into another domain, into other hands. But this requires faith, faith that this will work, because even your own mind will mock the idea that it can. Faith in what you might ask, I’m an atheist! I’m agnostic! I want nothing to do with religion, not with all the wars and hypocrisy; the 12 steps are not for me!” This is ok. This probably means that besides not wanting to have anything to do with organized religion, you don’t believe in God, or if you do you believe in God, you believe that God can’t or won’t help you. This is your business, not that of anybody body else, and you’ll probably find that others are too busy working out the direction of their own path to be telling you which direction you should go in. If you have a problem with the word God, then the most somebody is likely to say to you is to insert another “o”, so the word becomes Good! When you are low on belief, in particular the belief that you can live without drink and drugs, faith is the fuel that can get you from A to B. Faith in something else, other than the self alone, faith in something good, even blind faith, has for millions now led to an abundance of self-belief.

The term “Higher Power”, is used a lot in the 12 Steps and there are many of those in this world no matter what we do or don’t believe in. Who amongst us believes, for instance, that we are more just than Justice; more courageous than Courage; as wise as Wisdom or as patient and tolerant as those two virtues? Is there anybody who believes that they love as much as Love? These virtues alone, these realities of human life are big enough to keep anybody striving for the rest of their life. And there are more tangible examples of a higher power; if I can’t stay clean and I walk into a room full of people who have been clean and sober for years, for instance, then I am in the presence of a higher power, certainly a power that is greater than me. For a lot of people in the 12 Steps, the groups are their higher power; for others it is virtues and principles; for others it is the very idea of being clean and sober; for others it is their own conscience, which for once, they report, they’re now able to obey; for others it is relatives who have gone before them and for others it is an almighty loving God as they alone interpret that word. For many, it is a practical mixture of some or all of these things. There is an irony actually, because in a sense, coming into the 12 Steps you’ll be asking yourself to be less religious than you have been, given the rituals and ceremonies you have been observing daily when using. In fact, if a monk or a nun could worship their Gods like us addicts do ours, they would all be canonised!

The 12 Step programme or the 12 Step fellowships do not promote religion at all, but they fully encourage a spiritual approach to life. It has been said that religion is for people who don’t want to go to hell, but spirituality is for people who’ve already been there! The three spiritual principles of the 12 steps are not abstract, theological ideas; they are far more down to earth: Honesty, Open Mindedness and Willingness. With these you will be well on your way to a totally new life, one of freedom and authenticity where you can look in the mirror and like who you see.