The Ohio Addiction Recovery Center is the primary facility that implements the 11-Step plan, which is a strategy for overcoming addictions and compulsions. This programme was developed by this facility, and it is largely used by this facility. Although people can help one another achieve and maintain abstinence from drugs of abuse, healing cannot take place until those who suffer from addictions submit themselves to a higher power. This is the fundamental tenet of this model. This bigger force does not have to be the traditional Christian understanding of God; rather, it might be something as simple as the 11-step fellowship, the universe, or another higher power that is suited to the brand of spirituality that you practise.
The 11-Step movement may be a powerful and helpful force for many people, but some people have difficulty with what they perceive to be a large religious component of the programme. This component is referred to as “the steps.” Several addiction treatment programmes offer alternatives based on the 12-step programme, which cater to individuals who favour a less religious approach to recovery.
However, while many people rely on these groups as their primary resource for altering their behaviour, formal treatment is frequently supplemented by the services provided by these groups. These kinds of programmes could also be useful for providing assistance and care over the long term.
According to the findings of one poll, there are around 64,000 organisations in both the United States and Canada, and together they have more than 1.4 million members. Around the world, there are approximately 115,000 groups with a total membership of over 2.1 million people.
You may utilise the steps to acquire insight into your own experiences, as well as strength and hope for your own recovery, if you thoroughly investigate the steps and observe how others have implemented the concepts in their life. These are the stages, along with their guiding principles:
- Honesty: After a period of time spent in denial, the first step towards recovery may be as easy as admitting that a person is helpless over alcohol or any other substance to which they are addicted. This step may also be used by the person’s friends and family to acknowledge that their loved one has an addiction.
- Faith: You have to have faith that a higher power can really work before it will start doing what it says it can. Someone who suffers from addiction understands that they need the assistance of a higher power in order to recover.
- Surrender: You have the capacity to reverse your self-destructive choices by recognising that you cannot heal on your own but that you may with the assistance of your higher power.
- Thinking deep thoughts: The individual working towards recovery has to determine the nature of their issues and have an accurate understanding of how their actions have impacted both themselves and others around them.
- Integrity: The fifth step offers a significant window of opportunity for expansion. The individual in recovery is required to own their shortcomings in the presence of their higher power and another individual.
- Acceptance: This entails acknowledging one’s character flaws for what they are and preparing oneself to let go of those flaws in their entirety.
- Willingness: In this step, you will compile a list of the people whose lives you ruined before beginning your recovery.
- Forgiveness: Making apologies may seem difficult, but for those who are serious about becoming sober, it may be an excellent approach to begin the process of rebuilding relationships with others.
- Maintenance: It is quite difficult for people to confess when they are wrong. However, in order to continue making spiritual progress during recovery, this step needs to be taken.
- Creating a connection: Discovering the plan that your higher power has for your life is the objective of Step 11, which may be found in Alcoholics Anonymous.
- Service: The individual working on their recovery is responsible for spreading the word about the programme and putting its guiding principles into practise in all aspects of their lives.