The steps of recovery are well-known to the recovery community, but to people just getting into treatment, they can seem a little daunting. Most step-based treatment programs layout 12 steps to recovery, but there are newer programs that may have more or fewer steps. Whatever kind of step-based recovery you’re in, you’ll find that those steps to recovery form a solid foundation for a new life. The more you use those steps, the further you get in your physical, spiritual, and emotional growth. For newer inductees into the step-based model of recovery, you might be wondering about what kind of advice will serve you best.
Older steppers are keen on giving out advice and helping those who are new to the program, and that’s one of the strengths of step-based recoveries. You have a group of people who have been sober for different lengths of time and can throw in their advice to help newcomers along during those rough and often confusing early days.
Why Ask for Advice?
Asking for advice during recovery is not only helpful, but it’s also necessary. Step programs are all about peer support, using the experiences of others to guide the way to your own recovery. While you’re learning the program early on, it’s going to be natural to reach out to fellow recovery peers and ask how they navigated the program early on. Recovery is about learning from others so that you can also learn about yourself, and part of this is reaching out for advice.
If you’re working the steps right, you’ll probably have a sponsor even from the very beginning who can guide the way to your best recovery. Why ask this person and others for advice?
- Advice is at the heart of step recovery
- Advice helps you use the program to your best benefit
- The advice can sometimes even prevent relapse
- Learning to ask for help, and advice strengthens your recovery
Types of Advice
While you’re recovering, you’ll have many questions, and your peers who have maintained their recovery are often the best people to seek guidance from. They know the hurdles and emotional obstacles you’re facing, and they’re capable of listening to you and then evaluating your situations based on their own experience. Other members of the group will sometimes have helpful advice to offer as well.
You might need advice about step-based issues, such as ways to work the steps, or you may need types of advice that center around life’s situations and “life on life’s terms.” For example, during times of stress, you may reach out to other members of the program to as how they handled their own dilemmas in life. How does all this work? How did you make it through?
A Bit of Advice
Advice during the early days of recovery can prove essential, but even as you have longer lengths of sobriety, you can always use a helping hand to get through each of the steps. Remember that recovery is an ongoing, lifelong experience. There is no start or stopping point. At the beginning that can seem daunting. As you get a greater quality of sobriety, you learn that step-based programs actually enrich your life during even the good times. It’s a program that adds joy, gives you a constant source of support, and helps you prevent relapse.
The best advice you can get during recovery is that honesty is the best policy. The steps and all recovery programs are based on rigorous honesty about yourself. When you get honest with yourself, you get well, and many recovering addicts and alcoholics will be happy to share that tidbit of information. The Big Book itself talks about the need to get honest and to honestly assess both your life before and after addiction. When you get honest, you get better. Your journey through recovery will be a lifelong one, and you’ll find that this is great news the more you get into a recovery program and associate with people who have put their lives together just like you. Perhaps the second-best piece of advice of all is to never be afraid to ask for advice in recovery. It can save your life.
If you’d like more guidance and advice on recovery, we can help. Call now 844-639-8371! Our team will be happy to show you how to get the most out of step-based programs of recovery and put your life back together one piece at a time. Call now.