About Drug Rehab

The oldest drug rehab methodology is the 12-step program, founded around the 1920's, mainly by an evangelical group called the Oxford Group.  Bill Wilson, the founder of Alcoholic's Anonymous took many of the 12-step principles and moled them to fit the ideals of recovery from alcoholism. Most drug rehab centers focus on the 12-step process, many adding their own touches along the way to help the persons in recovery identify with the 12-steps with more ease.  Find out why the 12-step program is so successful and how it has been used in different settings with different groups of people in recovery.

More often than not, the 12-steps will be some part of every drug rehab program. Whether or not the 12-steps are the central focus of the rehab depends on the philosphies of that rehab center.  Often in religious or spiritually based drug rehab programs, the 12-steps will be a very central part of recovery as they do refer to God several times.  Although th e 12-steps are intended to be non-denominational, many people erronously believe they are Christian based and they only work for those who believe in Christianity.  Even though the 12-step tradition does have it's primary base with the Oxford Group and they were in fact Christian envangelists, today's 12-steps are not.  The 12-step porgam today is intended to be interpreted however each individual sees fit for it to most positively impact thier own recovery.  For example, in mandy drug rehabs, The term "God" is not used.  Instead, the terminology of "higher Power" is utilized to broaden the range of what or who that HIgher Power may be for each individual.  For some, it is God, for others, it may be the love of a spouse, children, or parents.  God is often changed to an acronym, G.O.D. (Good Ordery Direction), which could be anything positive in the life of an addict or alcoholic.  It has been designed to apply to all people, no matter what their belief system is because the actual message of the 12-steps is not one of religion.  It is in fact one of healing and recovery, and serves an invaluable service to those in need of recovery from drug and alcohol addiction.  Once an individual is able to get past the religious quagmire that may be presented by misconception of the word used to define Higher Power, the 12-step tradition has proven a very successful one. The 12 Tradtitions are as follows

01We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable.

02Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

03Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

04Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

05Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

06Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

07Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

08Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make ammends to them all.

09Made direct ammends to such people whenever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrongpromptly admitted it.

11Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of HIs will for us and the power to carry that out.

12Having has a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this messgae to others and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

These 12 steps go in detail about the path to recovery and what must take place before. during, and after the drug rehab healing process.  Generally, nly a few of these steps are covered and practiced in drug rehab, the rest left up to each individual to apply his or her own methods to follow through and maintain a healthy recovery.  In many drug rehab centers, the counselors and therapists will encourage individuals to apply their own interpretation to the word "God" and as it is mentioned in the 12-steps, God is "as we undertsood Him", leaving the door wide open for whchever interpretation fits best with each individual's beliefs. 
It is this flexibility of the 12-steps that contributes to its widespread success.  The 12-steps encourages addicts and alcoholics to claim resposnibility for themselves and also to surrender to the idea that they cannot beat addiction on their own and need the assistance of a HIgher Power, forgiveness and humility.  No matter what the HIgher Power may be, looking toward it for guidance through recovery and strength in abstinence is a very powerful resource for support.  All of the core virtues taught in the 12-step program help addicts and alcoholics in drug rehab to come to terms with the reality of their disease and learn the tools to live a happy, healthy, and drug free life after drug rehab.

While the 12-step program may not be considered to be right for all people, the fact of the matter is that most drug rehabs utilize this methodology in one way or another.  Whether the 12-steps are the very core of the drug rehab or if they are only bits and pieces cleverly disguised as something else, they are virtually everywhere in the recovery community because of the flexibility of their interpretation.  The power of the 12-steps is impenetrable when coupled with an addict's strong desire and dedication for sobriety. 
Despite the widesread success and effectiveness of the 12-step program, many people still have not found the same solice in this methodology and for those people, there are a variety of drug rehab centers that do not employ any part of the 12-step program and focuse drug rehab on more of an alternative basis.  Many drug rehab centers such as these will centralize their focus on semi-holistic approaches, giving messages like "powerful vs. powerless" and "choice vs. one day at a time".  Although these methods seem to contradict many of the 12-step messages, they have their orgin in the 12-step approach, but have been modified to put more attention on the individual than a higher power and outside resources.
Determining whether or not the 12-steps is right for you depends on your own personal conviction and belief system.  Some people are able to grasp the idea of the 12-steps and makei it their own while others cannot make the connection and may require an alternative means of drug rehab.  They key to finding the right drug rehab is identifying the method and philosphy that will work best with each individual, their beliefs, lifestyke,and core values.  The 12-step program has been proven to work wonders for a large majority of addicts and alcoholics, but there is no one approach that will work for everyone and it is this vital fact that must be held in consideration when making a choce for drug rehab.

• If there are still questions regarding whether 12-steps is for you, please fill out our free confidential assessment and we will get right back to you and help in whatever way we can to assist you in deciding if this approach is the right one for you.  We are here to help and pease feel free to explore the rest of our links or contact us anytime and we will do all we can to make this difficult task in deciding on drug rehabs a more informed and confident experience.