Drug and Alcohol Rehab in Los Angeles Spark to Recovery
April 8, 2024
There are many rehab facilities in Los Angeles, but we were surprised to see how few of them offer helpful guidance for getting started. That’s why
Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous are two branches of a 12-step self-help fellowship with aims to help individuals stop drinking and using drugs. Today, an estimated 5 million Americans attend AA and NA meetings, taking part in weekly group sessions to talk about substance abuse, recovery, and life.
If you’re moving into recovery or going to rehab and are being pushed towards a 12-step group, you might wonder why. Why are AA or NA meetings so important for recovery? Do 12 step meetings actually help you recover?
The truth is, that AA meetings are as important as you make them. You’ll get as much out of 12-step as you put into it. However, with effort and investment on your part, 12-step meetings like AA and NA can be immensely helpful for your recovery and your mental health.
When you attend 12-step meetings you take part in a structured program with guidelines, defined times, and accountability. You have to show up at the same time every week, sometimes more than once a week. From there, you have time set aside to talk about your feelings, your recovery, cravings, and your past. You have structured time to take care of your mental health and your relationship with substance abuse. That also means you’ll have a period to look forward to every week and a baseline of going “I just have to make it until X day” when you’re struggling with cravings. It means you have structured weekly checkups, weekly sharing, and predictability around how and when you get to talk about substance abuse.
Social accountability is the phenomenon that happens when you feel accountable to a group or to a person. That means you feel like you have to be honest, and you feel guilty if you’re not meeting expectations. Most of us feel that when we’re in a group project and we’re expected to contribute to it. It’s also the primary mechanism that 12 step groups like AA and NA use to help you stay clean and sober. You get up every single week and share whether you’re still clean and sober. You share your progress. And you watch others be honest as they succeed and fail.
Why does that help you stay clean and sober? Knowing that you have to stand up in front of people who trust you and say “I relapsed” is a lot. For many of us, it means there’s an extra hurdle between using. You can tell yourself, “If I make it till the meeting, I’ll have support and I won’t have to feel ashamed at the meeting”, you’ll have a real motivator to stay clean and sober.
That’s also true of a sponsor, who will hold you socially accountable, who can call you and talk to you if you’re experiencing cravings, and who will help you stay accountable to yourself and your goals. That will help you stay clean and sober – even if only so you don’t have to look everyone else in the eye and admit to relapse.
Your 12-step group is made up of your peers – people who have experienced similar things to you, struggled with similar problems, and who know where you’re coming from. You’ll have peers, a sponsor, and friends in your group to be able to talk to when you need emotional support. That means you’ll get people to talk to when you feel bad about substance abuse, about how you talked to people, and about the emotional ups and downs in your life. You’ll have to make friends and talk to people. However, eventually, it means you’ll be close to a group of people you can share with. That means a support network that will be there for you, even when your problems are not explicitly related to sobriety. That can be a powerful part of getting clean and sober because it means you’ll have outlets and places to share emotions instead of trying to escape from them.
Sharing with friends and family is important. At the same time, it can be extremely difficult to share things that your friends and family won’t understand. They don’t know what cravings are. They don’t know how drugs and alcohol dependence affect your mind and your actions. They don’t know your experiences and may not even have anything analogous to them. That can mean sharing can feel out of place, like you’re shocking the people you’re talking to or like they are judging you. When you step into NA or AA, you’re joining a group of people who all share similar experiences to you. Everyone is coming from the same place. That makes it easier to share your experiences and your feelings because you know the people listening to you know where you’re coming from. You won’t have to move through shock and misunderstanding to talk about your point or share your emotions. That freedom to share and realization that you can just share makes it easier to do so and can be important as you work through your relationship with substance abuse, your past, and your future.
12-step groups pair you with people in every stage of recovery. You might join a group as one of a few people who are recently in recovery. You might be sharing alongside someone who has been sober for 12 years. You’ll have opportunities to see people achieving the things you want to achieve. You’ll get to see what life looks like after early recovery. You’ll have people who have those experiences and who can help guide you through difficult periods. You’ll also have a sponsor who can help with explicit coaching but most of that will also happen outside of meetings.
Joining 12 step groups means you’re giving yourself an opportunity for growth. That means you’ll have input, feedback, and structure to make changes and become the person you want to be. You’ll have tools to open yourself to change and to spirituality. You’ll have positive examples of people who are doing well and making the changes they need to. You’ll have support when things go wrong so you can pick yourself back up and try again. All of that will contribute to your ability to achieve goals and personal growth. Most importantly, you won’t be doing so alone, because you’ll have a group of people sharing those experiences.
While you often cannot look for opportunities to grow, being put into a social space with others who share your experiences, structure around working on yourself, and options to talk to others means you’ll be able to see what you can do to work towards the person you want to be.
Eventually, 12-step groups can add a lot to your recovery. You get support, accountability, and space to share your experiences alongside structure and clear next steps. 12-step groups like AA and NA are not replacements for therapy and rehab. However, they can support your progress during treatment and provide long-term support as you move into recovery. That will have a big impact on your ability to recover and to stay in recovery.
There are many rehab facilities in Los Angeles, but we were surprised to see how few of them offer helpful guidance for getting started. That’s why
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