Member-only story
Step 1: Here. Have Some Recovery Tools.
Time to build a tool belt!
Hopefully, you’re thinking of attending an Al-non meeting or have already attended one (or six as is usually recommended for a newcomer).
Al-Anon meetings are chock full of recovery tools. And you’re welcome to take what works for you and leave the rest. There’s no ideology you have to swallow whole. Just little bites you can chew on and use to build your own tool belt.
The crux of the “program” we call “Al-Anon” are the 12 Steps. It’s best to take them in order, but you can take them any way that works for you. The first tool is Step One. Here’s one of my takes on that step.
STEP 1: We admitted we were powerless over alcohol — that our lives had become unmanageable.
Power is a big deal in our global culture. Powerlessness is an even bigger deal to people working 12-Step programs.
Power is at the core of the very first step, the foundation under the long climb to recovery. It’s the step that gets taken over and over again.
Even when, numerically speaking, they’re further along in the step process, recovering folks…
