Twelve Step programs & spirituality

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Is anybody on this site involved with ANY kind of 12 Step recovery programs? If so, how is it working out for you? Not trying to be a smart mouth, I just haven't seen it on these pages yet, and I'd like to connect with other 12 Step Aspies out there!

The thing I found hardest about 12 step groups is the emphasis they put on community. I tried a few 12 step groups and never lasted very long because I was uncomfortable with a "sponsor", especially since those I met seemed to force themselves on me. I couldn't do a relationship like that out of nothing. Walk into one of those as a newcomer and they swarm you, or at least they did to me. I know it's meant to help the newcomer keep coming back, but it was just all wrong for me.

I never made it far enough to see if I had any issues with the steps themselves.

I tried a 12 step program twice. I could never do it. Sitting around with a group of people talking about things. I never knew what to say so I would just sit and count the floor tiles and the wall paper seams. Then after two or three meetings, they would all start to treat me like a freak. I can get that anywhere, I don't need to get it there also.

It's not for me. Some of them do wonderful things though.

I have been in a 12 step program for 5+ years. It has been one of the most positive things I have ever done. The level of self awareness you develop plus the feeling of knowing you are not alone with your struggles is priceless. I can't even begin to explain the spiritual development I have experienced. I feel that the world would be a much better place if more people participated in 12 step programs.

Aspinator - thank you for your reply!

i was an alcoholic for like 4 years, i didnt need to go to a 12step program because i quit on my own
ive been alcohol free for i think 5 months

(Out of the thread but Congratulations to you!)

Doesn't look like my kind of thing at all. I don't see why all recovery plans would have exactly 12 steps by nature, so I think it must be some dodgy guru trying to force things to fit into an arbitrary concept. What is it, numerology? Like those plans in which the first letter of each item makes a little word that's supposed to make everybody want to take it on board - just give me the real info, and stuff the made-up feelgood elaborations. Of course it can be good to talk with others who are in the same boat regarding a problem, but I'm quite happy to do that one-on-one, at my own pace. I sure don't want a room full of new people, that's much too invasive and complicated for me.

i will look for an elevator if there are 12 steps.

vague religious soup

if I want soup its gotta be tomatosoup
if I want religion its gotta be the real thing

Yeah, I got fed up of

it's been ok for me, and i've been going since roughly around 16 when I got sober (didn't start consistently going until I was 18). I think it was ok the way I entered, being so young and being heavily medicated to the point that I really didn't know any better when it came to the social interactions. I pretty much showed up right on time and left as soon as the meeting was over, so no one ever really got to know me for a long time.

today, I struggle with going as often as I know I should. i know there are a number of benefits I've gained over the years, as there are some cognitive behavioural therapy like aspects to the steps. if not for having done some of the things i've done, I'm sure I'd be insanely OCD and/or neurotically social phobic. while i'm sure I still have some of the latter, it's nowhere near as bad as it once was.

the biggest problem i face is knowing that I'm not normal, not even for an alcoholic - whose thinking is already quite twisted up as it is. there are just some days I don't want to go or some situations where I just don't want to be in, and that often derails me from going for extended periods of time.