Addiction recovery is very generally taken to mean that it is referring to the 12 step recovery process originally pioneered by Alcoholics Anonymous, and then adapted by other organisations to deal with specific problems not related to alcohol, such as Narcotics Anonymous and Gamblers Anonymous.
The notion of addiction has widened considerably over the last few years, and there are two important elements to this recovery process that need to be understood.
Firstly that the destructive nature of a wide range of addictive behaviours and practices can now realistically be treated, in ways that were never possible a few decades ago.
That is not to say that everyone who uses a 12 step program or enters a treatment center will automatically be able to break the addiction, the recovery process is more complex than that, but these areas of treatment recovery do offer hope to many people in a way that simply did not used to be possible.
The other area that can be a cause for concern, is that some treatment centres and rehabs will use the notion of addiction as a way of effectively been placing clients by promoting slightly spurious addictions that aren’t really a problem, but the rehab treatment center will make them a problem in order to promote their view of recovery.
Addiction Recovery AA Meetings
Simply because something can seem a bit of an addiction does not mean that the individual has to enter treatment in order to deal with it.
People can often joke about being addicted to chocolate or ice cream, and in reality for most people that is not a problem. For other people issues around food can be a major emotional block, and they may well need some type of professional help in order to get them to be more emotionally aligned as a person.
It is worth noting that meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous don’t generally refer to addiction, people tend to talk about alcoholism and their understanding of alcoholism as an illness.
Very generally, this is likely to centre around individuals craving for alcohol, and the various emotional drives and problems generated the underlying causes of problems within them that alcohol appeared to be the solution to.
Alcoholism, is understood or not by those who have it, is at least a very complex problems which whilst it certainly includes it type of addiction to alcohol, is way more complex and needs much time and spirit in order to process and deal with it.