This is my first time checking this site out. I am writing about step 12, because I am beginning to work with others on a temporary basis. I have worked the steps with my sponsor and have had a spiritual awakening! I am so grateful for a chance to help others, but I am finding it difficult to keep them on topic. Our program here is very solution-focused and I want to help them learn, but sometimes they only want to go on about their horrible day! I pray for patience sometimes, but I see my higher power has a sense of humor, because lord, do they make me call on my patience!

Once you start attending Narcotics Anonymous 12 step meeting the next thing you probably want to do is start working the 12 steps. It is not recommended that you do this alone, because this is a "we" program: we can't do it alone. Keep your ear out for someone sharing in your meetings that you can identify with, and like their message. Ask this person to be your sponsor. If they can't, don't take it personally ("It's not all about you") and just keep trying. The right person will be there at the right time. A sponsor will ask you to follow their suggestions.

I was given the gift of physical sobriety. I did not have to work for it. I though I was dying; literally. I had been drinking for over thirty years and thought I had liver damage. It turned out to be something else. Not life threatening. But it still scared me straight.

Adult children of alcoholics are people who have grown up in a family affected by one or two parents that were addicted to or chronically abused alcohol. People from these backgrounds become adults who live dysfunctional lives. This article deals with the first step as used by the organisation called 'al-anon' which is a society that teaches people how to recover from the effects of living with one or two parents addicted to alcohol.