Personal Growth Success

Knowing how to help an alcoholic is a difficult thing to do. Sometimes the best we can achieve is to encourage a person in recovery to explore their options and find what works best for them.

One of the big issues with our usual recovery programs is that they generally try to get alcoholics to fit into their mold instead of tailoring the program to the individual. This is not good of course and if you look at the percentage of those who stay sober using these programs then you’ll see that they are not all that great. The rate at which most alcoholics tend to relapse are quite low on average and this can be discouraging for those in recovery.

The solution is in tailoring a recovery strategy. It is ridiculous to think that there is only one way to help an alcoholic, or that there is only one program or one method of help that can work for everyone. This is plain silly. Many recovering alcoholics have found unique paths to sobriety over the years by using different strategies and tactics. No single recovery program will work for every alcoholic. This becomes clear to people who take a step backwards and take in the whole picture. Unfortunately, many people do not consider this idea and insist that there is only one solution for alcoholism. Usually this points to 12 step programs such as AA and NA that have essentially become what we refer to as “traditional recovery.” These solutions are widespread and, while helpful, don’t really produce very good success rates.

For many people in recovery, giving them only one of option of 12 step based recovery is like trying to force a solution down their throats. It is actually not a good match for some people and they might find more success with a different approach to sobriety. What usually happens in this case is that we point our finger at the alcoholic and say that they “did not want it bad enough to stay sober” or they surely would have been able to make the 12 steps work for them. This is an unfair and arrogant attitude that prevents people from making real growth in recovery.

So what is the answer? For some the solution will be in the customization of a recovery program to their own unique life. Sometimes this is best accomplished through sponsorship or with a life coach. In other cases an alcoholic can use holistic principles and find new growth avenues that allow them to find new meaning in recovery.