FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
These are a list of questions that we have had from time to time. Hopefully it will save you some time in getting your answer more quickly.
Click the right triangle to expand the area and see the answer to the question.
We do not have a list of face-to-face meetings on this site, but you can use the links to other sites to find a face-to-face meeting in your area. For online meetings, we have a calendar of many online meetings. The online meetings that we have cataloged are taken from online meeting websites that we know about. Please let us know if you know of more meetings that we should include.
See our Newcomer's Guide for working the 12 steps for some simple steps on how to get started.
We have compiled 12 Step worksheets to help you in working the 12 steps. There are also worksheets and workbooks from other sites that are very useful.
First of all, it is good to be as honest as you can with yourself. As the Big Book puts it
WILLINGNESS, HONESTY AND OPEN MINDEDNESS ARE THE ESSENTIALS OF RECOVERY. BUT THESE ARE INDISPENSABLE.Then ask yourself if step 1 could possibly apply to your life. To help you answer this question, you can read some comments from different sources, listen to some people sharing or or watch some video overviews about step 1 to see if you can identify with any of these comments or explanations.
12 Step programs have been created for a very wide variety of addictive and dysfunctional behaviors. To determine which one is right for you, try an honest self-assessment or just go to some meetings to see which one seems to fit. However, you may not be able to find face-to-face meetings in your area for some types of addiction. So you may have to choose between going to a face-to-face meeting where the addiction may not match yours exactly, or going online to see if you can find a better match for your type and level of addiction. Or you can use a combination of both face-to-face and online meetings - whatever works for you.
For face-to-face meetings, there are several websites with meeting registries. There are also websites for online meetings and you can use our directory of recovery websites for more materials. The 12 Step Fellowships may be useful, especially those sites set up for Social Networking for Recovery.