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Why
another 12-Step Fellowship Like Young and
Recovering?
Before
coming to reality about their own or someone
else's alcoholism or other drug abuse, youth have
found their lives and that of their family and
friends unmanageable. They could not not live and
enjoy life as other people do. We had to have
something different and thought they had found it
in drugs or in abusive relationships at home or in
school.
We placed substance abuse or not
dealing in a healthy way with addicted people
ahead of our own welfare or that of our families,
our school work, our values, our own feelings of
self-worth or pain we were afraid to feel or our
need to have open, honest, loving relationships in
the past, present and future. We had to have drugs
at all costs or feel a false sense of power in
taking care of or living in shame about someone
else's drug abuse or alcoholism and disrespectful
behavior.
We did
many people harm, but most of all we harmed
ourselves. Through our inability and fear to
accept personal responsibilities, we were actually
creating our own problems. We seemed to be
incapable of facing life on its own terms.
Most of
us realized that in our addiction to drugs and
alcohol or to those who abuse them, we were slowly
committing suicide, but addiction is such a
cunning enemy of life that we had lost the power
to do anything about it. Many of us ended up in
juvenile detention or jail, or lived with
continually painful, injust, abusive and
frightening situations with our friends or within
our families or sought help through medicine,
religion and psychiatry. None of these methods, by
themselves alone, was sufficient for us. Our
disease of addiction or co-dependency always
resurfaced or continued to progress until in
desperation, we sought help from each other in
12-Step recovery, based on the program created 60
years ago originally for Alcoholics Anonymous.
After coming to AA, NA, CA, Alateen,
Nar-Anon we realized we were hurting people with a
disease that was physical, behavioral, spiritual.
We suffered from a disease from which there can be
a hopeful, joyful recovery if we admit that we are
powerless by ourselves, turn our will over to a
Higher Power, which many of us call God, take a
continual and really good look at our values and
behavior, get experience, strength and hope from
other teens who have gone through what we have,
admit our wrongs to ourselves and to God and to
other teens, stay clean and sober or detach
emotionally with love from those who aren't and
give away to others what good we learn and hope we
find.
Young and Recovering is a behavioral
and spiritual program that is just beginning, just
for youth 18-24, supervised by caring,
experienced, recovering adults. But it is based on
a 12-step program that has worked better than
anything else for millions of others.
If there is
not yet a Young and Recovering group where you
live or on a local campus (because we're so new),
we recommend you talk to your college counselor
about local alternatives or suggest they, your
nearby counseling or treatment center, house of
worship or youth group gets in touch with us and
start one.
Meanwhile, check out our sister
program for lots of information on alcohol, other
drugs, codependency and recovery and send $1 and a
self-addressed envelope to the address below for a
booklet on either kicking drugs/alcohol or helping
someone who abuses drugs or alcohol (just tell us
which you want!)
The envelope you get back
WILL NOT say anything about drugs!
Whether you
think you may have a problem with alcohol or other
drugs or are in pain and confused by loving
someone who does have a problem, now is the time
to find out what YOU can do and turn despair in
your life into hope! You are not alone!
YOUNG AND RECOVERING
Groups
P.O. Box 191396
San Francisco, CA
94119
youngandrecovering@yahoo.com
YOUNG
AND RECOVERING and TEEN-ANON are
affiliated with Streetcats Foundation for Youth
and
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