Sobriety
From Drug Rehab Wiki
The term sobriety has specific meanings depending on context. In the case of drug and alcohol recovery, sobriety refers to abstinence, or the conscious choice to discontinue use of harmful substances.
Definitions of Sobriety
Merriam-Webster Definition of Sobriety -- In the Merriam-Webster dictionary, sobriety is defined simply as “the quality or state of being sober.”
World Health Organization (WHO) Definition of Sobriety -- In its “Lexicon of drug and alcohol terms,” the World Health Organization (WHO) states that “sobriety is continued abstinence from alcohol and psychoactive drug use.”
Alcoholics Anonymous
Members of the 12-step program Alcoholics Anonymous, the first and best-known of all the 12-step groups, seek to maintain their own recovery – sobriety – and to assist others to achieve sobriety.
In each 12-step group, the substance(s) to be abstained from include alcohol, opiates, marijuana, and tobacco. Members attend regular meetings and work on the 12-step recovery program specific to that fellowship’s focus, i.e., alcohol, cocaine, narcotics, marijuana, crystal meth, etc. When members are actively involved in 12-step work and remain sober for a minimum of six months, they are said to be “clean and sober.”
The 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous
Following are the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, which form the basis for the fellowship’s 12-step program of recovery.
• We admitted that we were powerless over alcohol- that our lives had become unmanageable.
• Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
• Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
• Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
• Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
• Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
• Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
• Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
• Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
• Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
• Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
• Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
--Suzannekane 16:21, 9 July 2011 (MDT)
