Do we need to 12-step too?
My mom has been an alcoholic all my life, never worked a program, never got clean. She's dying now as a result, and leaving behind my 13 year-old brother who's been wiping her ass for the past few years like I did as a child.
My boyfriend was an alcoholic/pain killer addict when I met him and did some pretty horrible stuff while using, even hurt me one night. Now he's clean 4 months, and after a much needed break from our relationship he's had an epiphany and knows 100% now that he wants to be together forever (didn't see that coming, I had begun the process of moving on). He really is taking his sobriety seriously though, and working really hard and claims he has no desire to even touch the stuff anymore after bottoming out the way he did...don't know if I should, but I believe him for some reason, and, well, that's a whole other post...
So, I've gone to alanon but I don't have a sponsor or anything. I guess what I'm wondering is how do WE recover? Do we have to work the same program they do? 12 steps and a sponsor? Especially those of us whose lives have been affected by addiction so heavily, and for so long... The steps seem like the most integral part of an addict's recovery but for us it's not so clear...