Transforming Addiction: Embracing Recovery Through the 12 Steps
Windle, Lauren. (2018, March 28). Lessons a drug addict can teach you. TEDxSurreyUniversity.
Summary:
Lauren Windle shares her personal journey from heavy drinking and cocaine use at 22 to achieving sobriety through the structured process of the 12-step recovery program. After hitting a low point marked by deteriorating physical health and emotional isolation, she sought help from a support group where honest sharing and connection played a pivotal role. By admitting her powerlessness, embracing a higher power, conducting a moral inventory, and making amends, Lauren gradually rebuilt her life. Her story underscores the importance of self-care, community support, and the transformative power of facing one’s fears to overcome addiction. Now, she facilitates a recovery course to help others find the path to healing.
Lauren Windle shares her personal journey from heavy drinking and cocaine use at 22 to achieving sobriety through the structured process of the 12-step recovery program. After hitting a low point marked by deteriorating physical health and emotional isolation, she sought help from a support group where honest sharing and connection played a pivotal role. By admitting her powerlessness, embracing a higher power, conducting a moral inventory, and making amends, Lauren gradually rebuilt her life. Her story underscores the importance of self-care, community support, and the transformative power of facing one’s fears to overcome addiction. Now, she facilitates a recovery course to help others find the path to healing.
- Admitted powerlessness: We admitted we were powerless over our addiction and that our lives had become unmanageable.
- Believed in a greater power: We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
- Turned our lives over: We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
- Conducted a moral inventory: We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
- Admitted our wrongs: We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
- Prepared for change: We were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
- Humbly asked for help: We humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
- Made a list of those harmed: We made a list of all persons we had harmed.
- Became willing to make amends: We became willing to make amends to them all.
- Continued personal inventory: We continued to take personal inventory and promptly admitted when we were wrong.
- Sought spiritual connection: We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will and the power to carry that out.
- Carried the message: Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics or addicts and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
