I attended an AA meeting the other evening, and when “new people” were asked to identify themselves, the leader said: “Stand up and tell us your name and your disease”.
Something in me really reacted negatively to that.
I have come to question the illness model of AA.
Not the disease model, but the illness model.
What do I mean by this?
A disease cannot stay acute forever without a person just dying. Chronic? Yes. Acute? No.
But a culture of staying ill to remind oneself not to drink isn’t recovery.
The 12-Steps are an amazing, life giving, scaffolding for arresting the disease and transforming broken lives. They are invaluable in giving a person who is hopelessly mired in a physical addiction, self -hatred, basic cluelessness about life, a way back to who they really are, and tools for restitution and restoration.
Rev. Dr. Galloways best-selling book The Gateways is available through Sacred Stories Publishing, Amazon, and all major booksellers and combines a strength based approach to utilizing the depth principles of the 12-Steps, combined with Psycho-spiritual tools and practices to anchor in the practice of each step.
The Steps really are a miracle, and they facilitate a spiritual awakening in millions of people.
The GOAL of recovery is to:
1. Have a spiritual awakening
2. Help others who haven’t found this amazing path to know it exists
Some return to their religion of youth, but many others don’t know HOW to find a spiritual path that coincides with their spiritual awakening
The Gateways are designed to support the spiritual path of recovery, using the 12-Steps and offering a toolkit of Body/Mind/Spirit tools for Stage Two Recovery and beyond.
Defining a pathology isn’t the goal. Healing is.
Welcome to The Gateways- The Wisdom of 12-Step Spirituality.
Subscribe to podcast at http://bit.ly/SacredStoriesiTunes
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