Should I Join an AWOL?
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How Do I Get and Stay Abstinent? In other 12 Steps Programs addicts give up their drug of choice and immediately start working the 12 Steps to get sober. For food addicts it is not that simple. Food is essential and cannot be totally eliminated. Food addicts must learn how to manage food daily: they must follow a disciplined eating plan that requires planning, weighing and measuring in addition to eliminating flour and sugar. Some food addicts adjust to this new way of eating immediately and some white-knuckle their abstinence. The majority of food addicts need time and practice to change old habits into new ones. Relapse is a reality for many. Food addicts do not need to be punished for their breaks; they must be taught how to use them as learning and growth opportunities. The How to Get Abstinent Recovery Program teaches struggling food addicts to live in recovery by teaching them how to effectively do all their tools and our support materials daily. Once they are doing all their tools and our support materials daily, they no longer have to “white-knuckle” or work to get abstinent, but they get the gift of abstinence. |
AWOLS Do Not Get and Keep Food Addicts Abstinent! by Sally J Many sponsors do not understand the struggling food addict, but have good intentions when they suggest their sponsees join an AWOL. Maybe they also heard that AWOL’s get and keep food addicts abstinent. After co-leading 6 AWOLS, I realized that they alone do not get and keep food addicts abstinent. I collected data on the number of people who left my AWOLS because they were not abstinent. In those six AWOL groups, 75-90 percent of the participants left because they had breaks. Those numbers are shocking! Relapsing food addicts have told me that being “kicked out” of multiple AWOLS is very traumatic. AWOLs do not get or keep food addicts abstinent. In fact for many, AWOLs prove to be a negative experience: for those who have a break and are asked to leave and for those that remain and see their fellows being shunned from the group. We do not recommend any AWOL’s or 12 Step Studies that have an abstinence requirement for the relapser.
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Solution: A No-Abstinence Required AWOL That Offers Recovery and Compassion!
1. The wonderful option of attending one of our no-abstinence required AWOLs is available to all graduates of the How to Live in Recovery Program Group. When our group graduates are living in strong recovery, they are ready to learn and strengthen their program by participating in an AWOL. In our no-abstinence required AWOLS food addicts will not be traumatized by being “kicked out” yet again.
2. No-abstinence required means that if a participant in our Step Study groups has a break, they do not have to leave their group. If they find themselves in relapse, though, they are advised to contact [email protected] for options and to possible retake the 10-week How to Live in Recovery Group to strengthen their tools, restore their abstinence and return to recovery.
3. Graduates of our AWOLs have told us how excited they were to have completed their very first AWOL after many failed attempts.
1. The wonderful option of attending one of our no-abstinence required AWOLs is available to all graduates of the How to Live in Recovery Program Group. When our group graduates are living in strong recovery, they are ready to learn and strengthen their program by participating in an AWOL. In our no-abstinence required AWOLS food addicts will not be traumatized by being “kicked out” yet again.
2. No-abstinence required means that if a participant in our Step Study groups has a break, they do not have to leave their group. If they find themselves in relapse, though, they are advised to contact [email protected] for options and to possible retake the 10-week How to Live in Recovery Group to strengthen their tools, restore their abstinence and return to recovery.
3. Graduates of our AWOLs have told us how excited they were to have completed their very first AWOL after many failed attempts.