Mutual Aid
9
because drugs/ drink gave me a false sense of security to face life, in the early days drugs gave me the ability to fit in, inside I felt that I never did. So for me staying clean and sober has been the reason everything else in my life has improved as I have built a inner belief that I am not that person outside looking in anymore I am part of my family, friends, work and my community I don’t feel the need to have substances in me to feel part of that today.
D2DI: How would someone go about joining mutual aid groups?
LS: Well the beauty of our groups/ and all fellowship meeting is that the person joining needs only a desire to stop using/ doing what they are doing, so overeaters need not to be on diet to join, drug users do not need to be drug free just have a desire to stop doing whatever is causing their life to become unmanageable
'I'm no longer
alone'
D2DI: Once you join the Mutual Aid groups of your choice, can you attend them in other cities/ countries?
LS: Yes, absolutely, one of the most amazing things of being a part of,fellowship my choosen mutual aid in particular, is that you are never alone. Whether you are in your hometown, in a different city or in a different country.
D2DI: For fellowship mutual aid what is the 12 step program?
LS: The 12 step program is a set of principles that are available for people to stay off the substance and/or the thing that is making their life become unmanageable, gain understaning of what it is that is causing them to use stubstances and /or people, places and things and to pass this on to others to help others acheieve this and learn to live a better way. How I see them is they are guidelines on how to see what addiction is, try and arrest the addiction and then once this is achieved the steps are a way of maintaining that acheievment.
D2DI: What would you say to someone who is struggling with addiction who hasn’t yet tried mutual aid support groups?
LS: I would say ‘give yourself a break’ and go along and see what’s happening at a mutual aid group, you have nothing to lose, go in with an open mindand try to look at the similarities not the differences, it has helped me achieve so much more than the promised freedom from active addiction, it has given me a life and allowed me to help others achieve this too.