14: Healing modality: 12-step recovery - Interview with my brother

For this first ever interview episode, I am grateful my brother agreed to share his experience in 12-step recovery with Alcoholics Anonymous. Having experienced many meetings myself at Al-Anon, a 12-step program for friends and family members of alcoholics, I know firsthand how transformative 12-step can be. In this episode, Ben shares the experiences that brought him to AA, how he found good meetings, how he chose his sponsors, and what he learned from sponsoring others. We discuss the experiences that prompted him to leave AA after 11 years of sobriety, and what brought him back. We also cover criticism and common misconceptions about 12-step programs. We close with Ben’s thoughts on how to find balance, or the “middle path” in recovery, leveraging it to live a fuller and healthier life. Notes: 12-step programs covered in this episode: Alcoholics Anonymous https://www.aa.org/ Al-Anon https://al-anon.org/ Books: One Day at a Time in Al-Anon II https://al-anon.org/for-members/members-resources/literature/feature-publications/courage-to-change-one-day-at-a-time-in-al-anon-ii-b16/ Alcoholics Anonymous - The Big Book https://www.aa.org/the-big-book Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/240358/call-sign-chaos-by-jim-mattis-and-bing-west/