Staring at your eyes in the mirror, you wonder at what point your own reflection became that of a stranger. As your palms squeeze absently against the sink, you struggle to recognize some semblance of who you were. But even though the drug-induced fog of prickled self-loathing, you’re still in there somewhere. It just takes a step in the right direction. The AA 10th step helps raise that self worth through continual personal inventory.
Affectionately christened as our “10 step group”, New Start’s residential program offers daily group therapy that gives clients a platform to put the AA 10th step into action. In the video above, New Start case manager Basharat Khan, M.A. MFTi, PCCi explains the importance of the 10th step in treatment.
What is the AA 10th Step?
Continue to take personal inventory, and when you are wrong promptly admit it.
Peer to Peer: Confrontation & Affirmation
Treatment is an excellent resource not only for its access to mental health professionals, but for its chance for interactions with other recovering addicts and alcoholics. By design, everyone in treatment is on their own unique journey of self improvement. That offers a unique opportunity for peer to peer accountability through confrontation and affirmation.
Confrontation
When you don’t feel quite right about a situation or interaction with one of your treatment peers, it’s important to address those feelings in a constructive and respectful way. Bringing concerns to the table is known as confrontation. This learned skill teaches us how to manage our anger healthfully. This circumvents potential complications like open fighting, passive aggressiveness, and other forms of group discord. New Start counselors discuss this concept at our weekly family support night as well.
Affirmation
Early recovery is a time fraught with low self esteem and lack of self worth. So acknowledging one’s own accomplishments and positive actions becomes extremely important and beneficial. By “giving yourself credit” for things you do well, you help build self worth slowly but surely. New Start group therapy encourages these sorts of positive affirmations with our AA 10th step group. Clients learn to acknowledge the small things like, “I felt really good about my efforts today at Amplified.”
Daily Accountability
In our AA 10th step group, each client is afforded both confirmation and affirmation as they participate and share their day. The recurring opportunity to vent against yourself (once again, in a healthy way) is one of the main reasons AA is so successful as a program. It’s not a, “Presto! I’m fixed!” solution. Rather, it’s a daily means to address the disease of addiction. It also fosters a healthy group dynamic, and clients are encouraged to continue the practice after treatment in IOP and sober living.
The insidious nature of addiction creates a need for daily affirmations. Intensive outpatient programs parrot that fact pretty frequently. While it gets tiresome at the time, it’s also necessary because relapse can’t take you by surprise down the line. Rather, those problematic thoughts of relapse are marinated with a solution. “My program repeated constantly that I need to go to meetings. The patterns I’m falling back into are a result of skipping meetings.” Cue the AA 10th step: you need to continue taking personal inventory.