PLEASE POST ANY COMMENTS AND/OR OPINIONS

Well hello my friends, today is going to be a little different as my blog entries go. A couple of things have happened that has made me take a look at things. Some of my ideas about recovery have been challenged. I have been attempting to look objectively at this. I of course might be a little too close so here I am asking for some input on a few points. So please post any and all comments you have, they are all welcome and appreciated.
It has been implied that I am perhaps too intense about recovery. And that I need a more relaxed approach. I somewhat agree that I can be intense, sometimes preachy, and opinionated about my beliefs on recovery and the recovery process. However it is something I strongly believe in, I know what has worked for me, I know that most of this has worked for a lot of others that I have worked with, I have watched so many not follow or choose their own paths only to see them at a later date coming back and ravaged by our disease. I attempt to the best of my ability to follow the literature and to back-up my suggestions and ideas and speaking, writing with the literature and experiences. I’d like to look at my intensity being caused by my passion for recovery. I am excited about recovery, the changes, no make that miracles it has produced in my life and countless others, there are few other experiences if any that allows you to eye witness the miraculous changes in people’s lives. How can you not be passionate about a program, which literally saves millions of lives on a daily basis?
I was also challenged on my insistence of doing the steps. As well as any sort off time frame on doing the steps. If you come to me and ask for my assistance and guidance in recovery or are in a treatment centre or recovery house that purports to be based on the 12 step program. How can one not insist on mandatory work on the steps? It was suggested that you just lay out the information and if they choose to take it good, if not no problem, allow them to get to it in their own time if at all. Is it just me, that if I was allowed to set up my own agenda and timetable for the 12 steps in early recovery that I can’t say where my recovery would be today, am I the only one who sees examples of those ignoring doing the 12 steps coming back on a daily basis? Am I the only one who would question the helpfulness of a facility that endorses the 12 steps, yet after 3,6, 8 months you have made no attempt or started any work on step work, that it would be deemed acceptable? Am I also the only one who in early recovery needed direction, accountability, guidance and perhaps mostly structure, goals as well as support, and is not a lot of this through doing the 12 steps?
One of the reasons for the challenge was my endorsement of the saying “Do the Steps or Die”, well to begin with I prefer the statement “Do the Steps and Live”, however that is semantics. Overall I believe in the idea behind the statement whichever way it is said. Now I do not say that the 12 step program is the only means of recovery, however I know that has worked for me and millions of others, and no matter what the opponents to 12 step recovery say, no other form of recovery in the world has gotten as many people clean and sober, this is attested to by the over 300 12 step fellowships that have followed A.A. and the millions in 12 step meetings around the world daily. How can you join and/or be around our fellowship and not partake in the 12 step program of recovery and expect to get recovery?
Another of the challenges was in the statement “we suggest the doing the steps in the same way we suggest, if you’re going to take a crap, we suggest you take your pants down”, that this was negative. And for newcomers I should just say “you can pull up your pants now the shits over.” Again is it just me that believes that just because you’ve decided to attend meetings, and/or are in a treatment facility means the shit is over? To me the shit isn’t over until you’ve started working on your stuff and the way to do this in our fellowship is doing the steps. And then still it can take a while, again now that is my belief. So please comment on this post, for as I am writing this the more validated I fell on my positions. However if you feel that I am off the wall or whatever please post. Perhaps I am too close to see.
Oh and one other question I would pose. I believe that the average stay in a treatment facility and/or recovery house should range between 9 months to 18 months, with even 18 months bordering questionable, however this is of course dependant on the individual and factors of physical and physiological damage. A stay in excess without extreme extenuating circumstances to me would be opposed to the concept of the 12 step program, of becoming contributing members of society and enabling the client in becoming institutionalized.

Remember God does not make garbage