Mini Series 13 - The Phone Is Your Lifeline

Busting Addiction and Its Myths

Let’s talk about the many aspects of relapse prevention. This is incredibly important if you’re just starting out on your journey of recovery. This is when you’re most vulnerable to going back “out there”.

1. Just as iPhones have proven to be incredibly useful tools for navigating our way through our personal, academic and work lives, so too, can they be put to practical use in helping us prevent a relapse, or come back from one in short order, if you really want to get and stay clean and sober.
2. For one thing, now there are apps that can help you with your recovery. There’s one called Everything AA which is fully loaded with e-versions of the main literature, contains audio versions of AA writings and also has prayers and other inspirational content. There’s also a Narcotics Anonymous (NA) app which can help you find meetings anywhere, including online.
3. A simple Google search of online meetings for Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous (the two most common 12-step programs) will yield many options that allow a recovering person to connect with others in a private setting dedicated to recovery.
4. Perhaps the most powerful use of your phone comes in when you need another addict or alcoholic to talk to. In AA, we talk about that “100 pound” phone, which speaks to the reluctance that people in early recovery have about picking up the phone and calling a sponsor or a friend, ideally a program buddy. The whole 12-step recovery program, starting with AA in 1935, was based on one alcoholic talking to another. Breaking isolation and connecting to the fellowship is an essential element in recovery. That’s why using the phone is crucial.