It Can:

• Keep you from slipping back into denial of your problems.

• Give you a sense of normalcy. 

• You can practice NOT fixing. 

• Be an opportunity to make new friends. 

• Give you perspective and keep you from self-pity. 

• Give you a chance to share things which, if told (to a non-member), would not be understood. 

• Validate your emotions and experience. 

• Give you a genuine sense of support, perhaps for the first time in your life. 

• Give you a real sense of belonging. Here you are not different. 

• Provide an opportunity to be of real service to others. 

• Give you an outline for a workable philosophy in life in the 12 steps. 

• Supply an environment where you can find out who you are and give you an opportunity to practice being that person. 

• Provide a source of unconditional love and acceptance. 

• Allow you the freedom to express your true feelings in a non-judgmental atmosphere, with out fear of criticism. 

• Teach you to break behavior patterns that don’t work by replacing them with new ones. 

• Allow you to experience real honesty of feeling in yourself and in others. 

• Give you practice in making a commitment and keeping it. 

• Change your image of yourself and raise your self-esteem. 

• End your feelings of isolation. 

• Help you detach from painful situations by showing your new attitudes. 

• Change your life.