My experience has been that Twelve Steps are Twelve Steps. It is always better to go somewhere that you can identify more readily with what is being shared, yet no matter what the substance is, if it is out of control, it is already a problem. I went to a friend's one year anniversary in CA and the speaker was a girl who only used cocaine and never drank alcohol. I never used cocaine and I am a recovering alcoholic. She told my story and my recovery so well that my ex-boyfriend who was with me at the time, recognized my words coming from her.
As I once heard at a meeting, "If you have to control it, it is already out of control."
By posting here, I would say you have taken the first Step. The five As to change are Awareness, Admittance, Acceptance, Action and Attitude. The Big Book says that Spirituality is a change in attitude sufficient to bring about recovery.
Of ourselves, we can't do it. Together, we can do what I can't do alone. Try to read the posts, and try to identify not compare. All substances lead to the same soul sickness. Knowing what to do, and having the power to do it is the difference between normal and healthy eating and addiction.
When I tried to quit alcohol at 41, I substituted prescription drugs. I could quit drinking, but I couldn't stay quit. In the end, I had problems with both and along the way I discovered other addictions like work, food, gambling, computers and other things that took me back to places I didn't like to be. With the help of the program, I am able to see when I am acting out in my disease, and I can turn to the God of my understanding and ask for help.
It works if I work it. Just reading about it and knowing is not enough, I must come to a place of acceptance and follow it up with a plan of action.
My eating disorder doesn't allow me to eat. I eat so much and then I can't eat anymore. I can't finish what is on my plate. For some to eat is to die. For some, to not eat is to die. It takes many forms of sickness, and not all the same habits and patterns, but again it is a mental, emotional, spiritual and physical disease.
Something I wrote in 2004
