STEPS OF TRANSFORMATION

How does someone get cured of alcoholism? What is the connection between an addiction to alcohol and some other of our weaknesses?

How can someone today, Christian or not, be helped by the 12-step system of Alcoholics Anonymous? This book dares us to confront the things that torment us every day, so as to free ourselves from them.

In the 1930s a small group of alcoholics held regular meetings in an attempt to deal with a problem which no one up until then had succeeded in solving: how to get cured of their addiction to alcohol. Nowadays, everyone is aware of the invaluable work performed by Alcoholics Anonymous.

The aim of this book is to investigate the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, to explain them to those who may not be familiar with them, to say why the Steps are important, and finally how they help people to recover not only from alcoholism but from other addictions.

Another fundamental aim of the book is to present the Twelve Steps in such a way that members of the Orthodox Church, if they choose to make use of them, can internalise them as a valuable tool for their own spiritual development.

Archimandrite Makarios Papamichail, head of the Metamorphosis Association, has this to say about the book and about addiction: Addiction is acknowledged by the global scientific community to be a psychological illness, which today is considered to be the result of genetic, psychological and socio-cultural factors (DSM). The problem appears not to lie in the substances or in addictive behaviours, but is something that runs deeper and derives from the person’s way of thinking, that is, the way in which some people filter and process the stimuli around and within them. Consequently, it has a profound effect on many people’s lives, socially, physically, intellectually and emotionally. The person who is actively addicted gradually becomes a prey to obsession and compulsion, and goes on to develop challenging behaviour, is unable to form relationships either with himself or with his environment, and in the end basically cuts himself off from the society of which he is part. As a spiritual and social service to our fellow-men, and on the initiative of the Holy Patriarchal and Stauropegic Monastery of Saint Dionysius on Mount Olympus, with the help of the Holy Metropolis of Kitros, Katerini and Platamon, the Metamorphosis guest-house was set up. The guest-house is the brainchild of the Metamorphosis Association for Counselling Support for Addicts, which provides psychological support to people who want to shed their active addiction to substances, and also encourages their personal and spiritual development, enabling their gradual reintegration into society. The guest-house operates a closed therapeutic programme of twelve step spiritual development, strictly structured, which aims to help the member acknowledge the social and psychological factors which make him an addict. Members have no access to any psychoactive substance or alcohol, and learn to take responsibility for themselves and to manage their emotions, to be part of the ‘whole’ and to respond appropriately to all types of life situation on its own terms. The association is motivated to continue with its difficult task by the continually increasing number of people who, thanks to the help they were given, are now freed from their active addiction and integrated into the society from which they had been cut off for so many years. We pray and strive so that the grace of almighty God and the Virgin Mary His mother may not simply permit, but further fortify the continuance of this service to our suffering fellow-men, offering them, like a light in darkness, a way out of their dead end.