Step Twenty Self-Help
  1. Have a celebration or perform some personal ritual to mark formally the completion of your recovery. There are endless possibilities for acknowledging this important rite of passage. You could bring together all of the people who have supported you during this process and let them know what they have meant to you. You could take the vacation of your dreams. If you have moved into a new home that reflects the "new you," you could have a housewarming party. Think of something that symbolizes what your recovery has meant to you and find a way of expressing it one that celebrates this enormous achievement and affirms the person who did it: YOU!
  2. How long has it been since you marked the start of your recovery? Go back and reread your journal entry marking this long-ago date. What feelings surface as you reread the words that accompanied your start on the road to recovery? How many years ago was this? Was the journey worth it? Do you like where you are today, relative to yesterday? Make note of today's date and acknowledge your reactions to coming to the end of recovery. What future directions would the "new you" like to explore now?
  3. At this point you may want to reach out into the community to share your new strengths. If you are attending ASCA meetings, you may want to share your recovery experiences and encourage others who are still on their journeys. One way to deepen your sense of resolution and support others in their efforts to heal is to become a "mentor" or contact for someone just entering recovery. You might become more involved with ASCA in an organizational capacity. You can volunteer with a community hotline that reaches out to parents at risk for abusing their children. You might try your hand at social change by running for the local school board, thereby exercising a healthy expression of power and authority. Any of these activities will affirm the changes you have made in recovery and will give you the chance to share with others what you have accomplished.
  4. This is the last self-help step you will need in this recovery program. By Step Twenty, helping yourself will be almost second nature!
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Survivor to Thriver, Page 121
© 2007 THE MORRIS CENTER, Revised 11/06