While going to college I have seen first hand how a 12 step campus can benefit an individual. While not an alcoholic myself, I have drug users in my family, and my group of friends. One of my closest friends decided to try a twelve step programon campus ninety days ago and the results have been incredible. She has taken that brave first step of admission, and surrendered her decisions to a higher power and a group of supporters. This has enabled her to curb her addiction one day at a time. The twelve step campus she is a member of gives her the confidence to stand tall in tough situations where her addiction could normally get the better of her. Within ninety days she has improved her positive energy, her healthy habits and most of all, her enjoyment of life. She writes in her diary every night after doing her homework and before going to sleep, about the challenges she overcame that day. She calls her sponsor at seven a.m. every morning before class to commit her plan for the day. The amount of dedication she has to this twelve step program is admirable and makes me question what I’m missing out on. I claim no dangerous habits of my own, but is that the truth?
Her newfound way of life has brought me to question my own decisions while living on campus. I wonder if I could be happier, healthier, more mentally and physically fit if I figured out what my vices were and found a 12 step program of my own. I decided to do some research. What I found quite shocked me. There is literally a anonymous group on my campus for almost everything! From online gaming to workaholics! And if there isn’t one, then surely it could be brought up with the student counsel and arranged. I have yet to figure out which program would be right for me. I think sometimes it may be an anger management program, or procrastinators anonymous. If there is a twelve step program for manic depressiveness, that would certainly be my group. But I’m curious to know if a bunch of us manic depressives gather twelve times a month in the same place, would their cycles align? I can see it now. One week everyone in the room is ready to lay down and die, and then next week we decide to throw a party with a banner that says, “Life is Grand!!!” I don’t know. There are certainly things that I can change, and maybe I need some sort of intervention to find out what they are. I suppose that if the problem is big enough, it will find me. But until then I continue to draw inspiration from watching this close and dear friend of mine change her life one day at a time.
But as well as making me question my own issues, her new ways have affected me in the same constructive manner as they have her. Because we are so close her lifestyle has a profound effect on my own and we tend to feed off each other’s habits. In this case, because her lifestyle has changed for the positive and I am entirely supportive, I no longer do anything that contradicts her program’s creed. All said and done, I have an enormous respect for my campus for providing a twelve step campus to help people gain control over the things they do not have the strength to overcome alone. I have seen first hand the positive changes that are possible as a result.
