“The power of peer-led recovery groups lies in the simple, profound act of one person helping another, which builds community, fosters hope, and changes lives.”
~ Dr. Keith Humphreys, Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stamford University
And the good news? According to group reports and general service offices, Alcoholics Anonymous alone accounts for 64,000 groups nationally with 123,000 globally. Despite apprehensions around guesstimations of the exact number, it is not controversial to say there are over a million members of AA with millions of collective years of recovery. I wonder how much pain has been spared in all those years?
Of course there are many other well respected and wonderful peer organizations like SMART Recovery, Women for Sobriety and Refuge Recovery to name a few. From the very first moment two people got together to help each other and realized the power in it, the concept has continued to grow. Johann Hari said it best “the opposite of addiction is connection” why? Because being “out there” is the most alone a person can be. Soaked in it – stained by it – suffocated and suffered with it. BUT…when someone talks about this feeling of destitution and despair and then looks up and catches the eye of someone nodding their head in identification … .a revolution is born. We like revolutions when they mean true freedom. So go be together with someone, for revolutions in the end, are acts of love.
