Cocaine Anonymous is a 12-Step recovery programme designed to help those facing current or past addiction to substances such as cocaine and speed, and all other drugs. While Cocaines Anonymous is not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous, the organization uses the AA text, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. This article explains more about CA. I provide sessions to help people reduce cocaine usage in London.
Cocaines Anonymous Ethos
Cocaine Anonymous publishes its own text, Hope, Faith and Courage: Stories from the Fellowship of Cocaine Anonymous. Both texts are given to new members to read on their own time, and meetings draw heavily from the content within. More information about the 12-Step philosophy can be found in the Big Book. This is an Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) text, but the two programmes share the same core beliefs and principles.
The 12 Steps of Cocaines Anonymous
The 12 steps of Cocaine Anonymous are the same as those of Alcoholics Anonymous, but Cocaines Anonymous chooses to focus specifically on applying the steps to addiction to cocaine and other similar narcotics. The first step in the programme requires participants to admit they are powerless over their addiction and their lives have become unmanageable. The second step requires them to believe that a higher power is capable of restoring them to a healthy state of mind.
The third step is to make the decision to turn their will and life over to the care of a higher power. The fourth step requires participants to take a searching and fearless moral inventory of their lives. The fifth step is admitting to a higher power, oneself and others the specific acts of wrongdoing that resulted from the addiction.
The sixth step is to surrender the admitted character defects to a higher power. The seventh step is to ask God, or whatever the higher power is, to remove all shortcomings. In the eighth step, the addict must make a list of all the people harmed by their addiction and become willing to make amends. The ninth step builds on the eighth step by requiring the person to go out and actively make amends with the people their addiction has harmed, as long as doing so would not cause them more harm.
The last steps are closely related, all themed around humility and self-acceptance. The 10th step requires the addict to continue taking personal inventory and admitting wrongdoing and personal shortcomings. The 11th step is to seek the will of a higher power through prayer and meditation. The 12th and final step is to use the spiritual awakening gained from the other steps to help other addicts and maintain a newfound state of health and freedom from addiction in daily life.
How to Overcome Cocaine Addiction through Cocaines Anonymous programme
The motto of Cocaine Anonymous is “Hope, faith and courage,” something that many cocaine addicts can relate to well. Cocaine is a psychologically addictive substance, meaning that individuals require increasingly higher doses to achieve the same feeling of physical and mental wellness. Cocaine is often known by its street terms, including “coke,” “snow” and “blow,” among others.
According to the US National Institute on Drug Abuse, 4.8 million Americans have abused cocaine. Cocaine is a highly addictive illegal substance, and it comes with many serious and often life-threatening side effects, including:
- Euphoria
- Fever
- High blood pressure
- Increased heart rate
- Respiratory failure
- Nausea
Additionally, both long- and short-term use of cocaine cause increased risk of various health issues, including:
- Seizures
- Stroke
- Heart attack
- Hypertension
- Sudden death
What are the Benefits of the Cocaines Anonymous Recovery Programme?
Peer support networks like Cocaine Anonymous are incredibly powerful resources when dealing with severe drug addiction. While friends and family are a great source of support, sometimes it helps to surround yourself with others who have been exactly where you are and understand what you’re going through. One of the primary benefits of Cocaines Anonymous membership is that each new member gets a sponsor. A sponsor is a member that has been sober for at least a year, and their goal is to support new members and help them remain sober. Since the sponsors have been where the new members are, they have special insight and can provide invaluable assistance.
If you feel you have an addiction to cocaine or a similar substance, don’t wait to seek help. Joining a support group or network like Cocaines Anonymous can give you the support and assistance you need to move past your addiction. It is possible to lead a clean life free of addiction and the control of cocaine
The Twelve Steps of Cocaines Anonymous
1 We admitted we were powerless over cocaine and all other mind-altering substances — that our lives had become unmanageable.
2 Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3 Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4 Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5 Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6 Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7 Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8 Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9 Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10 Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11 Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12 Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
The Twelve Traditions of Cocaine Anonymous
The twelve traditions comprise the organisational guidelines under which the autonomous groups of C.A. function.
1 Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon C.A. unity.
2 For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority — a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.
3 The only requirement for C.A. membership is a desire to stop using cocaine and all other mind-altering substances.
4 Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or C.A. as a whole.
5 Each group has but one primary purpose — to carry its message to the addict who still suffers.
6 A C.A. group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the C.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
7 Every C.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
8 Cocaine Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
9 C.A., as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
10 Cocaine Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the C.A. name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
11 Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, television and films.
12 Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.
If you are looking to give up cocaine CA could be for you. If you would like to consider hypnotherapy for cocaine in London, get in touch today.