Pain and Working the 12 Steps
Category: Life

On April 23, 2007 I began a new adventure in the life-long struggle against pain and it's stranglehold on my everyday life. On that day I entered a program called Methodist Hospital Chronic Pain Management Program. It is an IOP (Intensive Outpatient Program) rehab program that utilizes the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous and teaches people with chronic pain to apply these well know 12-steps to dealing with a life with chronic pain. The program is flexible as far as the amount of time that one actually reports to the program/classes/groups, but is individually taylored to the individual. For me, I "graduated" in 4 weeks and now go back periodically for aftercare and to volunteer my input to those who continue on in the program.

Yes, we are ALL a work in progress. I'm blessed to be on the journey with YOU!

Hi..... I'm Ellen.... and I have chronic pain disease.

The Twelve Steps for Chronically Ill or Disabled People

1) We admitted we were powerless over our chronic illness or disability - 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 the God of our understanding.

4) Mad a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5) Admitted to the God of our understanding, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

6) Were entirely ready to have the God of our understanding remove all of our defects of character.

7) Humbly asked God 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 the God of our understanding, praying only for knowledge of God's 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 others with chronic illness or disability, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

And then there is THE SERENITY PRAYER that we say at the end of each group

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference.

And of course the motto: One Day at a Time!

If you, too, suffer from Chronic Pain or Illness I would love to hear from you.
Let me recommend this great book to you:

Chronic Illness and the Twelve Steps: A Practical Approach to Spiritual Resilience by Martha Cleveland, PH.D.; Hazelden- www.hazelden.org.