Simply put, at the heart of recovery is learning to manage emotions without having to resort to self-medication. Twelve Step and other support groups are vital and necessary parts of many people's recovery because they enable folks to take responsibility for their feelings. Even when you attain sobriety via a Twelve Step fellowship, you can still be what is called a “Dry Drunk.” The term means that you may have long term sobriety, but are still not emotionally healthy. Once sobriety is attained, recovery is about achieving emotional serenity, some sweet peace of mind. Once again, it’s all about feelings.

Because the majority of folks addicted suffer from significant emotional problems to do with post traumatic stress, I strongly recommend expert emotional counseling as part of an individual’s recovery plan.