MEDICATION-ASSISTED 12 STEPS
Led by You and Me
At Medication-Assisted 12 Steps, we’re ready for something better. Based in North Carolina, our transformative Recovery Community Movement mobilizes people from all over to take action and create a meaningful and lasting impact against the stigma of MAT in the 12 step recovery community.
OUR ZOOM MEETINGS
MEETING SCHEDULE
Sunday 7pm
Monday 7pm
Tuesday 6pm
Wednesday 6pm
Thursday 6pm
Friday 6pm
Sat noon
START YOUR OWN MEETING TODAY!!
contact us today
OUR STORIES
Medication-Assisted 12 Steps and its journey
HOW WE GOT STARTED...
Dr. R
A treatment provider in North Carolina who had found recovery through the rooms of AA and NA embarked on a mission to extend that lifeline to others. Drawing from his own journey to recovery, he integrated the 12-step model into his treatment program, understanding its transformative power firsthand. As the opioid crisis surged, he recognized the need to embrace medication-assisted treatment (MAT) but also found stigma within traditional recovery communities. Thus, he pioneered the creation of a true 12-step MAT meeting, a recovery community not associated with any treatment program where individuals could engage with The Steps, share about their Higher Power, and find support without judgment. In doing so, he honored the legacy of Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob while forging a path towards inclusive recovery.
ORGANIZING A MEETING
Your Help is Truly Appreciated
Every individual has the ability to motivate others and inspire true change. By Organizing an Event, you become a crucial part of our movement by making sure that our mission is heard and has a far-reaching, lasting impact.
VOLUNTEERING
Be a Force for Good
Our work is never done, and we can use all the help we can get. One of the ways you can take part is by Volunteering. Spread the word about all that Medication-Assisted 12 Steps is doing, and help us gain the support we need.
Interested in learning more about how you can take part?
M.A. 12 Step Readings
Chairperson reads: Hi, my name is _____________________.
I would like to welcome everyone to the online Recovery Delivers What the Drugs Promised group MA. Our group meets on ZOOM every Sunday & Monday at 7:00pm, Tuesday through Friday at 6:00pm and Saturday at noon.
This is an open discussion meeting or chairpersons' choice. Please find a quiet place, no driving, have proper clothing on and respect each other's privacy. If you need meeting verification private message the host. This group is independednt, autonomous and may vary from other MA groups. All people are welcome to this meeting. I will read the Preamble of MA.
MA Preamble
Medication Assisted Anonymous (MA) is a fellowship of people who share their experience, strengths, and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from drugs and alcohol.
We embrace there are many roads to recovery such as medication assisted treatment prescribed and monitored by a doctor as well as other resources that are helpful and needed as part of our recovery.
MA members hold fast to recovery as a spiritual process based on our community and seeking a higher power of our personal understanding, we find through working the steps and foundational 12 steps literature.
People of Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, and all persons in 12 step programs are welcome to our inclusive, non-judgemental, meetings. Many of us began our journey on Medication-Assisted Treatments and found along the journey that medication was no longer needed to sustain our recovery. We stayed in MA as this is our recovery home, and where we welcome and hellp the next suffering addict or alcoholic.
The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking and using. There are no dues or fees for membership; we are fully self-supporting through our own contributions. MA is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organization, treatment center, or institution; does not wish to engage in any controversy, neither endorses nor opposes any causes. Our primary purpose is to get and stay clean and sober through the Medication-Assisted Twelve Steps, and help others to achieve sobriety, "clean-time", and life-long recovery.
​
Would someone please read:
​
-What is Medication-Assisted Anonymous?
​
-The Twelve Steps of M.A.
​
-The Twelve Traditions of M.A.
​
-How M.A. Works
​
-We Do Recover
​
(Optional Mediation reading) JFT, etc.
​
Thank you everyone for reading.
​
If you are new to MA or from out of town and would like to introduce yourself, please do so now. This is not to embarass or single anyone out, we would like to get you a list of phone numbers.
MA meetings are solution focused. We emphasize no judgement of others or harsh judgement to ourselves. We ask that you not say anything which may interfere with the progress of another human being or one's own progress. Please consciously be aware of details when you share so not to trigger other members. We wish to maintain a safe lifestyle and help others to learn a new way of live.
We suggest that you share our own experiences about your recovery journey, and do not give medical advice or directions to others we are not Drs. or professionals. We are recovering people sharing our experiences to help others. We will share one at a time with no cross talk. Please mute your device unless you are sharing. (Tonight's meeting is going to be (Open discussion, topic, step study, celebration, etc. Chairs choice.)
The floor is now open, thank you for allowing me to serve.
(Chairperson, take the meeting back ten minutes before end.) Does anyone have a burning desire? Now's your chance to get it out, please do not take it home with you or get with someone after the meeting.
I would like to thank everyone for attending tonight's meeting. We can do together what we could never do alone, start recovering and learn a new way to live.
Are there any MA related announcements?
I want to remind everyone that we do not give medical advice or directions to others. Any medical direction needs to be done by an outside physician. We must stress this because giving medical advice can be dangerous and could lead to death. We want to enjoy life, yet not forget that addiction can be a matter of life or death.
Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities. Part of what this means is what you hear here, and who you see here, let it stay here. Share the message, not the messenger!
(MA Meeting Closing:)
Close with Serenity Prayer or moment of silence, chairs choice.
​
​
What is Medication-Assisted Anonymous?
M.A. is a non-profit fellowship of men and women for whom drug use has become a major problem. Most, but not all of us, found this program after going to some facility to seek help with our addiction to various drugs.
We desire to free ourselves from the drugs that had overpowered and enslaved us and to find recovery and a new way of life. While trapped in our active addiction we became surrounded in a drug-controlled world in which our focus was the getting, using and ways and means to get more. Our living and coping skills were reduced to an almost animalistic level.
Today with each other's help we can learn new coping and life skills. Recovery is possible. MA has no requirements. No referrals are needed. We have no initiation fees, no contracts to sign. Nothing is required of you, and you are free to come and go as you like. We will not chase you down or try or force you to seek recovery. You are a member of this fellowship when you say you are. We welcome all who attend our meetings with open arms.
We, as a fellowship, do not focus on what your drug of choice was, what happened in your past, or who you may have harmed, but instead, what you want to do about your problem - and how we can help. We believe that through using the tools of this program and using whatever recovery options you choose we can lose the desire to use and find a new way of life.
​
​
​
Medication Assisted 12 Steps
1. We admit that we are powerless over our addictions, that our lives have become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could do what we could not, which is to restore our life to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our wellbeing and decisions over to the care of that Higher Power as we defined it.
4. We made a fearless and thorough examination of ourselves, taking a moral inventory of our lives.
5. Admitted to our Higher Power, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Became entirely ready to have our Higher Power remove all our defects of character.
7. Humbly asked our Higher Power to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all the people we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when doing so would cause further harm to 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 our Higher Power, seeking only knowledge of our Higher Power's will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to those still suffering and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
Recovery Delivers What the Drugs Promised
Medication Assisted 12 Traditions
1. The common welfare of the group must always come first; personal recovery depends on group unity.
2. The purpose of meeting for recovery is our ultimate authority and is guided by our group conscience, which may include guidance from our individual concepts of a Higher Power. Leaders do not govern, they serve.
3. The only requirement for membership in M.A. is a desire to recover.
4. All groups are self-governing and autonomous, except in matters that affect other meetings or M.A.
5. Each M.A. group has one primary purpose, which is to carry the message of recovery to persons who are still suffering and struggling.
6. No M.A. group will endorse, finance, or lend the M.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise, to prevent problems of money, property and prestige interfering with our primary purpose.
7. All M.A. groups are fully self-supporting and will decline outside sponsorship or contributions.
8. M.A. will remain non-professional forever. M.A. may employ workers in areas which provide us with services.
9. M.A. will maintain autonomy for all persons and will be organized to the least degree possible. Service boards or committees which must be formed will be responsible to those they serve.
10. M.A. has no opinion on outside issues. Because of this, the M.A. name should not be drawn into public controversy.
11. Our public relations policy is based on attraction, not promotion. We must always maintain personal anonymity with regards to our work on behalf of M.A.
12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, constantly reminding us to place principles before personalities.
How Medication Assisted 12 Steps Work
The first step to recovery is the desire for change. When we act on the desire to stop using drugs chaotically, we are in recovery. Recovery is the process of change through which individuals improve their health and wellness, live a self-directed life, and strive to reach their full potential. If you are using a method of recovery that involves medication - you are in recovery. If you relapse you are still welcome here. If you are not currently utilizing medication - or if you never have - you are welcome here. We are a fellowship of recovering people who focus on widening the scopt of recovery from addiction to all persons.
We welcome all people seeking recovery. Please, just keep coming back. There is a special feeling of empathy created for recovering people when they discover that there are other people who share their difficulties: past and present. The sense of fellowship and unity created in these meetings will strengthen our recovery. Meetings keep us in touch with where we have been, but more importantly with where we can go in our recovery. Sharing with fellow recovering people is a basic tool in our program. The therapeutic value of one person helping another has always been the basis of Twelve Step programs. We share our experience, strength, and hope, without judgement or preaching. We suggest starting to pray and developing a concept of a Higher Power as soon as you are willing.
This is a spiritual, not religious program. We stress the importance of living by positive spiritual principles like acceptance, generosity, honesty, humility, open mindedness, and willingness. The list goes on. We believe that each member has complete freedom and autonomy to have their own belief system. Our only suggestion is that your Higher Power be loving and caring. We have found it helpful to have a sponsor, and to use this sponsor. Sponsorship is a two-way street; it helps the sponsee and the sponsor. As newcomers, we find it easier to recover if we have someone we trust and in whom we can confide. Another tool in M.A. is involvement with service to others. This work can begin with simple actions: setting up the meeting, greeting people, cleaning up, chairing the meeting, or passing out literature. Eventually we can get involved in a structured service position.
We keep what we have by giving it away. The ability to face our problems is necessary. Addiction is much more than unmanageable drug use. It goes much deeper. Through working the "Twelve Steps" we will see the depth of our addiciton in all areas of our lives, and we will find solutions to those problems. We may face the desire to return to our old ways at times. Dishonesty, close-mindedness, and unwillingness are three of our greatest enemies. Self-obsession and negativity are at the core of addiction. Our addiction involved much more than just using drugs, so our recovery must involve much more than not using - we must use the tools of recovery, one day at a time.
​
​
We Do Recover
Our personal stories may vary in individual patterns, but in the end we all have the same thing in common. This common illness or disorder is Addiction. We know well the things which make up addiction: obsession, compulsion, negativity, and self-centeredness.
When at the end of the road we find that we can no longer function as a human being, either with, or without drugs, we all face the same dilemma. What is there left to do? There seems to be this alternative: either go on as best we can to the bitter ends: misery, jails, institutions, or death - or find a new way to live.
In years gone by, very few recovering people ever had this last choice. Those who are addicted today are more fortunate. For the first time in history, a simple way has been proving itself in the lives of many people. It is available to us all. This is a simple,m spiritual not religious, program known as: "Medication Assisted 12 Steps".