California 12 Step Meetings are everywhere. In Orange County, alone, over 1500 meetings are scheduled each week. If the average meeting is 10 people, then over 15,000 people sit together for an hour each week, to try to stay sober.

The reason for such incredible numbers of people in meetings started with two men who began Alcoholics Anonymous, an organization in the unconventional sense of the word. These were not men who wanted to make money; they wanted to help people get sober and stay sober. This was over 70 years ago.

Today California 12 step meetings are the heartbeat of Alcoholics Anonymous. They include people with long term sobriety, many of whom moved to California to get sober. Increasing numbers are starting with Drug Treatment Programs, where they can be safe and get a lot of personal attention, while they become sober members of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Every California 12 Step meeting starts with an opening prayer, some important passages written about recovery, and then a discussion of a recovery topic. In discussion meetings, efforts are made to include as many people as possible to share about their experience. Those with long term sobriety focus on strength and hope for all alcoholics.

California 12 Step meetings are frequently speaker meetings with a 20-40 minute speaker, someone of stature in the community, or long term sobriety, or both. In Southern California, this often includes famous speakers, or known celebrities in recovery, whose true full names are never revealed thanks to the anonymity of the program.

Residential Treatment Programs are an important addition to California 12 step meetings they teach �meeting� protocol and the importance of focusing on a solution to the problems of drugs and alcohol. Alcoholism is the primary topic of discussion in these meetings, whether in the form of alcohol alone, or alcohol and drugs.

Prescription drugs are on the increase, and they often become a �drug of choice� for Alcoholics. Treatment Programs teach that the results are the same: switching from drugs to alcohol is like switching seats on the Titanic: without help, it is all over.

California 12 Step Meetings, particularly in Southern California are filled with �newcomers,� those alcoholics who are newly sober. They may have no solution to present in meetings because they don�t yet know enough about recovery.

12 Step based Drug and Alcohol Treatment Programs are the solution. They teach the principles of Alcoholics Anonymous, codes of sober behavior, while providing a safe and secure place to recover from drugs and alcohol.

Drug Addiction is a nearly overwhelming problem. California 12 Step Meetings of Narcotics Anonymous, a much newer organization, provides daily meetings to help even the newest newcomer. Although Narcotics Anonymous is much smaller than Alcoholics Anonymous, its meetings are also growing. They are seeing an influx in numbers as drug addiction grows.

Southern California has become a focus for sobriety. California 12 Step meetings, Even for Eating Disorders, are proof that a program of recovery is growing here. California 12 Step Meetings are based on Christian Principles and Codes of Behavior. In their disease, during our drinking and using, alcoholics are careless and destructive with their friends, family, and workplaces. Primary topics in meetings are about changing behavior, from �this is what I need� to �this is what I need to do� especially helping another alcoholic. This �We� program is based on principles such as �behaving better than we feel� �Action leads to better behavior� �Surrender to a higher power and a program of Recovery�

Drug Abuse does not have to be a daily battle. Through California 12 Step Meetings alcoholics gain a reprieve, one day at a time, from an otherwise fatal disease. Drug Rehab in Southern California is an increasing solution, a place to begin. Here the seed is planted, and those who seem to fail in recovery programs, can go on to recover in 12 Step meetings.

Alcohol Abuse leads to the same problems, and the solution is the same: 12 Step meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous focus on the problem, but then the solution, recovery. A significant principle: �Action leads to better behavior, not thinking�

Drug induced thinking has often lead to desperate acts, and put many of members in jails or prisons, simply because they had to support their addictions. Like the �Jaywalker� in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, they continue alcoholic behavior, without memory or conscience that makes them a whirlwind in our lives.

Because of a recovery code of ethics, members focus on amends rather than repeated behavior. They learn a new way of life, based on a new way of thinking. 12 Meetings are the place to discuss the primary principles of recovery: Honesty, Open Mindedness and Willingness.

It is a long journey from Alcoholic thinking to the values of a Sober Man or Woman. The program of Alcoholics Anonymous and the California 12 Step Meetings, are designed to take us on that journey. All that is required is a desire to stop drinking.

When Bill W. and Bob started Alcoholics Anonymous, they were forced to visit hospitals to find alcoholics they could help. Times have changed. Alcoholics and Drug Addicts are at the bottom and the top of the hill. Hospitals continue to offer �Detox� and Addiction Treatment is still the beginning of a journey through sobriety. In Southern California, Yellowstone Recovery has helped over 5000 men and women start that journey.

At the end of the day, California 12 Step Meetings are the place to go, for alcoholics and addicts, their families, their friends and even those who will soon discover they need to be there.

There is a meeting for every addiction. Some meetings are all about newcomers, some are on skid row, some are in beautiful churches, and some are located in our most prestigious communities. Whether the members are from Beverly Hills or the Hills of San Bernardino, there is a place in a California 12 Step Meeting for them all.

As a traveler to Paris recently, I went to 12 Step Meetings at the American University. There, as in other places, such as Lake Tahoe, I saw members of 12 Step Meetings from Southern California. When you attend a California 12 step meeting and shake someone�s hand you never know how far you�ve reached.