This document outlines an agenda for a substance abuse recovery group meeting. It includes items like a check-in where participants share their name, feelings, and last substance use. They will discuss the continuum of substance abuse relationships from healthy to unhealthy. Participants will reflect on where their own relationship with substances falls on this continuum and whether they have passed the point of no return into an unhealthy relationship. The document also covers exploring benefits of 12-step meetings, reviewing tools from previous meetings, and learning about signs of healthy versus unhealthy substance use relationships.

2. Sit quietly for a minute or two,
and focus on where we are
now.

3. Quiet Time
Check- in
Exploring personal relationship with
substances
What does a healthy relationship
with a substance look like?
The Continuum - What does an
unhealthy relationship with
substance look like?
Where is YOUR line? – discussion

4.  Name
 Feeling
 Last use
 12-step meetings? What happened?
 Who attended a meeting?
 If you did not attend a meeting
 • Did you think about it?
 • What prevented your attendance?
 • What can you do differently this week?
 Success with last week’s recovery tool?
(binders)

5.  To understand that our
relationships with alcohol and
other drugs progress along a
continuum.
To personalize and classify our
own relationships with various
substances

6. of a Healthy
Relationship with a Drug

7. Knowledge
Benefits
No negative “side effects”
Freedom to choose

8.  Recognition that the substance
you are using is a drug and
awareness of what it does to
your body
Examples of drugs that people
don’t realize they are using
Read info from pharmacy?

9. Experience of a useful effect
of the drug over time.

10.  To treat disease
 To alter moods
 To escape boredom and despair
 To promote and enhance social interaction
 To enhance sensory experience and pleasure
 To stimulate artistic creativity and
performance
 To improve physical performance
 To rebel
 To go along with peer pressure
 To aid religious practices
 To explore the self
 To establish an identity

11.  Freedom from adverse effects on health or
behavior
Possible effects
 Uncertainty of Dose and Quality
 Mixing Drugs
 Medical Problems
 • Acute problems (i.e. overdosing & allergic reactions;
injuries)
 • Chronic problems (i.e. irritate & damage body
systems; lifestyle can influence self-care like diet,
sleep, hygiene & exercise)
 • Pregnancy complications
 • Misdiagnoses due to drugs changing or
masking symptoms
 • Drug induced/aggravated psychiatric disorders

12.  Social and Behavioral Problems
 Relational
 Altered Inhibitions
 Diminished Ability to Process Social Cues
 Distortion of Emotional Experience
 Family
 Employment
 School
 • Life Threatening Social Situations
 Developmental Problems
 Impaired mental development
 Impaired emotional development
 Impaired physical development
 Legal Problems
 DWI
 Assault & Domestic Violence
 Possession & Distribution
 Dependency & Addiction
 Physiological
 Psychological
 Limits Personal Freedom!

13.  Ease of separation from the use
of the drug.
 Withdrawal
 • Psychological or Physical
 • The Substitution Syndrome
 Tolerance
• More of the same drug for benefit
• Stronger drug for benefit

14. Add relationship with drugs
hand out one way and 2 way
street.

16.  Where are you in your relationship
with your drug of choice?
If you think you are still on a two-
way street, does your relationship
meet all our criteria of a healthy
relationship?
Have you passed the point of no
return?