Sometimes, recovery looks eerily similar to the abusive church. When members are encouraged to stay away from others who have "graduated" from the fellowship, there can be a kind of cultish feel to 12 steppers.

The general belief is, "Once an addict, always an addict." This statement is probably more true than not; and yet, it would be wrong to say that it is always true. Another accurate belief is that if you don't give away that which you have been given, you'll never be able to keep the gifts entrusted to you. This rings true. However, dictating what "giving it away" looks like, is a huge mistake.

Most people enter 12-step / 12-tradition rooms in order to stop living a destructive life and live as happy, successful members of society. When we tell current members to stop associating with the people who are successfully living out the things they learned, recovery becomes no better than the church who urges members not to associate with people who decided to leave against the church's wishes.

Recovery must be better than this.