You’re probably reading this because you suspect that you’ve been drinking too much and you’re wondering if a place for alcohol recovery in Albuquerque can help you. The answer is a resounding yes—help is readily available. The first step toward recovery comes when you ask about getting that help.

Asking for help is the first step, but then you’ll need to take a few more steps as you begin this journey. The road to alcohol recovery in Albuquerque may include 12-step organizations like Alcoholics Anonymous. You may be thinking that you are not ready to go to a 12-step meeting and you don’t want to stand up in a room full of strangers and tell them you’re an addict, the way they do on TV. But you don’t have to do that initially. All you have to do is read the 12 steps.

The first step of Alcoholics Anonymous says:

We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.

Reading those words most likely causes you to feel angry. Your drinking should have nothing to do with the great job you do, assuming that you are employed or the family that you may be taking care of. Why should you admit that you are powerless?

Alcohol recovery knows no economic or social class barriers. Anyone who is susceptible to the medical disease of alcoholism becomes affected equally. Consider how some people define powerlessness:

Alcohol puts your life and the lives of others in danger. Have you driven your car while you were intoxicated? What if you wreck your car and kill yourself—or some innocent bystander who is not responsible for the fact that your drinking is beyond your control.

What about your medical health? Whether you are a high-powered executive who tosses back top-shelf bourbon every day after work or a street-dweller clutching a bottle of wine kept in a brown bag. If you’ve been drinking too much for too long, your liver may be affected, and you probably pay no attention to nutrition. People who drink too much develop dental problems because alcohol contains high amounts of sugar, and the alcohol causes stomach problems including severe acid reflux. If you’ve experienced black-outs, your body has literally shut down because it was in danger. That’s when it’s time to get into alcohol recovery in Albuquerque.

You don’t like who you are. Sometimes you remember what you say when you’re drinking and sometimes you don’t. All you know for certain is that you’ve said and done the wrong things. Even if nobody else knows just how bad it’s gotten, you know it. You see it in your eyes every time you wake up after a bender and look in the mirror.

Your family no longer respects you. Alcoholism is a medical disease that is endangering you, but it’s also a social disease that affects your entirely family. You are like an elephant in the living room: Your behavior is shameful, and your drinking directly costs your family some of the benefits you could offer them if you were sober. They tiptoe around you and clean up after you: Whether you just miss work and the spouse calls your boss with an excuse, or if you’ve gone on a drunken rampage and they are quietly avoiding you, you are the messy animal in the household that nobody wants to talk about.

It’s true that you’ve harmed others. The harm can be anything from verbal abuse of your loved ones to running over a stranger with your car. There are other potential injuries—we mentioned already the deprivations that your family suffer from your drinking. What if you lose your job? You’ll no longer have a way to support your family, pay your mortgage, or participate in COBRA. If you get arrested for drunken driving, you’ll strip the family savings account paying a lawyer.

So, maybe your life is out of control and you realize that you are powerless to stop it. That’s what the first step in AA means: Your life is unmanageable and it’s time to hand the reins over to somebody else for a while. Getting into alcohol recovery in Albuquerque is easy, and it’s something you can do right now. You don’t have to discuss it with anybody, and your boss will never need to know. Just pick up the phone and make that one telephone call that can put you where you need to be: On the road to recovery.