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Core study hub · works offline

Reading Room

Start with the interactive study guide: twelve step-by-step modules, each pairing a Step with a cognitive-restructuring exercise and private journal prompts saved on this device. The AA and NA books are under copyright, so their text isn't reproduced here. What you'll find instead: original study guides explaining what's inside each one and how members use it, original daily affirmations written in the same one-day-at-a-time tradition, and direct links to the official sources where the real text can be read free.

Clinical lens · CBT

Trigger → Restructure → Reflect

1. Notice the trigger

Name the situation, person, place, feeling or body state that came right before the urge. Triggers are information, not orders.

2. Restructure the thought

Write the automatic thought word for word, spot the distortion (all-or-nothing, fortune-telling, catastrophising, 'I deserve it'), then write a balanced, evidence-based alternative.

3. Reflect and act

Choose one small healthy action, do it, and afterwards note what actually happened compared to what the urge predicted.

Common thinking distortions
  • All-or-nothing: "I slipped once, so my recovery is ruined."
  • Fortune-telling: "This craving will never stop unless I use."
  • Catastrophising: "If I feel this anxious I'll fall apart."
  • Permission-giving: "I've had a hard week — I've earned it."
  • Minimising: "Just one won't count."
  • Labelling: "I'm an addict, so I'm just a bad person."

Module 1 · Step 1

Honesty: naming the problem

Step One asks for an honest admission that addiction has made life unmanageable. In CBT terms this is the first accurate assessment — replacing denial with evidence.

List concrete consequences rather than vague feelings. Evidence is harder to argue with than mood.

Trigger

Someone questions your use, and you feel defensive.

Distortion

Minimising — 'It's not that bad, everyone does it.'

Restructured thought

'The facts on my list show it has cost me. Looking at them honestly is a strength.'

Reflection journal

Saved only on this device.