How technology can support your recovery
There was a time when the only technologies that were available to aid you in your recovery were the telephone and the printing press. This, however, is not the case today and there are now hundreds of applications and technology to support your recovery. These will come in handy because there will be times where your sober support network and technology can help fill the gap.
Many of these supporting technologies are available for free on various marketplaces or the internet and they have helped thousands of alcoholics and addicts to maintain their sobriety when they venture away from their home base, cut off from others, or are just going through the day to the day of life. Listing all of these apps and technologies would be far too numerous for this post, so I have decided to just include a few that have proven to be particularly helpful to my fellow addicts and alcoholics.
Available Apps and Technology That Can Support Your Recovery
- Skype
There are those people who are so situated that getting to a meeting is almost impossible. This may mean that they are ill and cannot leave the house, they are in a very scarcely populated area, or are traveling abroad where meetings are not available to them. In the past, these people were left with only the phone and their trusted Big Book or Basic Text to get them through the day, but with the advent of video conferencing this is no longer the case. Regardless of where you are in the world, if you have internet access you can attend one of the many weekly Skype meetings that take place. A listing of AA Online Meetings can be found here. And a listing of NA Online Meetings can be found here.
- 12 Steps AA Companion
This app, which is available through Apple App Store and the Android Store costs $2.99 to download, but what for it includes, it is well worth the price. The app includes a digital version of the Big Book with searchable text, a section exclusive for AA prayers, plus it has a sobriety calculator. This app can help you when you’re in a bind and need to read the Big Book but don’t want to break your anonymity by taking out the recognizable blue book.
- Headspace: Guided Meditation and Mindfulness
For those who have trouble meditating or for people who just want to start to practice, this app, which is free to download, can be incredibly helpful. The app includes a number of guided meditations and it even tracks your progress as you begin to be able to meditate for longer periods of time. If you are going to be somewhere, where you will not have access to the internet, you can even download the sessions onto your phone for offline use. This is an all around great app for meditation and something that everyone in recovery should have on their phone.
- Daily Reflection Apps
If you type in Daily Reflections in your phone’s app store you will find a number of different options for daily meditation or reflection apps. As there are a number available, some free and some that cost money, I will not offer any suggestions on the matter, but if you do a quick search you are bound to find one that speaks to you. They have reflections specifically for women and men, ones for people in recovery, and ones that are more metaphysical or religious based. Having a daily reflection app on your phone is great because you can start your day off right as you reflect on the words and if need be you can read it again later on in the day since you will always have your phone with you.
- Speaker Tapes
20 years ago speaker tapes were something that you could only get at a convention or some other special recovery event. They were passed down from person to person and they were coveted for the information that they held. With the widespread usage of the Internet though, these tapes have found a new home and are enjoying a new life among people in recovery. For those of you not aware a speaker tape is a recording of an AA or NA speaker, usually circuit speakers, which is then circulated and made available to everyone. There are a number of websites where these tapes are available, so I’ll provide the link to three of them so you have a place to start:
o XA-Speakers
o RecoveryAudio
o Recovery Speakers
Many of these website are compatible with your phone’s browser, but if this does not work for you then there are also apps available specifically for speaker tapes.
- Recovery-Coaching Solutions
There are several technological recovery solutions that offer motivational messages, recovery content and/or sobriety date tracking. Few offer all of these features combined with recovery coaching though. Ascent is a recovery solution that combines 24/7/365 access to peer-recovery coaches with a feature-rich mobile app. In addition to being able to connect with recovery coaches at anytime, users can also view daily motivations, find nearby meetings, avoid trigger locations, connect with peers, take daily or weekly surveys viewed by their coaches and press a “Beacon” button for immediate assistance. Another organization that offers recovery coaching is Recovery Coaches International. They help people locate coaches in their area so they can attend meetings and get back on the right track. In each meeting, the client chooses the focus of conversation, while the coach listens and contributes observations and questions. This interaction creates clarity and moves the client toward action.
- AA and NA Meeting Finders
For both Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous, there are apps available that act as a Where and When. These apps can find meetings in specific places that you are searching for or they can find ones that nearby. This is a great tool to have for any person that is traveling and it can save you the time of having to call Intergroup or search for local meetings online.
These are just a few of the helpful apps and technologies that are available for people in recovery and as you can see we have come along in our ability to connect.
When AA first started and meetings weren’t readily available, they would send people the Big Book and that was one of the only ways these people were able to connect with another alcoholic. Imagine if that were the case today and we weren’t so lucky as to have hundreds of meetings to choose from and with a few click of the mouse or finger we can connect to recovering people all around the world.
Hopefully, you found this list useful and you start to use some of these apps and technology to support your recovery and enrich your own sobriety. If you have any apps that you personally like, I’d love to hear about them as well.
Rose Lockinger is a passionate member of the recovery community. A rebel who found her cause, she uses blogging and social media to raise the awareness about the disease of addiction. She has visited all over North and South America. Single mom to two beautiful children she has learned parenting is without a doubt the most rewarding job in the world. Currently the Outreach Director at Stodzy Internet Marketing.
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