Columbia South Carolina has a variety of drug and alcohol treatment and recovery institutions. A suitable treatment facility can be found to satisfy the needs of any individual. Alcoholic’s Anonymous groups rank high on anyone’s success meter and Columbia also has no shortage of these institutions. In regards to Alcoholics Anonymous, Columbia is divided into fourteen areas of the city and these fourteen areas comprise eighty four different greater Columbia AA groups. These eighty four groups provide the Columbia area with a total of 248 AA meetings each and every week of the year. These fourteen areas and the numbers of AA groups within each area are listed below:
Balentine / Chapin / Irmo / Prosperity
9 Groups
Batesburg / Twin City
2 Groups
Cayce / West Columbia
13 Groups
Downtown Columbia
5 Groups
Dutch Square / Broad River Road
5 Groups
5 Points
5 Groups
Forrest Acres / East Columbia
12 Groups
Gaston / Swansea
1 Group
Lexington / Gilbert
8 Groups
North / Northeast Cola / Pontiac
10 Groups
Shandon
5 Groups
Newberry
2 Groups
Winnsboro / Ridgeway
2 Groups
Lugoff / Camden
5 Groups
Further details and schedules for each of these areas and individual groups can be found at the Columbia Alcoholics Anonymous Intergroups office located at: 3014 Devine Street, Room 103 Columbia SC 29205 (803) 254-5301 or on the internet at:
www.area62.org
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Alcoholism – What is an AA birthday?
Various treatment and recovery institutions will often have traditions or practices that in some way “mark time” during the recovery process of an addict or alcoholic. This is usually some visible emblem that can be carried and shown off by the recovering person and denotes some amount or block of time. The item is a visual of the “clean and sober” time accumulated by the affected person.
In Alcoholics Anonymous, this practice is a “chip system” that denotes periods of time. When the length of time reaches annual periods, the time slice becomes known as an AA birthday. Chips are provided for earlier and shorter periods of time as the early days of sobriety for all addicts and alcoholics passes quite slowly.
Different recovery groups will provide various colors of plastic or tin chips for short periods of time. For instance, most AA groups will have a chip for the first 24 hours and in South Carolina, this chip is a white plastic chip resembling a common poker chip. In other states, this same chip is sometimes a tin silver chip but the meaning is the same in all groups.
Within the first year of sobriety, several other colors of chips are used for different blocks of time such as; thirty days, sixty, ninety or six months, nine months and the colors may be red, green, yellow, blue or purple.
When an individual reaches one year of continuous sobriety, recovery groups will begin supplying “birthday chips”. These birthday chips have a very distinct meaning for recovering addicts and alcoholics far beyond the shorter term chips described above. In order for a person to have life time and permanent sobriety, alcoholics anonymous states they must undergo a “psychic” change. The annual birthday chip is denoting AA birthdays from the first day of sobriety or the “psychic” change for an individual. This AA birthday is in contrast to a person’s original birth birthday. As time passes in the recovering person’s life, associates often notice a completely different person in the sober person’s life and this transformation, at least within AA, is often thought of as a miracle!
AA Chips and literature can be purchased for cost at Columbia’s Intergroup office located at:
3014 Devine Street, Room 103
Columbia SC 29205
(803) 254-5301
www.area62.org
In Alcoholics Anonymous, this practice is a “chip system” that denotes periods of time. When the length of time reaches annual periods, the time slice becomes known as an AA birthday. Chips are provided for earlier and shorter periods of time as the early days of sobriety for all addicts and alcoholics passes quite slowly.
Different recovery groups will provide various colors of plastic or tin chips for short periods of time. For instance, most AA groups will have a chip for the first 24 hours and in South Carolina, this chip is a white plastic chip resembling a common poker chip. In other states, this same chip is sometimes a tin silver chip but the meaning is the same in all groups.
Within the first year of sobriety, several other colors of chips are used for different blocks of time such as; thirty days, sixty, ninety or six months, nine months and the colors may be red, green, yellow, blue or purple.
When an individual reaches one year of continuous sobriety, recovery groups will begin supplying “birthday chips”. These birthday chips have a very distinct meaning for recovering addicts and alcoholics far beyond the shorter term chips described above. In order for a person to have life time and permanent sobriety, alcoholics anonymous states they must undergo a “psychic” change. The annual birthday chip is denoting AA birthdays from the first day of sobriety or the “psychic” change for an individual. This AA birthday is in contrast to a person’s original birth birthday. As time passes in the recovering person’s life, associates often notice a completely different person in the sober person’s life and this transformation, at least within AA, is often thought of as a miracle!
AA Chips and literature can be purchased for cost at Columbia’s Intergroup office located at:
3014 Devine Street, Room 103
Columbia SC 29205
(803) 254-5301
www.area62.org
Alcoholism – Is there a SAFE drink?
How often have you heard, “Oh don’t worry, were only allowing beer and wine at this party”? In our modern society, many are mistakenly led to believe there are certain “safe drinks”. Our conditioning in this way of thinking has been thoroughly hammered home by the many years of intense marketing within our culture. Haven’t we all heard, “You only go around once in life”? Well who wouldn’t want to experience all the “gusto” we are entitled to, right?
Although subtle differences in bourbon, whiskey, vodka, beer, wine may have some moderate differences for the tempered drinker, there is no difference for the alcoholic in any of these drinks. Now isn’t that peculiar? Why do we not hear more about this? Why are our children not taught more? Why don’t we demand better for our families?
The addictive component of any “drink” is ethyl alcohol. It is the effects from ethyl alcohol that alcoholics unwittingly seek. It is ethyl alcohol that alcoholics are first romanced by and it is ethyl alcohol that alcoholics pursue with every drink thereafter. In time, it matters not what the container is ethyl alcohol comes in as ethyl alcohol truly becomes the seductive mistress for every alcoholic. When one becomes educated to these facts, one will soon realize ethyl alcohol is in a broad range of products in common use today. A sampling of these products would be items like mouth washes, cold and cough medications, and cleaning items just to name a few. Many people do not realize mouth wash is 26% ethyl alcohol, far more alcohol content than any beer or wine on the market today!
Although subtle differences in bourbon, whiskey, vodka, beer, wine may have some moderate differences for the tempered drinker, there is no difference for the alcoholic in any of these drinks. Now isn’t that peculiar? Why do we not hear more about this? Why are our children not taught more? Why don’t we demand better for our families?
The addictive component of any “drink” is ethyl alcohol. It is the effects from ethyl alcohol that alcoholics unwittingly seek. It is ethyl alcohol that alcoholics are first romanced by and it is ethyl alcohol that alcoholics pursue with every drink thereafter. In time, it matters not what the container is ethyl alcohol comes in as ethyl alcohol truly becomes the seductive mistress for every alcoholic. When one becomes educated to these facts, one will soon realize ethyl alcohol is in a broad range of products in common use today. A sampling of these products would be items like mouth washes, cold and cough medications, and cleaning items just to name a few. Many people do not realize mouth wash is 26% ethyl alcohol, far more alcohol content than any beer or wine on the market today!
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