Learn to Cope
A parent sits in a circle of other parents, hearing their stories for the first time. Someone mentions Narcan. Someone else talks about their child's treatment. Learn to Cope connects families facing…
Topic
Recovery Programs
Recovery programs give people structure, community, and support while they rebuild their lives. Some are peer-led. Some are faith-based. Some use medication. Some combine approaches. What they share: they work because people show up, and other people are there. Journey makes these pathways visible so people can find the one that fits.
17 stories
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12-Step Fellowships
The 12 steps have shaped recovery for nearly a century. AA, NA, and the broader fellowship family run on shared experience, sponsorship, and steady presence. Articles explain how the rooms work, what sponsorship looks like, and what to expect at a first meeting. A practical introduction to a pathway many people in recovery are already walking.
Family and Specialized Fellowships
Addiction reaches past the person using, and recovery looks different in different communities. Al-Anon and Learn to Cope offer mutual aid for people standing close. Wellbriety carries recovery through Indigenous cultural traditions. Family-side support and fellowships built around specific communities and needs.
Non-12-Step Pathways
SMART Recovery, LifeRing, and other approaches offer different ways to build recovery and community. Articles introduce each path in plain language and show why flexibility helps more people find support. A starting place for anyone exploring options beyond the 12-step model.
Many Paths to Freedom, Five Free Programs for Your Recovery
Marcus sat in a church basement for the first time, uncertain. Around him, people he'd never met nodded in recognition. Five free programs exist for people in recovery, each built on different beliefs…
LifeRing Secular Recovery
Byron Kerr checked in at his LifeRing meeting, sharing how his week went and what temptations he'd navigated. Around the table, others listened and offered their own stories, no lectures or doctrine r…
Alcoholics Anonymous Service Committees
A nurse student leans forward with a question: How do you encourage someone to try A.A.? Behind that curiosity sits a larger truth about recovery visibility. Across Maine, volunteers in Alcoholics Ano…
SMART Recovery: Life Beyond Addiction is the Highest Goal
Josh Warren attends a SMART Recovery meeting each week and facilitates others. He's been working to build a life beyond the drug use that started when he was twelve. Now he helps people understand tha…
Compassionate AA Sponsor
Michael watched someone walk into an AA meeting for the first time, desperate and lost. Years later, that same person had rebuilt their family and career. As a sponsor guiding others through the 12 St…
Gamblers Anonymous – “Do You Really Think There’s Any Hope For Me?”
A person sits across from a counselor, shoulders heavy with the weight of lost money, broken relationships, ruined careers. "Do you really think there's any hope for me?" they ask. In Maine, thousands…
Mutual Benefits of Sponsorship In Alcoholics Anonymous
A woman six months sober asks another woman to sponsor her, and the answer comes back: I would be honored. What follows is a conversation about honesty, willingness, and walking a path out of the wood…
Alcoholics Anonymous (Issue 16)
C. walked into her first AA meeting in 1989 with her sister, both seeking a way out. Thirty-five years later, she describes a life transformed by sobriety and connection. Alcoholics Anonymous has anch…
Food Addicts Anonymous – Nourishing the Self
Elizabeth turned to food as a child to survive trauma, moving through restriction and purging before losing control entirely. Her story reveals how food addiction progresses differently for each perso…
Narcotics Anonymous: Q&A
Nicole walked into her first Narcotics Anonymous meeting and heard something that changed everything: "The lie that people can't recover is dead." Three members from Maine,Nicole, Brendan, and Jamie,a…
Narcotics Anonymous (NA)
Someone sits in a folding chair in a rented room, listening to people they've never met talk about their lives before recovery. No judgment. No fees. No one cares what they used or how long. Narcotics…
Al-Anon Family Groups
Someone you love drinks too much, and you've spent months trying to control it, fix it, convince them to stop. You're exhausted and ashamed. Al-Anon Family Groups offers a different path: meetings whe…
Alcoholics Anonymous
Someone sits in a metal folding chair, listening to a stranger describe the exact moment they thought they'd never drink again, then did. They recognize themselves in that story. What follows is how A…
Braided Services
Rhonda Decontie watched her father weave traditional singing and prayer into 12 step meetings, teaching her how culture and recovery belong together. Now, as clerk of the Penobscot Nation Healing to W…
The Wellbreity Movement
Don Coyhis spent a decade in recovery, then felt called to do more. In 1988, he founded White Bison to address alcoholism in Native American youth. That vision grew into the Wellbriety Movement, which…
S.M.A.R.T. : Self-Management and Recovery Training
Michael Mihailos spent years visiting different recovery groups until he found one that fit. The problem wasn't the programs themselves, but their spiritual requirements. When he discovered SMART Reco…