You’ve said goodbye to alcohol for the last time and taken steps to ensure your recovery is permanent. While the occasional craving still surfaces, your time spent in rehab and now in sober living in California has made an huge impact on your ability to stay sober and avoid relapse. While every sober living home is filled with activities and meetings that help you focus on staying sober, there may be another step you can take to further your addiction recovery: AA meetings.

AA, or Alcoholics Anonymous, is a program that provides those struggling with addiction a place to share their experiences, talk about recovery and lean on one another. Meetings are available at almost any time of the day and at multiple venues. There are several benefits to attending these meetings while in Los Angeles.

Benefits of AA meetings

You get to talk about your life and struggles

One of the biggest benefits of AA is it gives you a platform where you can share your struggles with individuals who know where you’re coming from. While talking about your life, your triggers and your experiences with family and friends is beneficial, they may not always understand your feelings and frustrations. Those in AA have been where you are and know what you’re going through.

You have a chance to repair your relationships

AA meetings involve 12 steps that help you through your addiction recovery. You work through these steps at your own pace, examining each of the choices you’ve made in the past and looking at how they affected you and your relationships with others. During these steps, you’re given the opportunity to apologize for past mistakes and figure out ways to repair relationships with others.

You get to benefit from the advice of others

Just as you are given a platform to share your struggles, others are as well. This can be extremely beneficial, as it gives you a chance to learn from the experiences of others. They may offer tips that helped them stay sober and provide you with advice on how to get through rough moments. They will also provide you with added support for your addiction recovery.

Living in a sober home helps you improve your chances of lasting sobriety after rehab. Attending AA meetings while in sober living can provide you with additional recovery assistance as well.