David Sheff Quotes

My admiration for the phenomenon of Alcoholics Anonymous is boundless.

One of my dearest friends is alive only because of AA. But it doesn't help a lot of people. And everyone is different, and everyone needs different kinds of treatments.

I'm part of AA. I have a sponsor. I have great, great friends who I love and who love me.

When I got sober, that was 1990.

My spiritual system is 12-step programs. That's the only one I've ever had. I didn't have one before that.

I keep telling people: Don't make me the poster boy for AA because I don't know a lot about sobriety, but I do know a lot about drinking.

I couldn't have gotten sober without rehab because I needed the science.

I got sober when I was 22 years old.

We must move in our recovery from one addiction to another for two major reasons: first, we have not recognized and treated the underlying addictive process, and second, we have not accurately isolated and focused upon the specific addictions.

Mr. Speaker, as a grateful recovering alcoholic of 24 years myself, I am living proof that treatment does work and that recovery is real.

The Teen Challenge ministry was born out of those humble early days of ministry. It now includes over 500 drug and alcohol rehab centers around the world, even in Muslim countries. These include homes for girls and women addicts and alcoholics, all which are reaching many.

12-step recovery is very focused on abstinence, and that's bled into the broader understanding of treatment. It would be most useful to have multiple senses of what treatment could look like.

If you ask me, I think 12-step programs are perfectly valid, can be an enormous help. But it depends on the individual.

I got sober for good on December 7, 2008.

Treatment of alcohol addiction can take many forms.

Why is it a badge of honour to say you spent 15 years in AA ball?

We didn't have rehab back in the Seventies. Back in the Seventies, rehab meant you stopped doing coke, but you kept smoking pot and drinking for a couple more weeks.

I do believe that I'm an addict on one level or another at all times.

I'm very proud of my sobriety now.

I remember being very young and going to AA meetings with my father in Brooklyn. I thought it was fun because they served hot chocolate and cookies.

I'm a recovering alcoholic so I should be home.

I didn't check into rehab. Instead of me heading into a place - I was just drinking too much and I needed to get my life together. I'm still in therapy and stuff like that, but it's good. I'm great. I feel fine.

I do not understand rehab. If it works for people, then God bless them.

I used to be a drinker but I found out how bad it was and I let it alone.

But the fact is, nobody gets off drugs unless they really want to, and I really wanted to.