Working through any 12-step program can be not only life-changing but, more commonly—life-saving. The twelve steps, combined with a supportive treatment environment, can be the catalyst you need to change your life completely. You may already be familiar with steps one through three: admitting that we are powerless and our lives unmanageable, believing in a…
If you have admitted to yourself that you have a problem with alcohol, you may be considering attending a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous. You may feel somewhat anxious and are wondering what to expect. You may have heard any one of a number of rumors about AA and other 12-step programs. For instance, you may…
By Edie Weinstein, MSW Most people affected by addiction in some way are familiar with the spiritual wisdom of traditional 12-step recovery programs known as the Serenity Prayer: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”
Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs. The first thing to do when you approach step twelve is to recognize the first portion of step’s language: having had a spiritual awaking as the…
Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out. Step eleven, like step ten, is not a step that is worked once and then forgotten. Instead, it is part of an ongoing…
Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. Step ten in most respects is the logical culmination of the previous nine steps. In essence, the first nine steps are about stopping the bleeding of addiction, and then identifying and cleaning up the wreckage of our pasts. Step ten begins the…
Made direct amends to such people whenever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. After working step eight, you should have a list of people you have harmed and you should be willing to make amends to them all. If so, then you are ready to work step nine. Step nine…
Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all. All of the steps from four onward are concerned with interpersonal relations – how we interact in the wider world, including the pain we cause, the resentments we form, etc. The process, essentially, is: To look back…
Humbly asked Him [God] to remove our shortcomings. Step seven is the logical continuation of step six, wherein addicts delineate their character defects and become willing to live without them. In step seven, as one might expect, addicts begin the process of actually getting rid of those shortcomings. In most respects, working step seven is…
We were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. The Alcoholics Anonymous authored book, The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, famously calls step six “the step that separates the men from the boys.” What the AA folks mean by this is that compiling a list of one’s character defects and then…