THE 12 STEPS OF ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS

AA’s 12 Steps approach follows a set of guidelines towards recovery, first published in 1939 by AA co-founders Bill Wilson and Bob Smith. The 12 Steps are:

We admitted we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had become unmanageable. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

11. 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.

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practise these principles in all our affairs.

A note on the ‘God aspect’ of the 12 Steps

“A lot of people look at the steps and think they’re going to lure you under a ruse and then push God down your throat. If you want to see it that way then that might happen... A lot of people can gain hope if you raise awareness to the fact that AA is not a religious programme, it’s a spiritual programme. There is no God catch. The reason there’s ‘God of your understanding’ (step 3) is to invite people into the steps and to create or find their own God.” –