Alcoholic Anonymous 12 Steps Program

Dependence isn’t an option. This proclamation doesn’t sound revolutionary nowadays, but treating alcoholism as an illness was a new concept in 1939.

The Twelve Steps were taken up almost literally by Al-Anon/Alateen, a program meant for healing of kith and kin affected by the patient’s drinking (irrespective of whether or not he/she understands that he/she has a problem associated with drinking).

What Are the Twelve Steps enlisted by Alcoholics Anonymous?

The Twelve Steps of Alcohol Anonymous comprise of a list of guidelines for treatment of addiction that delineate a course of action for dealing with problems including but not limited to alcoholism and compulsion.

Step 1: The addicts must admit that they are powerless over alcohol—that their lives are no longer manageable by them on their own.

Step 2: They come to realize that an authority far superior to them can reinstate understanding and wisdom in them.

Step 3: The addicts make a choice of turning their resolve and their lives into the safe keep of the Almighty as they understand Him.

Step 4: They then make a thorough and valiant ethical account of themselves.

Step 5: Next comes the step to confess to the Almighty, to themselves, and to other humans the precise nature of their wrongdoings committed in the past.

Step 6: They are then entirely ready to have the Almighty remove all the shortcomings in their respective characters.

Step 7: They modestly pray and ask the Almighty to eliminate their flaws.

Step 8: They shall then make a record of all the persons they had hurt psychologically or physically, and then be willing to reinstate a healthy relationship with all of them.

Step 9: It is important for them to make direct amends to relationships with such people wherever possible, except when doing so would hurt them or others involved physically.

Step 10: The next step involves the addicts continuing taking personal inventory and admitting promptly whenever wrong.

Step 11: Step 11 involves the sufferer seeking through worship and contemplation: the enhancement of his/her cognizant contact with the Almighty, as he/she understands Him, praying just for comprehension of His will for him/her and the power to execute it.

Step 12: After having been spiritually awakened as a result of following the above mentioned 11 Steps, as part of the twelfth step, this message is to be disseminated across as many alcoholics and addicts as possible, in order for them to practice these principles in all their affairs: both private as well as on the professional front.

As depicted earlier by Alcoholics Anonymous, following these 12 guidelines “as a way of living life”: can banish the obsession associated with compulsive drinking and can also enable the sufferer in becoming cheerful and a constructively helpful building block in his/her respective community.

 What’s the rationale behind implementation of the Twelve Steps in everyday life?

The purpose is to recover from habitual, uncontrollable behaviors and reinstate manageability and order back in one’s life. It’s about perceiving one’s behavior as only a symptom, an aid to finding out what’s really going on under the hood.

 How and Why Does it Work?

Twelve Step facilitation therapies contribute to a time-tested approach.

People are encouraged to take an honest look at themselves, deconstruct their egos and rebuild on the same, gradually. The Steps hearten the patients in following the practice of truthfulness, modesty, reception, valor, empathy, amnesty and restraint—conduits to constructive behavioral alteration, psychological happiness and religious escalation.