The 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous

Step 1: We admitted we were powerless over our addiction(s), that our lives had become unmanageable.

Admitting Defeat

  • A statement of the problem
  • Breaking through denial – gaining an awareness that there is a problem
  • Admission of powerlessness and unmanageability of one’s life – honesty

Step 1: We admitted we were powerless over our addiction(s), that our lives had become unmanageable.

Admitting Defeat

  • A statement of the problem
  • Breaking through denial – gaining an awareness that there is a problem
  • Admission of powerlessness and unmanageability of one’s life – honesty

Step 2: Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

Return to Sanity

  • The solution to the problem is spiritual in nature
  • Offers hope
  • Looking inside self for the solution

Step 3: Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

Trust

  • The first action step – making a decision to do something different through finding a solution
  • Developing faith
  • Beginning to surrender to a Higher Power

 

Step 4: Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

Looking Within

 

  • Exploring denial and self-deception
  • Identifying barriers (resentments, fears, harms to relationships with the Divine, self, others and the Universe)

 

Step 5: Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

Secrets

 

  • Courage to accept the duality of one’s imperfections and one’s value
  • Willingness to take advice and accept guidance
  • Forgiveness of self and others

 

Step Four – Looking Within

  • Exploring denial and self-deception
  • Identifying barriers (resentments, fears, harms to relationships with the Divine, self, others and the Universe)

Step 6: We are entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

New Ways

 

  • A commitment to change
  • Taking an honest look at self-defeating attitudes, behaviors and belief system
  • Willingness to accept feedback from others

 

Step 7: Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

Courage to Change

  • Recognizing one’s limitations
  • Commitment of action to change

Step 8: Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all

Facing the Consequences

  • Taking responsibility for one’s own actions (past, present and future)
  • Recognizing that addiction is a chronic, progressive disease

Step 9: Made direct amends to such people whenever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

Confronting the Past

  • Making amends to those we harmed
  • Releasing the past and experiencing a new freedom

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

Vigilance

  • Remission is possible through vigilance to living the principles of this program
  • Practicing the steps daily as a way of life

 

Step 12: Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to others, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Awakening

 

  • We only keep what we have by giving it away
  • Service reminds us of our past and creates a bridge to the future

 

Step Four – Looking Within

  • Exploring denial and self-deception
  • Identifying barriers (resentments, fears, harms to relationships with the Divine, self, others and the Universe)
Serenity Prayer

AA Mottos to Live By
  • Easy does it
  • First things first
  • Live and let live
  • But for the grace of God
  • Think….Think…..Think
  • One day at a time
  • Let go and let God
  • KISS – Keep it simple stupid
  • Act as if. . .
  • This too shall pass
  • Expect miracles
  • I can’t…He can…I think I’ll let Him
  • It if works….don’t fix it
  • Keep coming back….it works if you work it
  • Stick with winners
  • Keep right size
  • Sobriety is a journey, not a destination
  • Faith without works is dead
  • To thine own self be true
  • I came, I came to, I came to believe
  • Live in the NOW
  • Turn it over
  • We are only as sick as our secrets
  • There are no coincidences in God’s universe
  • Be part of the solution, not the problem
  • Willingness is the key
  • More will be revealed
  • No pain….no gain
  • Let is begin with me
  • Just for today
  • Pass it on
  • Don’t quit 5 minutes before the miracle happens
  • Practice an attitude of gratitude
  • A friend of Bill W’s
  • Wherever you go, there you are
  • Make use of telephone therapy
  • Look for similarities rather than differences
  • When all else fails, follow directions
  • What goes around, comes around
  • Change is a process, not an event
  • Sick and tired of being sick and tired
  • To keep it, you have to give it away
  • Take what you can use and leave the rest
  • What if
  • You can’t give away what you don’t have
  • Keep coming back
  • AA is not something you join, it’s a way of life
  • A journey of 1,000 miles begins with the first step
  • God – Good Orderly Direction (Design)
  • Faith is not belief without proof, but trust without reservation
  • EGO – Edge God Out
  • Serenity is not freedom from the storm, but peace amid the storm
  • Principles before personalities
  • You shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall set you free

Promises of Alcoholics Anonymous

“If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are half way through. We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. We will comprehend the meaning of the word serenity and we will know peace. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others. That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows. Self-seeking will slip away. Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change. Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us. We will intuitively know how to handle situations, which used to baffle us. We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.

Are these extravagant promises? We think not. They are being fulfilled among us – sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will always materialize if we work for them.”
Big Book. 3rd ed. pp. 83-84

Hope instead of desperation

Faith instead of despair

Courage instead of fear

Peace of mind instead of confusion

Self-respect instead of self-contempt

Self-confidence instead of helplessness

Respect of others instead of pity and contempt

Clean conscience instead of guilt

Real friendship instead of loneliness

Clean pattern of life instead of purposeless existence

Love and understanding of our families instead of their doubts and fears

Freedom of a happy life instead of the bondage of an obsession

Alcoholics Anonymous Today

Alcoholics Anonymous
World Services Inc.
475 Riverside Drive, 11th Floor
New York, NY 10115
Phone (212) 870-3400

Adult Children of Alcoholics
World Service Organizations, Inc
ACA WSO
P.O. Box 3216
Torrance, CA 90510
Phone: (310) 534-1815

Friends in Recovery
The Twelve Steps for Adult Children
RPI Publishing
Curtis, WA, 1987-1996

Narcotics Anonymous
World Services Office in Los Angeles
P. O. Box 9999
Van Nuys CA 91409
Phone: (818) 773-9999
Fax: (818) 700-0700

Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
475 Riverside Drive, 11th Floor
New York, NY 10115
Phone (212) 870-3400