12 Steps - Drug & Alcohol Rehab

Here are the original 12 Steps as published by Alcoholics Anonymous:

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol-that our lives had become unmanageable.

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

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

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

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

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

7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

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

9. 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 practice these principles in all our affairs.

HOW THE 12 STEPS WERE FOUNDED

Alcoholics Anonymous, the first 12 step program, was founded by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith in 1935, known to AA members as “Bill W.” and “Dr. Bob”, in Akron, Ohio. They established the tradition within the “anonymous” twelve-step programs of using only first names. In 1953 AA gave permission for Narcotics Anonymous to use its Steps and Traditions.

As AA was growing in the 1930s and 1940s, guiding principles emerged as the 12 Traditions. A singleness of purpose emerged as tradition five: “Each group has but one primary purpose — to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.

AA has expanded to many groups including NA (Narcotics Anonymous), CA (Cocaine Anonymous), GA (Gamblers Anonymous) OA (Overeaters Anonymous), etc.

12 STEP TRADITIONS

The 12 Steps are accompanied by the 12Traditions, guidelines for group governance developed by AA during early days in order to help resolve conflicts in the areas of publicity, religion and finances.

Most 12 step fellowships have adopted these principles as their structural governance. In AA, the empathetic desire to save other alcoholics resulted in an exclusive emphasis on service to other sufferers, which led to the third tradition; the only requirement for AA membership is the desire to stop drinking. The 12 Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous are as follows.

1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon AA unity.

2. For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority-a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.

3. The only requirement for AA membership is a desire to stop drinking.

4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or AA as a whole.

5. Each group has but one primary purpose-to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.

6. An AA group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the AA name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.

7. Every AA group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.

8. Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers.

9. AA, as such, should never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.

10. Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the AA name should never be drawn into public controversy.

11. Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films.

12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.

12 step programs symbolically represent human structure in three dimensions: physical, mental, and spiritual. The disorders and diseases the groups deal with are understood to manifest themselves in each dimension. For addicts and alcoholics the physical dimension is best described by the “allergy-like bodily reaction” resulting in the inability to stop using substances after the initial use.

The illness of the spiritual dimension, in all 12 step groups, is considered to be self-centeredness. This model is not intended to be a scientific explanation, it is only a perspective that 12 step organizations have found useful.

The process is intended to replace self-centeredness with a growing moral consciousness and a willingness for self-sacrifice and unselfish constructive action.

THE SPONSORS ROLE

Sponsors share their experience, strength, and hope with their sponsees… A sponsor’s role is not that of a legal adviser, a banker, a parent, a marriage counselor, or a social worker. Nor is a sponsor a therapist offering some sort of professional advice. A sponsor is simply another addict in recovery who is willing to share his or her journey through the 12 Steps.

A sponsor is a more experienced person in recovery who guides the less-experienced aspirant - “sponsee” or variously, “sponsoree” - through the program. New members in twelve-step programs are encouraged to secure a relationship with at least one sponsor. Publications from twelve-step fellowships emphasize that sponsorship is a “one on one” relationship of shared experiences focused on working the 12 Steps.

Sponsors and sponsorees participate in activities that lead to spiritual growth. These may include practices such as literature discussion and study, meditation and writing. Completing the Twelve Steps implies being competent to sponsor to newcomers in recovery. Sponsoree typically do their Fifth Step, review their moral inventory written as part of the Fourth Step, with their sponsor. The Fifth Step, as well as the Ninth Step can been compared to confession and penitence.

The personal nature of the behavioral issues that lead to seeking help in twelve-step fellowships results in a strong relationship between sponsoree and sponsor. As the relationship is based on spiritual principles, it is unique and not generally characterized as “friendship.” Fundamentally, the sponsor has the single purpose of helping the sponsoree recover from the behavioral problem that brought the sufferer into 12 step work, which reflexively helps the sponsor recover.

A study of sponsorship as practiced in Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous found that providing direction and support to other alcoholics and addicts correlates with sustained abstinence for the sponsor, but that there were few short-term benefits for the sponsoree.