12 Steps Of AA
The success of the AA program seems to be due to the fact that an alcoholic who no longer drinks
has an exceptional faculty for“reaching” and helping an uncontrolled drinker.
AA is not a religious programme.
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Step 1
We admitted we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had become unmanageable.
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Step 2
Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
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Step 3
Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
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Step 4
Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
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Step 5
Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
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Step 6
We’re entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
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Step 7
Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
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Step 8
Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
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Step 9
Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
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Step 10
Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
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Step 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.
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Step 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.
Our Stories
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For me the 'just for today' statement is essentially about managing expectations and gave me a glimpse at the concept of one day at a time. I thought that in order to stop drinking I would need to solve every issue in my life at once. The 'just for today' card when I first read it made me realise that I can do things gradually. The more time I have spent in AA, it has taken on a new meaning for me. I use the sentiments expressed in the statement, or at least my perception of them, as a way of resetting my self and not letting something that annoyed me yesterday influence my behaviour today.
Jane - 42 Years Old
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My first contact with AA was phoning the national helpline; I was panicking about doing this but by this point I had reached that stage where I could not understand why I drank the way I drank or conceive or a way of stopping. I spoke to a women on the helpline who said they would get a local person to call me back. I then spoke to another woman who told me that the next meeting in Rugby was the Wednesday night meeting and asked if I wanted someone to call me from that meeting. George then phoned me and was brilliant on the phone; he basically said ‘come along, we’d be very glad to see you’. At this point in my life I couldn’t really imagine anyone being glad to see me! So I went to the Monday, then the Wednesday, the Thursday, Saturday morning and that was my introduction to AA. Fortunately I am still here!
Mike - 65 Years Old
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I felt utterly alone when I came in to AA. I did not think that people would be able to understand me and my drinking especially because I am only young and I didn’t really understand anything about it myself. When I read through the 12 questions it was like the penny dropping. Even though I had admitted to myself I was alcoholic and admitted to my family, friends, work and a doctor it was still just a word with very little meaning. Looking at the questions made me realise that I was truly and alcoholic and, more than that, I was by far and away not special or unique in this. By attending the meetings weekly, it has helped me so much. We are defiantly not all alone!
Charlotte - 23 Years Old