The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, written founding members of Alcoholics Anonymous, was first published in America in 1939. The authors used the Twelve Steps to find freedom from their own addictions.
Subsequently, the 12 Steps have helped millions of alcoholics and addicts to live a good life free from alcohol and drugs. Since its inception hundreds of fellowships have been formed to help people overcome many addictions, and thousands of books have been written on the 12 Steps.
The Twelve Steps are described as a design for living without mood or mind-altering drugs or obsessions. Millions of people worldwide have successfully used the Twelve Steps to achieve this and are living testament to the steps’ success.
The Twelve Steps
- Step 1
We admitted we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had become unmanageable.
Read more on Step 1 - Step 2
Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
Read more on Step 2 - Step 3
Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood him.
Read more on Step 3 - Step 4
Made a searching fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
Read more on Step 4 - Step 5
Admitted to God, to ourselves, to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
Read more on Step 5 - Step 6
We’re entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
Read more on Step 6 - Step 7
Humbly asked Him to remove our short comings.
Read more on Step 7 - Step 8
Made a list of all persons we have harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
Read more on Step 8 - Step 9
Made direct amends to such people whenever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
Read more on Step 9 - Step 10
Continue to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
Read more on Step 10 - 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.
Read more on Step 11 - Step 12
Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
Read more on Step 12