The main text of Alcoholics Anonymous, or “The Big Book,” as AA members call it, goes step by step through 12 distinct phases, each crucial in achieving sustainable recovery from addiction. The Twelve Principles of AA is essentially the work of AA’s founders, but early in AA’s history, the organization listed six principles, many of which were influenced by the founders’ experience with The Oxford Group. By 1939, with the publication of The Big Book, Wilson and Smith had revised their principles, expanding them to reflect their work and its progress. The Twelve Steps themselves are the essence of Alcoholics Anonymous. They are the directions meant to provide members a path to lasting sobriety and a substance-free lifestyle.

Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions Book

When you first step into an AA meeting, the sense of mutual support is almost palpable. Each person in the room is connected by a common goal; to navigate the challenges of sobriety through the twelve steps. Most types of 12 step meetings follow a similar structure. During the start of the meeting, members and those attending for the first time welcome each other without judgment or condemnation, as there is an understanding that they are all going through the same thing. There are readings of the 12 Traditions and 12 step literature, along with the serenity prayer and related announcements. Participants may go around the room and introduce themselves by first name only if they choose, as meetings are anonymous and have the mantra “What you hear here, who you see hear, does not leave here”.

The 12 steps will help you overcome your powerlessness and unmanageability. The steps help you identify a higher power and teach you how to surrender to that power. The steps also teach you to forgive others and show you how to seek forgiveness. In short, the 12 steps offer a magnificent journey that takes you from the depths of despair and sets you right with the world. One of the hardest of the 12 Steps of AA, admitting the wrongs of your past starts with confessions. This can be to yourself in private, to a support group, or to a therapist who can help you devise strategies for effectively communicating and admitting wrongs to those who were affected by your behavior.

1. With God as understood by each individual, seeking knowledge of His will, and empowering us with the strength to carry it out.
2. With AA, not everyone has the ability to understand what it means to keep all of the steps in mind after completing them.
3. They are not abstract theories; they are based on the trial-and-error experience of early members of A.A.
4. Some of the best-known 12-step programs include Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), Narcotics Anonymous (NA), and Cocaine Anonymous (CA).
5. Step 10 is all about building a habit of recognizing disturbances that can trigger a relapse and also promptly admitting when a character flaw arises and hurts a loved one.

Family and Children’s Programs

The 12-Step program in Alcoholics Anonymous encourages belief in a higher power, whatever that means to you. It could be a social support system, God, a spiritual belief, or anything that can provide an anchor against the stormy seas ahead. Your dignity and pride are intact and not stripped from you . To learn more about Alcoholics Anonymous, read why it still works all these years after its creation. If you’re interested in learning how you can leverage a 12-step group to help your recovery, contact FHE Health and learn about our aftercare and support group options.

Graduate School of Addiction Studies

You can practice integrity in your recovery by talking through everything that you feel guilty about and your mistakes. The way to carry this principle forward is to always remind yourself that you’re at the mercy of a higher power and that you don’t come first. In Steps 1 and 2, AA instructs members to strip themselves bare of ego and power. Step 3 involves putting yourself at the mercy of this higher power and moving forward for “Him” — or whatever your higher power may be — over the selfishness of addiction. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

Though they are meant to be addressed in sequential order, there is no correct way to take on each step and the order is often down to the individual’s current position and mindset. Some people may require more time on an individual step or need a break after a, particularly challenging one. Some people will adjust their lives to the point where they no longer need the steps, whereas others adopt them as a way of life that they constantly work on. While the 12-steps of AA were founded and based on a spiritual principle of religious organizations, The world and AA have come a long way since and The Steps have moved in accordance to be applicable to everyone.

The FHE Health team is committed to providing accurate information that adheres to the highest standards of writing. If one of our articles is marked with a ‘reviewed for accuracy and expertise’ badge, it indicates that one or more members of our team of doctors and clinicians have reviewed the article further to ensure accuracy. This is part of our ongoing commitment to ensure FHE Health is trusted as a leader in mental health and addiction care. Of course, many other books and resources are available on the 12-step program, and what works best for one person may not work for another.

Believing in this higher power may help someone find meaning in their life outside of addiction. For instance, they may find a greater sense of community how many steps are in aa by joining a spiritual or religious group. These can be healthy coping mechanisms someone turns to as they progress through recovery.

It requires deep introspection to understand triggers, character flaws, and one’s responses. When truly absorbed, this step can make you pause before engaging in a negative behavior. The purpose is to recover from compulsive, out-of-control behaviors and restore manageability and order to your life. It’s a way of seeing that your behavior is only a symptom, a sort of “check engine” light to investigate what’s really going on under the hood.

Many alcoholics during that time were sent to long-term asylums and imprisoned, and the limited treatment facilities available were too expensive for the average person. Published the 12 Steps and 12 Traditions of AA, and for alcoholics everywhere, they became the foundation for a new view of alcoholism. AA encouraged individuals to form communities in order to support each other’s recovery with the belief that alcoholics are best suited to help other alcoholics.

Give yourself over to the process and trust your own pace of recovery. They genuinely want to see every person that comes in succeed and live a happy life in recovery. With the Twelve Steps, there is no hard and fast timeline. The Steps are meant to be addressed in sequential order, but there’s no one “right” way to approach them.