Template:Twelve steps
The original twelve steps as published by Alcoholics Anonymous:[1]
founded in Akron, Ohio on August 11, 1938 by Bill Wilson. Instead of just telling people to stop drinking he set up step by step approach to obtain and maintain sobriety[2].
More about 12 steps
A twelve-step program is a set of guiding or spiritual principles outlining a course of physical action for tackling problems related to addiction. Any behavior that is detrimental that we continue to return to is the result of some form of a compulsive addiction that may be the result of a deeper problem stemming from the Shadow Consciousness of the mind.
Because these steps required group effort there was also The Twelve Traditions[3] accompany the Twelve Steps to supply some form of self governance within chapters through a common union and discipline.
A key element to success is Sponsorship. A sponsor was a more experienced person aiding in recovery who guides the less-experienced aspirant or padawan[4] in the ways of the twelve steps.
The recovery process deals with many areas and problems. Whether it is compulsive behaviors like eating, dieting, cleaning, counting or hoarding, or distractibility like hyperactivity, mania, or hypomania, irritability, panic attacks, psychosomatic illnesses, or dysfunctional compulsions like depression, lack of motivation, laziness, poor impulse control, procrastination, or even abusive behavior of others or self-injury and suicide attempts. In all these conditions there must be a comprehensive approach that address physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual states.
National Addiction
By listing off these aberrant behaviors we disassociate ourselves with the common problems of society which can cause whole nations to follow compulsive patterns of distraction, dysfunction and even destructive and self-destructive behaviors.
Can an entire nation of people become addicted to a compulsive way of seeing and thinking that causes it to self-destruct? History tells us that they do just exactly that.
Babylon, Israel, Greeks and Romans all brought about their own destruction by following social patterns that caused their own decline and fall. They eventually clamored and defended the conditions that were destroying them and were willing to murder anyone who offered them an alternative.
According to Plutarch, Polybius, John the Baptist, Christ and many others, including Paul the Apostle; the greatest destroyers of society are the Benefactors who exercise authority and our appetite for their benefits. Eating at the tables of rulers has become addicting and we have become Aid Addicts.
- ↑ Twelve Step program
- We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.
- Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
- Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
- Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
- Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
- Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
- Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
- Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
- Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
- Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
- ↑ sophrosune σωφροσύνη \@so-fros-oo’-nay\@ Strong's 4997 from sophron meaning a sound mind; n f AV-sobriety 2, soberness 1; 3 1) soundness of mind 2) self-control, sobriety
- Acts 26:25 But he said, I am not mad, most noble Festus; but speak forth the words of truth and soberness <sophrosune>.
- 1 Timothy 2:9 In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety <sophrosune>; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array;
- 1 Timothy 2:15 Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety <sophrosune>.
- ↑ The Twelve Traditions
- Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon AA unity.
- 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.
- The only requirement for AA membership is a desire to stop drinking.
- Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or AA as a whole.
- Each group has but one primary purpose—to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
- 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.
- Every AA group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
- Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
- AA, as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
- Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the AA name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
- Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always to maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films.
- Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.
- ↑ Padawan learner, a term from Star Wars identifying a Jedi in Training, referred to a Force-sensitive adolescent who had begun one-on-one instruction with a Jedi Knight or Master outside of the Jedi academy.