What does 12 Step mean?
07/02/2012
12 step refers to the 12 step approach was originally used by Alcoholics Anonymous, but is now used by various 12 step organisations associated with drug and alcohol addiction.
The 12 step process is essentially a form of group self-help. It aims to get recognition of ones powerlessness over the addiction, but also to recognise that a higher power can have a protective and nurturing effect which helps you in recovery. However, it is not necessary for the higher power to be a religious one.
Step 1- We admitted we were powerless over alcohol and that our lives had become unmanageable.
Step 2- Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
Step 3- Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
Step 4- A searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
Step 5- Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
Step 6- We're entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
Step 7- Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
Step 8- Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
Step 9- Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
Step 10- Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
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.
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.
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