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AA Background
12 steps and 12 traditions
The relative 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 members will usually emphasize to newcomers that only problem drinkers themselves, individually, can determine whether or not they are in fact alcoholics.
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In simplest form, the AA program operates when a recovered alcoholic passes along the story of his or her own problem drinking, describes the sobriety he or she has found in AA, and invites the newcomer to join the informal Fellowship.
The heart of the suggested program of personal recovery is contained in Twelve Steps describing the experience of the earliest members of the Society.
12 Steps
Newcomers are not asked to accept or follow these Twelve Steps in their entirety if they feel unwilling or unable to do so.
They will usually be asked to keep an open mind, to attend meetings at which recovered alcoholics describe their personal experiences in achieving sobriety, and to read AA literature describing and interpreting the AA program.
Step 1
We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - 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
Made 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
Were 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.
12 Traditions
During its first decade, AA as a fellowship accumulated substantial experience which indicated that certain group attitudes and principles were particularly valuable in assuring survival of the informal structure of the Fellowship.
Tradition 1
Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon AA unity.
Tradition 2
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.
Tradition 3
The only requirement for AA membership is a desire to stop drinking.
Tradition 4
Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or AA as a whole.
Tradition 5
Each group has but one primary purpose — to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers
Tradition 6
An A.A. group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the A.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
Tradition 7
Every AA group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
Tradition 8
Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
Tradition 9
AA, as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve
Tradition 10
Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the AA name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
Tradition 11
Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio and films.
Tradition 12
Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.