12-Step Programs

What Is A 12-Step Program?

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is an international nonprofessional, self-supporting, multiracial, apolitical fellowship of men and women with alcohol addiction. Members of AA accept twelve-step program as a set of guiding principles which spell a course of action for recovery from alcohol addiction. Membership has no age or education limitations and is open to those who want to get rid of their drinking habits. There are closed and open door meetings conducted by AA and anyone can attend the open door meeting whereas only those with a drinking problems may attend closed door meetings.

What Are The 12 Steps?

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
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.
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.

Incorporation Of 12-Step Methods In Rehab

The 12 step programs are spiritual models for overcoming disturbing or compulsive behaviors such as addiction. As of now over 250 rehab programs around the world have adopted this method which was formulated in 1939 by Alcoholics Anonymous, and more than 95 percent of rehab centers in the U.S. have designed their programs to incorporate the 12-step methods.

Finding Rehab That Uses The 12-Step Method

Since many rehab centers world-wide incorporate the 12-step program it is not difficult to find one.