While participating in the 12 steps of recovery can be beneficial for many people, consider the advantages and disadvantages of these programs before you decide if this approach is right for you. While the 12 steps in use today are based on the same ideas written by the founders of AA in the 1930s, the understanding of the term “God” has since broadened to refer to any “higher power” that a person believes in. For many people, these groups may serve as their primary resource for changing their behavior, but they also often augment formal treatment. Such programs can also be helpful for long-term support and care.
It’s a model of treatment that’s not just about abstaining from alcohol; it’s about personal growth, making amends, and continuous self-assessment, fostering a transformative process that can last a lifetime. The 12 steps are a set of guiding principles that were developed by Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) as a way to help individuals struggling with addiction achieve and maintain sobriety. The goal of the 12 steps is to provide a framework for personal growth and spiritual development, as well as to help individuals learn to live a life free from addiction. Implementing the 12 steps in Alcoholics Anonymous is a deeply personal journey that many have found central and pivotal in achieving lasting sobriety and the prevention of relapse.
Our egos get in the way, and we’re embarrassed that we can’t handle everything on our own. Step 3 of Alcoholics Anonymous removes the stigma of surrendering control over your life within addiction. Instead, you invite a higher power to guide you to a healthier place, with people who are meant to support you along the way. Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is a twelve-step program and community-based support group that can help you recover from alcoholism.
For many members of 12-step recovery programs, these steps aren’t merely a way to overcome addiction—they are a guide toward a new way of life. Some of the best-known 12-step programs include Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), Narcotics Anonymous (NA), and Cocaine Anonymous (CA). Step 4 requires you to make “a searching and fearless moral inventory” of yourself, a process that can be quite painful as you strip away layers of your addiction to reveal your own deeper truths. But with the support of your higher power, to whom you’ve turned over your will and your life, you’ll be one step closer to recovery.
However, researchers have not carried out studies comparing them with medication, which remains the gold standard in most cases of alcohol use disorder. Membership in one of the groups changes a person’s social network. It reduces the number of people in their life who engage in substance misuse while increasing those who abstain from it. This social shift results in decreased exposure to activities and behaviors relating to substance use and increased opportunities to take part in unrelated activities. Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith, the two men who founded AA in 1935, drew their inspiration for the Twelve Steps from the Oxford Group. The Twelve Steps and the fellowship of AA were founded and designed around those principles.
This acknowledgment is crucial as it sets the stage for the necessary humility and perspective needed throughout the recovery journey. That said, there are an estimated 2 million AA members worldwide, with even more people belonging to similar organizations. Many individuals have found success in treating their substance use disorders with the 12-step program. Evidence states that a key feature involves the provision of support, or a social network, to help people remain substance-free or achieve other behavioral goals. In fact, it appears that the so-called fellowship, or social benefit, is one of the aspects of the program that most closely links to abstinence. People are encouraged to take an honest look at themselves, then deconstruct their egos and rebuild, little by little.
Practicing your sobriety with the principle of love means that you’re not just existing for yourself but in service to the people you care about. Love is empathy and compassion, and Step 8 asks you to make a list of everyone you’ve wronged in your journey to where you are now. You also have to be willing to make amends, which shows that you truly care for the people on your list. Step 5 is about taking the moral inventory made in step 4 and admitting first to God, next to yourself, and last to another person. 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. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
It prepares you to accept whatever comes next because it’s now in the hands of your higher power. Whatever past you must reflect on, whatever future amends you must make, you have given them over to fate, God, or whichever power you acknowledge so that you can focus on taking the next right action. These steps encourage you to rely on a higher power throughout your journey. Although many people may choose God or another religious figure as their higher power, you by no means are required to—your higher power can be whatever is going to serve you best. Again, all that matters is that you have an earnest desire to get and maintain sobriety. You must admit you have a problem with substance abuse and accept your powerlessness over it.
On the other hand, millions have acknowledged their belief that AA and its principles saved their life. By studying the program, how it works, and each of its principles, you can determine if this type of program is ideal for you. Many people find it so helpful that they continue to meet with the group in order to help others as they work to maintain their own recovery. While the 12 steps were originated in 1938 by Bill Wilson, the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, each 12 step program created their own variation of based on the original 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. People interested in partaking should speak with a relevant organization or healthcare professional about ways in which to treat and manage their substance and alcohol use disorders.
If you have an AA sponsor, you’ve already turned to another for guidance rather than continuing to make all of the decisions for and by yourself. Join our supportive sober community where each day becomes a step towards personal growth and lasting positive change. A common misconception about AA Step 4 is that this step adhd medication mistakes and dosage myths is meant to tear you down and make you feel bad about yourself and your past. Writing down a moral inventory is intended for you to confront the issues you’ve been avoiding so that you can then let them go and move on. In this way, Step 4 of AA is actually an empowering and important step of your sobriety journey.
Here is a breakdown of the principles that match up with each step and how to practice them in a way that helps you create sustainable sobriety within the tenets of AA and NA. The Big Book also outlines the 12 AA principles, which are single words encompassing the virtues needed to pass each step. The Oxford Group had a broad focus and was designed to help people overcome their problems by confronting their fear and selfishness.
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. It’s one thing to take personal inventory and admit our wrongs one time. It takes discipline to continue to do this over an entire lifetime.
Research suggests that 12-step interventions and mutual support groups can be essential in recovery. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and 6 ways to lower high blood pressure without using medication to practice these principles in all our affairs. The eleventh step suggests prayer and meditation, improving our conscious contactBuilding a relationship with a Higher Power is a crucial element in recovery.
Humility is a major component of addiction treatment and this step. Ideally, they learned to manage negative feelings in the previous steps. This isn’t to say they will never have a negative feeling again. But it does mean they have the tools to better cope with those feelings. To find out, it’s important to carefully explore the principles of AA. For Wilson and Smith, surrendering to a ‘higher power’ was an integral part of their plan’s development.
Step 4 of AA lays the groundwork for the rest of the steps because without identifying your moral defects, you can’t begin to admit them to others, rid yourself of these shortcomings, and make amends with those you’ve harmed. All of the AA steps after Step 4 are dependent upon approaching Step 4 with the intention of truly interrogating your character and behaviors. The first part of step seven is asking for the removal of your defects of character, but that’s just the beginning.
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions explains the 24 basic principles of Alcoholics Anonymous. Known as the “Twelve and Twelve,” the book dedicates a chapter to each Step and each Tradition. Chapters provide an interpretation of these principles for personal recovery and the organization of the group. The 12 steps are also used in recovery programs for addictions other break the cycle of addiction with these strategies to keep dopamine in check than alcohol. This is because deciding to relinquish control over to a higher power is just that—a decision. Up next is the actual work to turn that decision into a plan of action, which then gets you out of the spiral of alcohol addiction. After all, you can decide to buy a new car, but that doesn’t mean your shiny new wheels magically appear in your driveway.
If you strongly identify with Jesus Christ as your higher power, you may find Celebrate Recovery meetings meaningful. Your higher power is there to support you, but you are doing the work. Step seven is important because it requires you to actively participate in your recovery and be responsible for the things you do.
We walk this journey one step at a time, with our Higher Power’s help and with the support of others in the program. The first of the twelve steps entails an admission of powerlessness over alcohol—that our lives have become unmanageable. It’s a crucial step, setting the tone for humility and recognition of the need for change. An older 2010 study notes that the first 12-step program, AA, began in 1935. AA’s cofounders were Bob Smith, a surgeon from Ohio, and Bill Wilson, a New York City stockbroker and entrepreneur.
The purpose of the 12 traditions is to help provide guidelines about the relationships between the group and the community and between individual members of the group. Some people make the mistake of thinking that asking a higher power to remove your defects means you step back and take a passive role while the higher power does all of the work. That said, step seven is about having a reasonable perspective of yourself.
