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"Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly
followed our path. Those who do not recover are people
who will not completely give themselves to this simple
program, usually men and women who are constitutionally
incapable of being honest with themselves. There are
such unfortunates. They are not at fault; they seem to
have been born that way. They are naturally incapable of
grasping and developing a manner of living which demands
rigorous honesty. Their chances are less than average.
There are those too, who suffer from grave emotional and
mental disorders, but many of them do recover if they
have the capacity to be honest.
Our stories disclose in a general way what we used to be
like, what happened, and what we are like now. If you
have decided you want what we have and are willing to go
to any length to get it —then you are ready to take
certain steps.
At some of these we balked. We thought we could find an
easier softer way. But we could not. With all the
earnestness at our command, we beg of you to be fearless
and thorough from the very start. Some of have tried to
hold on to our old ideas and the result was nil until we
let go absolutely.
Remember that we deal with alcohol- cunning, baffling,
powerful! Without help it is too much for us. But there
is One who has all power- that one is God. May you find
Him Now!
Half measures availed us nothing. We stood at the
turning point. We asked His protection and care with
complete abandon.
Here are the steps we took, which are suggested as a
program of recovery:
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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. |
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3: |
Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over
to the care of God as we understood Him.
|
|
4: |
Made a fearless and thorough 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.
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|
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. |
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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. |
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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
or affairs. |
Many of us exclaimed, "What an order I can't go through
with it." Do not be discouraged. No one among us has
been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence to
these principles. We are not saints. The point is, that
we are willing to grow along spiritual lines. The
principles we have set down are guides to progress. We
claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual
perfection.
Our description of the alcoholic, the chapter to the
agnostic, and our personal adventures before and after
make clear three personal ideas:
(a) That we were alcoholic and could not manage our own
lives.
(b) That probably no human power could have relieved our
alcoholism.
(c) That God could and would if He were sought."*
(*
excerpt from the Fifth chapter of Alcoholics Anononymous. )
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