“The heart of the suggested program of personal recovery is contained in the 12 Steps describing the experience of the earliest members of the Society”

In other words, they are the 12 steps to be executed one by one as a suggested path to recovery from the abuse of drugs, alcohol or other behavioral disorders.

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Below are the 12 Steps:

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STEP 1

We admitted we were powerless – that our lives had become unmanageable.

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STEP 2

Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

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STEP 3

Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

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STEP 4

Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

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STEP 5

Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

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STEP 6

Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

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STEP 7

Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

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STEP 8

Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

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STEP 9

Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

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STEP 10

Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

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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.

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STEP 12

Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to others, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.