Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptlym admitted it.11. Sought though 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. AA meetings vary in format, with some focusing on personal stories, readings from the Big Book, or open discussion. Meetings may cater to specific demographics, but they generally welcome anyone who desires to stop drinking. AA is self-supporting, with donations from members covering expenses, and it operates through an “inverted pyramid” structure, where individual groups function autonomously.
Here is the short form; the text of the complete Concepts is printed in The A.A. Service Manual/Twelve Concepts for World Service. Demographic preferences related to the addicts’ drug of choice has led to the creation of Cocaine Anonymous, Crystal Meth Anonymous and Marijuana Anonymous. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. Step 11 is about moving forward without losing track of a higher power. The continued awareness this demands makes it easy to pair the step with its accompanying principle. 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.
They are not abstract theories; they are based on the trial-and-error experience of early members of A.A. They describe the attitudes and activities that these early members believe were important in helping them to achieve sobriety. Acceptance of the Twelve Steps is not mandatory in any sense. Experience suggests, however, that members who make an earnest effort to follow these Steps and to apply them in daily living seem to get far more out of A.A. Than do those members who seem to regard the Steps casually.
The 12 Steps are a path to recovery, and the AA Steps and Traditions can be found in the Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book. Alcoholics in AA live their lives in line with a set of “promises,” which also can be found in the AA Big Book. The Twelve Steps are the foundation of Alcoholics Anonymous. By taking these steps, the alcoholic experiences a spiritual awakening or psychic change sufficient to bring about lasting recovery from alcoholism. The Steps are listed beginning on Page 59 of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Given the number of individuals struggling with or at risk for an AUD, it is understandable that AA has grown to what it is today—an organization with more than 115,000 groups worldwide. The purpose is to recover from compulsive, out-of-control behaviors and restore manageability and order to your life. It’s a way of seeing that your behavior is only a symptom, a sort of “check engine” light to investigate what’s really going on under the hood.
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.
Both Wilson and Smith found that The Oxford Group’s treatment of sin as a “disease” resonated in discussions of their struggles with alcohol. The 12 Principles of AA drew heavily from these spiritual elements. The backbone of the AA program is that people connect with a higher power of their choosing to help them through the process of working the 12 Steps of recovery. AA has no rules on religion or spirituality; what a higher power means to each person will vary.
Even so, the 12 Principles of AA have remained its central guiding influence. Many people suffering from alcoholism continue to find success in recovery by participating in AA’s program. AA also encourages total abstinence to support recovery from alcohol misuse. The program believes that people struggling with addiction likely cannot moderate their drinking and need to stop altogether. The AA Big Book section with personal stories can be particularly helpful to recovering alcoholics. They can read about others who have struggled with alcohol addiction and effectively recovered.
Offline or in-person meetings, often referred to as “brick and mortar” meetings, take place in physical locations, and some groups even host hybrid meetings, enabling participants to attend either in person or virtually. Humility is one of the simplest principles to understand because it’s straightforward. When you’re humble, you’re cognizant what does aa stand for alcohol of the fact that you’re not a major part of the bigger picture. Humility in daily practice means never seeing yourself as more important than you are. Each step centers around a phrase, many of them invoking the ideas of God or a “higher power” who guides the recovering addict in various facets of their journey into sobriety.