Road to Recovery: The 12 Steps - Word&Way

Road to Recovery: The 12 Steps

Step 1
We admitted we were powerless over our addiction—that our lives had become unmanageable

Step 2
Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity

Step 3
Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God

Step 4
Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves

Step 5
Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs

Step 6
Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character

Step 7
Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings

Step 8
Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all

Step 9
Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others

Step 10
Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it

Step 11
Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood God, praying only for knowledge of God’s will for us and the power to carry that out

Step 12
Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs

This version of the 12 steps is an adaptation from the original 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous and is intended for general use with any addictive or dysfunctional behavior.

From www.12step.org.