| The relative success of the A.A.
programme seems to be due to the fact that an alcoholic
who no longer drinks has an exceptional faculty for
"reaching" and helping an uncontrolled drinker.
In simplest form, the A.A. programme operates when a
recovered alcoholic passes along the story of his or
her own problem drinking, describes the sobriety he
or she has found in A.A., and invites the newcomer to
join the informal Fellowship.
The heart of the suggested programme of personal recovery
is contained in Twelve Steps
describing the experience of the earliest members
of the Society:
- We admitted we were powerless
over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable.
- Came to believe that a
Power greater than ourselves could restore us to
sanity.
- Made a decision to turn
our will and our lives over to the care of God as
we understood Him.
- Made a searching and fearless
moral inventory of ourselves.
- Admitted to God, to ourselves
and to another human being the exact nature of our
wrongs.
- Were entirely ready to
have God remove all these defects of character.
- Humbly asked Him to remove
our shortcomings.
- Made a list of all persons
we had harmed, and became willing to make amends
to them all.
- Made direct amends to
such people wherever possible, except when to do
so would injure them or others.
- Continued to take personal
inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted
it.
- 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.
- 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.
Newcomers are not asked to accept
or follow these Twelve Steps in their entirety if
they feel unwilling or unable to do so.
They will usually be asked to keep an open mind, to
attend meetings at which recovered alcoholics describe
their personal experiences in achieving sobriety,
and to read A.A. literature describing and interpreting
the A.A. programme.
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