Alcoholics anonymous

The following is what is referred to as The 12 Steps of AA. They're simple, but require a lot of hard work. We suggest you go to an AA meeting and find someone, a "sponsor," who has successfully worked the steps and ask for their help. They will be more than willing to help you understand the program and how to work the steps. If you truly want it, you never have to drink again, because :

"Rarely have we seen a  person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. Those who do not  recover are people who cannot or 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. 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 us 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:

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.
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. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
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.
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. 
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.

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 adventure before and after  make clear three pertinent 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.