M13 Twelve-Step Treatment: Key Vocabulary

Practicing the Program

• Abstinence is necessary but insufficient to maintain sobriety.
• Sobriety is a complex process of being abstinent and practicing the program to quell character defects.
• The program involves going to meetings, helping other alcoholics, "working" the steps, using tools, and seeking guidance.
• There is variability in how the program is practiced between and among societies.

Designing and Building Sobriety

• Recovery is compared to building a house, with AA providing the tools.
• Each person designs their recovery, accommodating rebels, conformists, radicals, conservatives, agnostics, and believers.
• The house symbolizes a new life, founded on the principles of AA.
• The Twelve Steps are the blueprint for building this new life.

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable.

   • This step involves acknowledging the lack of control over alcohol and the resulting chaos in one's life.

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

   • Recognizing the need for help from a source beyond oneself, fostering hope and faith in recovery.

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

   • Entrusting oneself to a higher power, allowing for guidance and support in the recovery process.

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

   • Honest self-examination to identify character defects and patterns of behavior that contribute to addiction.

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

   • Confessing the findings of the moral inventory, seeking accountability, and beginning the process of personal change.

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

   • Willingness to let go of negative traits and embrace positive change, opening oneself to spiritual growth.

7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

   • Praying for the removal of character defects, seeking humility, and relying on a higher power for assistance.

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

   • Identifying those affected by one's actions, preparing to take responsibility, and seeking to repair damaged relationships.

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

   • Taking action to repair harm caused, provided it does not create further harm or jeopardize oneself or others.

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

    • Maintaining ongoing self-assessment, promptly acknowledging mistakes, and seeking to correct them.

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.

    • Deepening one's connection with a higher power through spiritual practices, seeking guidance and strength to live according to spiritual principles.

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.

    • Sharing the message of recovery with others, applying the principles of the Twelve Steps in all aspects of life, and continuing to grow spiritually.