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The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
of Alcoholics Anonymous
The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions are reprinted and adapted with
permission of Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. Permission to reprint
and adapt this material does not mean that AA has reviewed or approved the
contents of this publication, nor that AA agrees with the views expressed
herein. AA is a program of recovery from alcoholism only - use of the Twelve
Steps in connection with programs and activities which are patterned after AA,
but which address other problems, does not imply otherwise.
The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics
Anonymous
- 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.
- Make 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
meditations 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.
The Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics
Anonymous - Short Form
- Our common welfare should come
first; personal recovery depends upon AA unity.
- For our group purpose there is
but one ultimate authority-a loving God as He may express Himself in our
group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.
- The only requirement for AA
membership is a desire to stop drinking.
- Each group should be
autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or AA as a whole.
- Each group has but one primary
purpose-to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
- An AA group ought never
endorse, finance or lend the AA name to any related facility or outside
enterprise, lest problems of money, property and prestige divert us from our
primary purpose.
- Every AA group ought to be
fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
- Alcoholics Anonymous should
remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special
workers.
- Alcoholics Anonymous as such,
ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees
directly responsible to those they serve.
- Alcoholics Anonymous has no
opinion on outside issues; hence the AA name ought never be drawn into
public controversy.
- Our public relations policy is
based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal
anonymity at the level of press, radio and films.
Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our
Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.
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