The 12 Step Process

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The 12 Step Process

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Title: The 12 Step Process

1
The 12 Step Process
2
Fred T. Reihl, MA, LCADC

Chief Executive Officer
Freedom House Inc.
P.O. Box 367
Glen Gardner, NJ 08826
908-537-6043
fredr_at_freedomhousenj.org
www.freedomhousenj.org

First
Things
First

4
Definition of Process
5
Process

Definition
A Series of Related Activities Geared to a
Specific End

6
Relapse is a Process
7
A Debilitating, Mental Process
8
Recovery is a Process too!
9

Foyst
Dings
Foyst

10
NLTA
1,000
100

Normal Level of Tension / Anxiety

11
No Problem

Is That Life?

Sooner or Later

Return to Perceived Normal

Close But Not There

15
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17
Recovery Process
Change Growth
18

Dink
Dink
Dink

19
As Bill Sees It

1 letter 1940
It has often been said of A.A. that we are
interested only in alcoholism. That is not true.
We have to get over drinking in order to stay
alive. But anyone who knows the alcoholic
personality by firsthand contact knows that no
true alky ever stops drinking permanently
without undergoing a profound personality change.

20
Spiritual Experience

The terms spiritual experience and spiritual
awakening are used many times in this book
which, upon careful reading, shows that the
personality change sufficient to bring about
recovery from alcoholism has manifested itself
among us in many different forms.
Yet it is true that our first printing gave many
readers the impression that these personality
changes, or religious experiences, must be in the
nature of sudden and spectacular upheavals.
Happily for everyone, this conclusion is
erroneous.
In the first few chapters a number of sudden
revolutionary changes are described. Though it
was not our intention to create such an
impression, many alcoholics have nevertheless
concluded that in order to recover they must
acquire an immediate and overwhelming
God-consciousness followed at once by a vast
change in feeling and outlook.
Among our rapidly growing membership of thousands
of alcoholics such transformations, though
frequent, are by no means the rule. Most of our
experiences are what the psychologist William
James calls the educational variety because
they develop slowly over a period of time. Quite
often friends of the newcomer are aware of the
difference long before he is himself. He finally
realizes that he has undergone a profound
alteration in his reaction to life that such a
change could hardly have been brought about by
himself alone. What often takes place in a few
months could seldom have been accomplished by
years of self discipline. With few exceptions our
members find that they have tapped an unsuspected
inner resource which they presently identify with
their own conception of a Power greater than
themselves.
Most of us think this awareness of a Power
greater than ourselves is the essence of
spiritual experience. Our more religious members
call it God-consciousness.
Most emphatically we wish to say that any
alcoholic capable of honestly facing his problems
in the light of our experience can recover,
provided he does not close his mind to all
spiritual concepts. He can only be defeated by an
attitude of intolerance or belligerent denial.
We find that no one need have difficulty with the
spirituality of the program. Willingness, honesty
and open mindedness are the essentials of
recovery. But these are indispensable.

Big Book P. 569-570
21
If you always do what you always did,Then
youll always get what you always got!

Budget Print Center, Flemington, NJ

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Big Book GoalsTable of Contents

Goal 1
Problem

Goal 2 Solution
Goal 3 Action Necessary for Recovery
Chapter 2 There is a Solution Chapter 3
More about Alcoholism Chapter 4 We agnostics
Chapter 5 How it Works Chapter 6 Into
Action Chapter 7 Working with Others
Drs. Opinion Chapter 1 Bills Story
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3 12
HOW TO FIND POWER
POWER
POWERLESS
24
12 Step Recovery Process

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.

25
Step 1

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

26
Step 1 Definition

Identifies the problem You are the problem. As a
result of your problem your life has become
unmanageable. Your life is unmanageable because
you are powerless over alcohol. You are powerless
over alcohol because you have lost the ability to
stop once you start. You cant stop because of
the manifestation of an allergy which is called
craving. When not drinking, all you can think
about is drinking. This is called an obsession of
the mind and if not checked will eventually lead
to a drink and then.

Step One
Action Identified problem and how current
condition is result of problem admits
unmanageability
Change 1) Stop rationalizing justifying
2) Shows signs of relief hope
3) Stops drinking!

28
Step 2

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

29
Step 2 Definition

Identifies the solution. The solution is
spiritual. When working the process we come to a
place where we stop trying to understand
ourselves and stop believing in our selves. At
that point we need to start believing in a power
greater than ourselves or we will eventually
relapse. The Big Book emphasizes the subtle
insanity that precedes the first drink. But what
kind of thinking usually precedes the subtle
insanity? We need to replay our previous relapses
and come to know our own patterns. By coming to
grips with our own failures as a result of our
powerlessness and observing the successes of
others as a result of their new found power, we
come to believe. If I cannot trust me because of
me, who can I trust? If I cannot depend on me
because of me, who then can I depend on? There
is one who has all the power you must find him
now

Step Two
Action Realization that insanity occurs before
drink or drug is picked up.
Change 1) Alternative behaviors (Go To)
2) Reliance on power greater than selves
3) Self reliance ends (Rambo)

31
Step 3

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

32
Step 3 Definition

This is the first step in getting access to the
power. We surrender to win. We have made a mess
of our lives because of our drinking. We have
come to believe that we cannot trust our own
minds and bodies. None of the self knowledge we
have gained over the years was able to prevent
our drinking, however it may assist us in gaining
the power from beyond ourselves. We surrender our
own will and commit to Gods will for us. We stop
driving the bus to no where and take a seat on
Gods bus to some where.

Step Three
Action Stops running the show
Change 1) Self will diminishes
2) Lives in the day
3) Turns outcome over
4) Talk of power greater than self

34
The Promises

35
Step 3 Promises

When we sincerely took such a position, all sorts
of remarkable things followed. We had a new
Employer. Being all powerful, He provided what we
needed, if we kept close to Him and performed His
work well. Established on such a footing we
became less and less interested in ourselves, our
little plans and designs. More and more we became
interested in seeing what we could contribute to
life. As we felt new power flow in, as we enjoyed
peace of mind, as we discovered we could face
life successfully, as we became conscious of His
presence, we began to lose our fear of today,
tomorrow or the hereafter. We were reborn.

Alcoholics Anonymous p.63
36
Step 4

Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of
ourselves.

37
Step 4 Definition

Now that you have made contact with and hopefully
accessed that power, it is time to see what had
been blocking you from it. You can feel safe in
examining your own behavior and character now if
you have done a good third step. In turning your
life over to care of God, you remove the need to
hang onto some character defects in case you may
need them down the road. This permits you to
really examine your life, your behavior and what
drove it, in other words, your motives. The Big
Book says that self knowledge will not get you
sober. However, when acquired through this
process it can serve to keep you sober. It can
also provide a greater access to that higher
power since you are starting to clear the channel
in this step.

Step Four
Action Make an honest self assessment
Change 1) Willing to look at self
2) Stops rationalizing justifying
3) Begins to connect defects to failure
4) Accepts criticism and input
5) Some control of instincts
6) Sense of relief at finally facing self

39
Step 4 Promises

If we have been thorough about our personal
inventory, we have written down a lot. We have
listed and analyzed our resentments. We have
begun to comprehend their futility and their
fatality. We have commenced to see their terrible
destructiveness. We have begun to learn
tolerance, patience and good will toward all men,
even our enemies, for we look on them as sick
people.

Alcoholics Anonymous p.70
40
Step 5

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

41
Step 5 Definition

Now that you have your inventory on paper, you
should review the fourth column. In your review
you are looking for the exact nature of your
wrongs. More precisely this is why you did what
you did, not what you did. This is what you want
to admit to yourself. You do this because you
know it is time to stop rationalizing and
justifying your unsatisfactory behavior away. You
are your problem not someone else. You admit the
exact nature of your wrongs to God because you
will be asking him to remove them in the seventh
step. It also serves as practice for the next
phase of this step by shining some light in the
dark crannies of your mind. Next you admit the
exact nature of your wrongs to another human
being. This locks you into taking responsibility
for the way you think and act. This humbling
experience is designed to force a commitment to
change because now someone knows the truth about
you. Once you have admitted these thing to
another person you cannot go back and change them.

Step Five
Action Admits exact nature of our wrongs
Change 1) See truth about you
2) Stop hiding behind defects
3) Take responsibility for behavior
4) Makes commitments to change by telling
5) Humility increases

43
Step 5 Promises
Provided you hold back nothing your sense of
relief will mount from minute to minute. The
dammed-up emotions of years break out of their
confinement, and miraculously vanish as soon as
they are exposed. As the pain subsides, a healing
tranquility takes its place. And when humility
and serenity are so combined, something else of
great moment is apt to occur.
12 12 p.62

Once we have taken this step, withholding
nothing, we are delighted. We can look the world
in the eye. We can be alone at perfect peace and
ease. Our fears fall from us. We begin to feel
the nearness of our Creator. We may have had
certain spiritual beliefs, but now we begin to
have a spiritual experience. The feeling that the
drink problem has disappeared will often come
strongly. We feel we are on the Broad Highway,
walking hand in hand with the Spirit of the
Universe.

Alcoholics Anonymous p.75
44
Step 6

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

45
Step 6 Definition

Having completed step four you now have the
fourth column list which can be used in step five
to identify the areas of difficulties. These
flaws in your make up or defects of our
character have been clogging the channel between
God and us. Our sick minds tell us that some of
these shortcomings maybe useful down the road a
little. Fear of the unknown tells us to hang on
or else. God says give them to Me so we can grow
closer. Hanging on to a belief that no longer
serves us well coupled with fear of
overdependence upon God it all saps our physical
and mental strength and as well as our spiritual
contentment. People who have travelled this route
of resistance and defiance become entirely ready
to have God do for them what they have not been
able to do for themselves more easily than
others. The problem is that the route is dotted
with drink and some will succumb rather than
change. That is why we are urged to take it
slowly and work on willingness to let go of our
defects until we gradually become entirely ready
to let go absolutely.

Step Six
Action Lets go of defects
Becomes Willing
Change 1) Resistance defiance erode
2) Willingness to change
3) Futility of not changing is seen
4) Seeks direction guidance

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Step 6 Promises

At the very least, we shall have to come to grips
with some of our worst character defects and take
action toward their removal as quickly as we can.

12 12 p. 69
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Step 7

Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

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Step 7 Definition

Having worked the process of the twelve steps to
this point we realized the futility and
fatality of hanging on to our defects. As a
result of the previous step we became exhausted
trying to hang on to that part of the poisonous
potion that we might need. Therefore we arrived
at a point in time where we are entirely ready to
have all of the cancer removed by God. We had but
to humbly ask Him. Must we grovel as before some
crazed ruler begging that our lives be spared?
No. We ask humbly. That is with the right
perspective. He is God and we are not. He can and
we have not. We approach like a child asking
daddy to fix a toy. Believing that he can do all
things we humbly ask and He does.

Step Seven
Action Humbly ask god to remove shortcomings
?
Change 1) Knows behavior is problem
2) Has good perspective on self
3) Working on changing what can be changed
4) Self centered fears leave

51
Step 7 Promises

This improved perception of humility starts
another revolutionary change in our outlook. Our
eyes begin to open to the immense values which
have come straight out of painful ego-puncturing.
Until now, our lives have been largely devoted to
running from pain and problems. We fled from them
as from a plague. We never wanted to deal with
the fact of suffering. Escape via the bottle was
always our solution. Character-building through
suffering might be all right for saints, but it
certainly didnt appeal to us.

12 12 p. 74
Living upon a basis of unsatisfied demands, we
were in a state of continual disturbance and
frustration. Therefore, no peace was to be had
unless we could find a means of reducing these
demands. The Seventh Step is where we make the
change in our attitude which permits us, with
humility as our guide, to move out from ourselves
toward others and toward God.
12 12 p. 76
52
Step 8

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

53
Step 8 Definition

At first glance this appears to be an easy step
with only two parts. Make a list and become
willing. Easy. Using the same list we had made
during the 4th step we add any new names that may
have surfaced in the process. Willingness is the
key to this step. The Big Book says, we ask God
for the willingness until it comes. This
certainly is more difficult than it sounds
because we must deal with our resentments and
anger towards others before we can become willing
to make amends. The third step turns the outcome
of our lives over to the care of God. The fourth
and fifth steps have identified and disclosed our
defects. In six and seven we ask God to take them
away. So in this step we need to become willing
to clear up the wreckage of our past.

Step Eight
Action Becomes willing to clear up wreckage of
the past
Change 1) Accepts responsibility for problems
Life
2) Shows increased willingness
3) Stops hiding in shadows
4) Looks at self first

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Step 8 Promises

Whenever our pencil falters, we can fortify and
cheer ourselves by remembering what A.A.
experience in this Step had meant to others. It
is the beginning of the end of isolation from our
fellows and from God.

12 12 p. 82
56
Step 9

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

57
Step 9 Definition

This step requires that we make direct amends to
the individuals we harmed. Why? So we dont do it
again! If there is no price to pay you will do it
again! So, if you owe money, pay it. If you took
something that didnt belong to you, return it.
If you blemished someones reputation, clear it.
The step says, except when to do so would make it
worse. The Big Book says not to make amends if
you would injure them further or others. This is
not an excuse but a reason to not proceed. When
this comes up you need to confer with someone
else before taking action. If that person advises
not to proceed you may stop. If that situation
still bothers you, you may consider an
alternative action to set right your conscience.

Step Nine
Action Makes direct amends (restitution)
Change 1) Gets square with world
2) Stops looking over shoulder
3) Walk with head up
4) Stops looking for something for nothing
5) Willing to earn respect position

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Step 9 Promises

If we are painstaking about this phase of our
development, we will be amazed before we are half
way through. We are going to know a new freedom
and a new happiness. We will not regret the past
nor wish to shut the door on it. We will
comprehend the word serenity and we will know
peace. No matter how far down the scale we have
gone, we will see how our experience can benefit
others. That feeling of uselessness and self-pity
will disappear. We will lose interest in selfish
things and gain interest in our fellows.
Self-seeking will slip away. Our whole attitude
and outlook upon life will change. Fear of people
and of economic insecurity will leave us. We will
intuitively know how to handle situations which
used to baffle us. We will suddenly realize that
God is doing for us what we could not do for
ourselves.
They will always materialize if we work for them.

Big Book p. 83-84
60
Step 10

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

61
Step 10 Definition

Now that you have cleaned up the past keep it
clean. Take inventory everyday and set right any
wrongs immediately. By doing so you will prevent
the accumulation of any new wreckage. Essentially
in this step you are doing 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 on
a daily basis.

Step Ten
Action Checks self out on daily basis
Change 1) Doesnt want to backslide
2) Rights wrongs immediately
3) Prevents snowballing wreckage

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Step 10 Promises

And we have ceased fighting anything or
anyone-even alcohol. For by this time sanity will
have returned. We will seldom be interested in
liquor. If tempted, we recoil from it as from a
hot flame. We react sanely and normally, and we
will find that this has happened automatically.
We will see that our new attitude toward liquor
has been given us without any thought or effort
on our part. It just comes! That is the miracle
of it. We are not fighting it, neither are we
avoiding temptation. We feel as though we had
been placed in a position of neutralitysafe and
protected. We have not even sworn off. Instead,
the problem has been removed. It does not exist
for us. We are neither cocky nor are we afraid.
That is how we react so long as we keep in fit
spiritual condition.

Alcoholics Anonymous pp.84-85
Learning daily to spot, admit, and correct these
flaws is the essence of character-building and
good living. An honest regret for harms done, a
genuine gratitude for blessings received, and a
willingness to try for better things tomorrow
will be the permanent assets we shall seek.
12 12 p. 95
64
Step 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.

65
Step 11 Definition

It is now time to improve your communication with
God. You should be able to do this since you have
cleared the channel between you and Him as a
result of the previous steps. The Big Book
suggests a number of prayers to be said
throughout the day. If followed, this schedule
will keep you in constant contact with your
higher power. Your task is to seek his will for
you in all things. Remember you turned the
outcome of your life over to him in step three.
Just do the next right thing and He will take
care of the ending.

Step Eleven
Action Seek Gods will in all things
Change 1) Becomes more spiritual
2) Has system for constant contact
3) Does next right thing
4) Had Spiritual Awakening
?

67
Step 11 Promises

We are then in much less danger of excitement,
fear, anger, worry, self-pity, or foolish
decisions. We become much more efficient. We do
not tire so easily, for we are not burning up
energy foolishly as we did when we were trying to
arrange life to suit ourselves.

Alcoholics Anonymous p.88
Perhaps one of the greatest rewards of meditation
and prayer is the sense of belonging that comes
to us. We no longer live in a completely hostile
world. We are no longer lost and frightened and
purposeless. The moment we catch even a glimpse
of Gods will, the moment we begin to see truth,
justice, and love as the real and eternal things
in life, we are no longer deeply distributed by
all the seeming evidence to the contrary that
surrounds us in purely human affairs. We know
that God lovingly watches over us. We know that
when we turn to Him, all will be well with us,
here and hereafter.
12 12 p. 105
68
Step 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.

69
Step 12 Definition

This step has three parts. It says Having had a
spiritual awakening as a result of these steps
which means by now you should have had one. If
you didnt go back and work the previous eleven
until you do. Going forward is hazardous without
one because the step says it is necessary to
enable you to carry the message and to practice
these principles. The second part refers to
carrying this message to alcoholics. Exactly what
is this message? It is the message contained in
the Big Book. Not your version or your adaptation
of it but the original as it was written. In
order to keep it you have to give it away. But in
order to give it away you have to get it. The
third part is about putting these principles or
guidelines for living to use in your daily life.
None of this work will amount to anything if not
applied to your life. You must change or you will
soon be worse off than you were. You can best
change yourself by incorporating these newly
learned principles into your daily life.

Step Twelve
Action 1) Carry message to next alcoholic
2) Practice principles learned in all aspects
of life
Change 1) Helping others
2) Speaks at meetings
3) Honest in all dealings
4) Has become a solid person
5) Has a way of life

71
Step 12 Promises

Follow the dictates of a Higher Power and you
will presently live in a new and wonderful world,
no matter what your present circumstances!

Alcoholics Anonymous p. 100
When a man or a woman has a spiritual awakening,
the most important meaning of it is that he has
now become able to do, feel, and believe that
which he could not do before on his unaided
strength and resources alone. He has been granted
a gift which amounts to a new state of
consciousness and being. He had been set on a
path which tells him he is really going
somewhere, that life is not a dead end, not
something to be endured or mastered. In a very
real sense he has been transformed, because he
has laid hold of a source of strength which, in
one way or another, he had hitherto denied
himself. He finds himself in possession of a
degree of honesty, tolerance, unselfishness,
peace of mind, and love of which he had thought
himself quite incapable.
12 12 p. 106 -107
72
Step 12 Promises

Life will take on new meaning. To watch people
recover, to see them help others, to watch
loneliness vanish, to see a fellowship grow up
about you, to have a host of friends this is an
experience you must not miss.

Alcoholics Anonymous p. 89
In later life he finds that real happiness is not
to be found in just trying to be a number one
man, or even a first-rater in the heartbreaking
struggle for money, romance, or self-importance.
He learns that he can be content as long as he
plays well whatever cards life deals him.
12 12 P. 122
For it is only by accepting and solving our
problems that we can begin to get right with
ourselves and with the world about us, and with
Him who presides over us all. Understanding is
the key to right principles and attitudes, and
right action is the key to good living.
12 12 P. 125
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THANK YOU Tracy!!!!!