The 12 Step Process

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The 12 Step Process
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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

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• First
• Things
• First

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Definition of Process
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Process

• Definition
• A Series of Related Activities Geared to a
  Specific End

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Relapse is a Process
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A Debilitating, Mental Process
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Recovery is a Process too!
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• Foyst
• Dings
• Foyst

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NLTA
1,000
100

• Normal Level of Tension / Anxiety

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No Problem

• Is That Life?

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• Sooner or Later

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• Return to Perceived Normal

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• Close But Not There

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Recovery Process
Change Growth
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• Dink
• Dink
• Dink

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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.

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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
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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
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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.

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Step 1

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

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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.

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• 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!

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Step 2

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

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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

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• 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)

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Step 3

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

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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.

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• 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

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The Promises

• 12
• or
• 137
• ?

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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
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Step 4

• Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of
  ourselves.

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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.

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• 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

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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
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Step 5

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

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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.

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• 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

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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
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Step 6

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

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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.

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• 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.

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• 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

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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
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Step 8

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

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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.

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• 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
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Step 9

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

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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.

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• 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
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Step 10

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

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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.

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• 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
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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.

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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.

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• 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
• ?

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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
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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.

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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.

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• 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

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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
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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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