The Twelve Steps
The Twelve
Traditions
Al-Anon's program of
recovery is based on the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous.
The Steps are the foundation for personal recovery and the Traditions help groups sustain
their unity and fellowship.
The Twelve Steps
Because of their proven power and worth, AA's
Twelve Steps have been adopted almost word for word by Al-Anon.
They
represent a way of life appealing to all people of goodwill, of any religious
faith or of none.
Note the power of the very words!
- 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.
- Made 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 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. - Having had a spiritual awakening as the result
of these steps, we tried to carry this message to others, and to practice
these principles in all our affairs.
The Twelve Traditions
The Traditions that follow bind us together in unity. They guide the
groups in their relations with other groups, with AA,
and the outside world.
They recommend group attitudes toward leadership, membership, money, property,
public relations,
and anonymity.
The Traditions evolved form the experience of AA groups in
trying to solve their common problems of living and working together.
Al-Anon adopted these group guidelines and over the years has found them sound
and wise. Although they are only suggestions,
Al-Anon's unity and perhaps
even its survival are dependent on adherence to these principles.
- Our common welfare should come first; personal progress for the greatest number depends upon unity.
- For our group purpose there is but one authority -- a loving God as He may
express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders
are but trusted servants-- they do not govern. - The relatives of alcoholics, when gathered together for mutual aid, may call
themselves an Al-Anon Family Group, provided that,
as a group, they have no other affiliation. The only requirement for membership is that there be a problem of alcoholism in a relative
or friend. - Each group should be autonomous, except in matters affecting another group or Al-Anon or AA as a whole.
- Each Al-Anon Family Group has but one purpose: to help families of alcoholics.
We do this by practicing the Twelve Steps of AA
ourselves, by encouraging and understanding our alcoholic relatives, and by welcoming and giving comfort to families of alcoholics. - Our Family Groups ought never endorse, finance or lend our name to any
outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property and
prestige divert us from our primary spiritual aim. Although a separate entity, we should always co-operate with Alcoholics Anonymous. - Every group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
- Al-Anon Twelfth Step work should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
- Our groups, as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards
or committees directly responsible to those they
serve. - The Al-Anon Family Groups have no opinion on outside issues; hence our 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, films, and TV. We need guard with special care the anonymity of all AA members. - Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles above personalities.