The Twelve "Suggested"
Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous
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.
The Twelve Traditions of
Alcoholics Anonymous
1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery
depends upon A.A. unity.
2. 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.
3. The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to
stop drinking.
4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters
affecting other groups or A.A. as a whole
5. Each group has but one primary purpose— to carry its
message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
6. An A.A. group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the
A.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest
problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our
primary purpose
7. Every A.A. group ought to be fully self supporting,
declining outside contributions.
8. Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever
non-professional, but our service centers may employ special
workers.
9. A.A., as such, ought never be organized; but we may
create service boards or committees directly responsible to
those they serve.
10. Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues;
hence the A.A. name ought never be drawn into public
controversy.
11. 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.
12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our
traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before
personalities.
