The AA Program
The main source of our program are to be found in:
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"Alcoholics Anonymous" affectionately known as "The Big Book"
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"Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions" or "The 12 and 12"
THE 12 STEPS
Here are the steps we take which we suggest can lead to the arrest of the fatal disease of alcoholism
The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous
The relative success of the AA program seems to be due to the fact that an alcoholic who no longer drinks has an exceptional faculty for "reaching" and helping an uncontrolled drinker.
In simplest form, the AA program operates when a recovered alcoholic passes along the story of his or her own problem drinking, describes the sobriety he or she has found in AA, and invites the newcomer to join the informal Fellowship.
The heart of the suggested program of personal recovery is contained in Twelve Steps describing the experience of the earliest members of the Society:
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We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable.
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Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
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Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
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Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
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Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
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Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
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Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
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Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
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Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
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Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
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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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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 12 TRADITIONS
The twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous apply to the life of the fellowship. These Traditions outline the means by which Alcoholics Anonymous maintains its UNITY and relates itself to the outside world about it, the way it lives and grows
The Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous
During its first decade, AA as a fellowship accumulated substantial experience which indicated that certain group attitudes and principles were particularly valuable in assuring survival of the informal structure of the Fellowship.
In 1946, in the Fellowship's international journal, the AA Grapevine, these principles were reduced to writing by the founders and early members as the Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous. They were accepted and endorsed by the membership as a whole at the International Convention of AA, at Cleveland, Ohio, in 1950.
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Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon AA unity.
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For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority - a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience.
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Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.
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The only requirement for AA membership is a desire to stop drinking.
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Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or AA as a whole.
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Each group has but one primary purpose-to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
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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.
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Every AA group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
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Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
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AA, as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve
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Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the AA name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
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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.
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Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.
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