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12 Step Programs

For decades, 12 step programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous have been helping provide support and education for individuals all over the world who wish to stay sober. Through humble meeting rooms in recreation centers and churches in cities and towns everywhere, 12 step programs continue involve finding the strength to conquer addiction believing in the presence of a higher power.

For those who have found success in 12 step programs, this dedication to a higher power replaces the commitment that the individual once made to drugs or alcohol. By believing in a controlling higher power, the individual is stating that he himself does not control over his own addiction, but that belief in this divine inspiration will see him through.

12 step programs can be intimidating at first, but people soon find them to be open, inviting places where the members genuinely care for one another. Listening to each other's stories of fighting addiction, and choosing a sponsor from among the other members of the group both work to form a fellowship of individuals who are there for support and staying the path to recovery.

How Popular Are 12 Step Programs?

One of the most prominent forms of after-care, 12 step programs, specifically AA and NA can be found virtually anywhere in the world where there are people. Statistics about attendance are scarce (there is a high-level of anonymity within the program), but here are some facts:

What Are the 12 Steps?

The 12 steps may vary in subject matter (according to the addiction in question) but at their core are the same across all programs. Here are the most famous steps in the world: The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous:

  1. We admit that we are powerless over alcohol – and that our lives have become unmanageable.
  2. We have come to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
  3. We have made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understand him.
  4. We have made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
  5. We have admitted to God, to ourselves, and to other human beings the exact nature of our wrongs.
  6. We are entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
  7. We humbly ask God to remove our shortcomings.
  8. We have made a list of people that we have harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
  9. We have made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure ourselves or others.
  10. We continue to take personal inventory and when we are wrong, we promptly admit it.
  11. We have sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understand Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
  12. Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we try to carry this message to alcoholics and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Who Is the Higher Power?

The steps above refer to "God" but really, the key term to consider here is "higher power". The higher power is not necessarily a god as defined by a particular religion. A higher power associated with recovery can come from within the individual, something in that person's life that gives them strength and helps them find peace. Whatever the higher power is, it helps uplift the individual, and provides motivation and inspiration in their quest to find a clear outlook on life and maintain sobriety.

Before there are 12 step programs, there is Michael's House. Michael's House is an outstanding residential rehab drug treatment facility that changes the lives of those addicted to drugs or alcohol, readying them for after-care programs such as AA, and more importantly, a life free of addiction.

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