12 Steps

After we have done Step Five, we have faced our deepest secrets and shared them with another human being. Although we may feel relieved to have come this far, we aren’t cured. There is more work to be done. We have to take what we have learned about ourselves and make a plan for change. When we decide to get sober more...

Many people who follow a path of recovery in 12-step programs feel intimidated by Step Five. In this step, we learn that we need to face and admit the exact nature of the things we have done wrong. We need to make this admission to ourselves, to our Higher Power and to another human being. Once we have done a fearless more...

In Step Four, we learn that we need to take inventory of ourselves. This inventory isn’t just a brief glance at our lives and ourselves, but rather a fearless and thorough look. The purpose of Step Four is to discover exactly where we are at this moment in time so we can move forward. In doing this step, we will lear more...

In Step Three, we make a decision to turn our will and lives over to the care of the Higher Power we defined in Step Two. It is a way of letting go of the steering wheel of life and trusting in God (or the universe or however we understand this power) to lead us on the right path and to help us make the right decisions more...

Once we admit we are powerless over our addiction, we move on to Step Two, in which we come to believe that a power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity. For those with religious convictions, this step makes a lot of sense. For those whose faith has been shaken by their addiction or other difficult life expe more...

The journey of the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous and many other recovery programs starts with Step One. In this step we admit we are powerless over alcohol or other forms of addiction and that our lives are unmanageable. What does this really mean? (more…) more...

The 12 Steps are long. Long enough to take a moment to look back at your progress and reevaluate things you can improve on, go back and fix, add or remove from your life, etc. Step Ten is that moment. Steps one through nine are about removing addiction from your life and beginning the process of making amends with t more...

In Step Eight you constructed a list of the individuals you need to make amends with. While constructing that list you also considered how much damage had to be repaired and why you need each of these individuals in your new life in recovery. In completing Step Eight you must also become ready and willing to make am more...

In active addiction we make mistakes – many of which can cause great harm to the people around us. From “borrowing” or stealing money, to causing physical and emotional harm, we can ultimately lose the relationships we’ll need to support us throughout recovery. Step Eight is the first step towards making ame more...

In Step Six we ready ourselves to have our shortcomings removed; a difficult, but necessary step towards recovery. Step Seven is the perfect transition from the previous steps, wherein we took a moral inventory, shared it with our higher power and another human being and further readied ourselves for the final steps more...