Since 1935, when AA was founded, there has been numerous groups formed in helping individuals with addictions, alcoholism, and various issues. The 12 steps are the stepping stones for individuals seeking recovery.  Groups following the 12 step program give guidance in addressing and completing the  12 step process through meetings, step studies, and sponsors.

 In 1935 Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith, known as “Bill W” and “Dr. Bob”, founded Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) in Akron, Ohio.   A group of men came together and formed the group of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and started the anonymous tradition by using first names only.  As the group grew, co-founder Bill Wilson came to the conclusion they needed something more.  He was in the mist of writing the Alcoholics Anonymous (Big Book) - telling the stories of one hundred men on how alcohol affected their lives and how they addressed their alcoholism.

Bill Wilson along with AA members and the Oxford Group established the 12 steps and the 12 traditions.  Bill Wilson and AA acknowledges the Oxford Group, a Christian Organization, as playing a part in their influencing the founders of AA in developing the 12 steps and 12 tradition.  Bill Wilson attended the Oxford Group in New York in 1932 and 1933 but fell away due to their ideologies and thoughts of AA and the 12 steps. 

Since the founding of AA in 1935 the 12 steps have been adopted in numerous organizations for addictions and support groups.  It was not until 1953 AA gave permission for Narcotics Anonymous to use its 12 steps and 12 traditions.  Groups were increasingly developing for individuals seeking help for recovery in a wide range of addictions.  As groups developed and grew family members, friends, and children recognized how their loved ones addictions had affected them and were  seeking help.  The groups have been found to help individuals support each other through their own processes of recovery.

 

The Twelve Steps

Below are the 12 steps in their entirety, as originally published by AA.

  • Step 1  – We admitted we were powerless over alcohol-That our lives had become unmanageable.
  • Step 2  – Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
  • Step 3  – Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
  • Step 4  – Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
  • Step 5  – Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
  • Step 6  – Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
  • Step 7  – Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
  • Step 8  – Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
  • Step 9  – Made direct amends to such people whenever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
  • Step 10 – Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
  • Step 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.
  • Step 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.

References

Alcoholics Anonymous (February 2002) Twelve Steps and Twelve Tradition. Hazelden    Wikipedia (May 2010) Wikimedia Foundation Inc.