A Complete 12-Step Program Guide

Groups like Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous can provide the support and guidance you need.

When you or someone you love is struggling with a substance abuse disorder, it’s easy to feel alone in the fight. Fortunately, there are millions of members worldwide participating in various self-help groups using the 12-step program that band together to help people with substance disorders of all kinds.

Abundant and easy to find, these meetings are often open to the loved ones and friends of those struggling with addiction, although closed meetings exist for just those dealing with addiction as well. Anonymity and privacy are important tenets of these meetings, as those who attend have chosen to receive help – not be outed for their admission of addiction.

These 12-step programs complement and extend the effects of professional treatment, as most drug and alcohol addiction treatment programs encourage patients to participate in self-help group therapy during and after treatment.

Seeking these groups can be particularly helpful during recovery, offering an added layer of community-level social support to help people achieve and maintain abstinence and other healthy lifestyle behaviors over the course of a lifetime^[1].

The 12-Step Program Origin

Alcoholics Anonymous and the 12-Steps began in June of 1935, during the great depression. The founder Bill Wilson created the organization while detoxing in a Manhattan drug rehab center which resulted in the 12 steps and traditions which are at the heart of AA ^[2].

Wilson had no formal medical or psychology training – instead, the 12 Steps were created by combining ideas from philosophy and religion. He condensed these ideas into a concise list with a structure inspired by the Bible, although a belief in any religion is by no means a prerequisite for attendance and success.

Today, an estimated 1.2 million people across the country participate in one of the over 55,000 different 12-step program meetings. Meetings are free and entirely self-supported through voluntary donations that cover meeting space, coffee, and other refreshments.

The 12 Traditions Of Alcoholics Anonymous

These twelve traditions are representative of members of 12-step groups as a group, unlike the 12 steps which focus on the individual and their own path. See if these traditions speak to what you’d like to see in a community that will help you on your path to recovery.

Here are the 12 traditions ^[3]:

Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon AA unity.

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.

The only requirement for AA membership is a desire to stop drinking.

Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or AA as a whole.

Each group has but one primary purpose–to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.

An AA group ought never to 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.

Every AA group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.

Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers.

AA, as such, ought never to be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.

Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the AA name ought never to be drawn into public controversy.

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.

Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.