Alcoholics Anonymous:

Alcoholic’s Anonymous is group of peers who support those who are recovering from alcoholism or to help end chemical addiction. AA plays a major role in most treatments centers as well as those who are not in treatment centers. AA uses a 12-step program to help the individuals to recover from their addiction, alcohol or other substance abuse. AA was founded in the early 1930’s and now exists over the United States and Canada. The estimated membership is 1.5 million and 800,000 members live in the U.S. and Canada.

AA 12-Steps

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol-that our lives had become unmanageable.

2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood him.

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being that exact nature of our wrongs.

6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

7. Humbly asked him to remove our shortcomings.

8. Made a list of persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, expect when to do so would injure them or others.

10. Continued to take person inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

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.

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.