12 Steps and 12 Traditions

Question 1

Step 1

Answer 1

We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable

Question 2

Step 2

Answer 2

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

Question 3

Step 3

Answer 3

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

Question 4

Step 4

Answer 4

Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

Question 5

Step 5

Answer 5

Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs

Question 6

Step 6

Answer 6

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

Question 7

Step 7

Answer 7

Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

Question 8

Step 8

Answer 8

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

Question 9

Step 9

Answer 9

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

Question 10

Step 10

Answer 10

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

Question 11

Step 11

Answer 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.

Question 12

Step 12

Answer 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.

Question 13

12 Traditions

Answer 13

1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon
   A.A. unity.
2. 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.
3. The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking.
4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups
   or A.A. as a whole.
5. Each group has but one primary purpose—to carry its message to the
   alcoholic who still suffers.
6. An A.A. group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the A.A. name to any
   related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and
   prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
7. Every A.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside
   contributions.
8. Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our
   service centers may employ special workers.
9. A.A., as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards
   or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
10. Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the A.A.
    name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
11. 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.
12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our Traditions, ever reminding us
    to place principles before personalities