12 Steps to Freedom

I have a good friend who is kind, compassionate, and honest to me and everyone who knows him. “How do you do it?” I asked one day. “How can you be so kind and loving to everyone—it almost seems unnatural?” Here’s what he said to me:

“Gene, I haven’t always been like this. I used to be angry and resentful to my family and to everybody. I had a terrible drug addiction that was destroying my life and the lives of everybody who cared about me. The day came when I thought I would end my life—I didn’t want to go on living like that. And then someone who still loved me took me to an AA meeting where there were a lot of other people sitting around in a circle. They took turns speaking and they all said they were alcoholics and drug addicts. The difference, they said, is that now they go to AA meetings 3 times a week, follow the 12 Step Program with the support of a sponsor, and now they live happy and meaningful lives free from their addiction.”

So I said to my friend, “What are the 12 steps?” He explained by naming them as they appear on the walls of AA meetings all over the world:

1     1.  We admitted we were powerless over (name of addiction)—that our lives had become unmanageable.

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

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

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

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

6       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 all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to   them all.

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

 10. Continued to take personal 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 (addicted persons) and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

 My friend explained that addiction is a medically diagnosed disease that affects tens of millions of people all over the world. If you have a loved one who suffers from addiction, please refer them to a professional trained in the disease, and participate in a good and recognized 12 Step Program group in their area. Addresses of such groups are easily obtained on the internet. My friend told me that members need to remain anonymous, so don’t advertise their names, please.

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