When you think of 12 step programs, you automatically think of Alcoholics Anonymous, which is where it originated. Alcoholics Anonymous is an organization that is famous for helping people with addiction problems. The 12 step program is the foundation for the organization’s program. The basis of the 12 step programs can be used in a variety of different situations, but is widely used in programs that treat addictions. Many individuals have incorporated the 12 step program into their lives for all kinds of addictions in addition to alcoholism and drug problems. Anyone who wants to take control of his life and behavior may benefit from a 12 step program.

The 12 step program has traditionally been based on Christian ideology but can be changed to meet each individual’s recovery needs. Of course, there are twelve levels to the program. According to www.12step.org, the steps are as follows: The first step is to relinquish power or powerlessness, in other words, the person’s life spins out of control when the alcohol, drug or other damaging element is present. The second step asserts that the person needs to believe in a higher power or hope. Many critics of the 12 step program assert that the system is too religious in nature. And the third step is contends that the person needs to turn his life over to God or Faith.

The forth step is made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. This step is another one closely tied to religion as anyone who has sat in a confessional will attest. The moral inventory leads to the fifth level of the 12 step program in which the individual admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs or it is called honesty.

The sixth step is ironically similar to step one. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. Instead of being powerless to the harmful element, he becomes powerless to God. The higher being is responsible for removing the negative aspects of the individual’s character. This passive approach to recovery has been criticized as well or we call it preparation.

The next three levels involve letting go, humility and forgiveness or we can say it apologizing and making amends for the wrongs which individual had committed. From there, the tenth level continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it and the eleventh step 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. The twelfth level of the 12 step program which is the last step, promises that 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 to spread the word of his success.

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