“I’ve heard a lot about 12-step programs… what are they? Do they work?”
They do work and can change lives!
Desperate for a way to find addiction treatment in modern society, it was founded by two alcoholics. The two men found God and each other and were able to begin battling their addiction effectively which laid the roots for the 12 steps. They described it as a spiritual awakening, that without God they couldn't be free of the addiction, but without their cooperation, God wouldn't free them of it. They also acknowledged their need to serve and help others who were struggling with the disease.
Many people describe 12 Step Programs as a self-help group, but is much more than that. Self-help makes it sound like it’s all on the addict to heal themselves. Instead, it requires a person rely on a sponsor, fellowship with the group, and God.
Working the full “12 Steps” is the program’s essential tasks to gaining sobriety and recovery.
They are:
I admit that I am powerless over alcohol (food, money, sex, drugs) — that my lives had become unmanageable.
I come to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
I made a decision to turn my will and my life over to the care of God as I understood Him.
I made a searching and fearless moral inventory of myself.
I admitted to God, to myself, and to another human being the exact nature of my wrongs.
I was entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
I humbly asked Him to remove my shortcomings.
I made a list of all persons I had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
I made direct amends to those people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
I continued to take personal inventory and when I was wrong, I promptly admitted it.
I sought through prayer and meditation to improve my conscious contact with God as I understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for me and the power to carry that out.
Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, I tried to carry this message to addicts, and to practice these principles in all my affairs.
As Catholics we have a leg up on this journey by seeing these concepts in the life of the church and her different orders. Much like the spiritual traditions of the Dominicans, Franciscans etc., these steps construct a rule of life that bring discipline and freedom.
The 12-steps (when followed properly) combined, with the a growing relationship with the Lord through the church, can be an incredibly healing experience for someone struggling with an addiction.