12 step reflection paper

12 Steps to recovery is it for you?

The 12 steps to recovery is used as an aid with other therapies not just by its self. It is not for everyone, every addict needs a unique/different approach to recovery, and the approach that will work best for you is dependent on your individual beliefs, needs and circumstances. In my opinion Faith in a higher power is one of the most important things needed in the traditional 12-step process. So therefore if you do not believe in any kind of higher power the 12 step programs are probably not for you. If your faith is important to you, you may need to find a program that will allow you to really embrace your beliefs. For many people, a traditional 12-step approach works for them, but others need to focus on a more tangible way of focusing on their recovery.
The 12-Steps are more than just a way for some people to stay sober. They’re a map for living life as a whole being in their interpretation. They consist of the universal spiritual principles like tell the truth, treat others as you’d want to be treated, monitor your failures, apologize for them and make things amends if you can do so without hurting others. The Steps provide tools for living a full, satisfying, meaningful life. These steps mean admission of alcoholism, it’s a personality analysis and catharsis, adjustment to personal relations, dependence upon some higher power and working with other alcoholics to better themselves together. Step one: “We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable” Is an admission on the alcoholic’s part that they do in fact have an addiction to alcohol and need to abstain from use of alcohol.
Step two: “Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.” Submission of the alcoholic's will and life to the power of God or a Higher Power.
Step Three: “Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.” This step is about willingness as much as it is about a daily faith that works in our lives. Once they have made the decision to turn their lives over and let their higher power into their lives, they always find that the process improves with more practice. Even the atheist or agnostic is sometimes amazed when they become willing enough to give the third step a chance. They find that their faith can always grow more as they progress through the steps.
Step Four: “Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.” It is more than just a list of their resentments. They look at the source of those resentments and see what their anger was based on. Feelings of inadequacy or jealousy might be the reasons. they go on to closely examine their fears, seeing how they helped to shape their behavior and our reactions, pushing them to medicate themselves.
A properly done step four is a study in relationships. They examine any of their current or past relationships with family, friends, or anyone else who is or has been significant in their lives.

Step Five: “Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.”
Step Six: “Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
Step Seven: “Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.”
Step Eight: “Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.”
Step Nine: “Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.”
Step Ten: “Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.”
Step Eleven: “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.”
Step Twelve: “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.” Is spreading the message of AA and the 12 steps and principles to achieve each of the above, providing each person with a healthy alcohol-free life and the ability to help others experiencing the same issues.

One of the principles behind the Alcoholic Anonymous 12 steps program is that each alcoholic has three parts that go to make up the entire individual. These parts are the spiritual, mental and physical parts and they believe that each of these parts suffer when an individual suffers from addiction to alcohol.