The Steps

  1. We admitted we were powerless over the effects of alcoholism or other family dysfunction, that our lives had become unmanageable.
  2. Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
  3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understand God.
  4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
  5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
  6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
  7. Humbly asked God 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 understand God, praying only for knowledge of God’s 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 others who still suffer, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

The Twelve Steps are reprinted and adapted from the original Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous and are used with the permission of Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.

Complementary Steps

These complementary set of Steps are meant to stand alongside the official Steps and are made available as a choice of readings for ACA

  1. We admitted we were powerless over the effects of alcoholism and dysfunction – that our lives had become unmanageable.
  2. Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to wholeness.
  3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of a loving higher power of our own understanding.
  4. Made a searching and honest inventory of ourselves.
  5. Admitted to our higher power, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of what happened to us and how we survived.
  6. With the aid of our higher power we became ready to let go of all our ineffective behaviour.
  7. Humbly asked our higher power to help us release our ineffective patterns of behaviour and allowed ourselves to grieve as part of our healing process.
  8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, especially ourselves, 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, ourselves or others.
  10. Continued to take honest personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
  11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with the higher power of our own understanding, praying only for knowledge of its will for us and the power to carry that out.
  12. Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we continued to honour the child within; we tried to carry this message to others and to practise these principles in all our affairs.

For those who are interested, a record of how the Twelve Steps for ACA were written and approved is viewable here.

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