What are the 12-Steps of 12-Step Approach in Alcoholic Anonymous?

The alcoholic anonymous or popularly known as the AA is one of the proven successful methods or approaches practised in the sober homes for post-treatment recovering of the alcoholic addiction and related lasting sobriety. The alcoholic anonymous was founded by Bill Wilson in association with his physician Dr Bob Smith in the year 1935. The Recovery Place halfway house along with the AA approach eventually developed by including two more groups by the year 1939. Bill Wilson published a text “Alcoholic Anonymous” explaining and elaborating the methods, procedures and philosophy of alcoholic anonymous or AA in the same year. 

Over the period, the methods of Bill Wilson’s approaches of alcoholic anonymous got popular as the 12-steps which were eventually followed by other addiction recovery and self-help groups such as gamblers anonymous, narcotics anonymous, drugs anonymous etc. However, over the period the original 12-steps of Bill Wilson’s approaches of alcoholic anonymous were changes by many groups as per their philosophical understanding and need. They also defined the 12-steps with added explanations and incorporated something that is useful for specific problems. 

The 12-steps of Bill Wilson’s approaches of alcoholics anonymous in a contemporary understanding are as follows:

1. We acknowledge and admit that alcohol made us powerless and made our lives unmanageable.
2. We eventually came to believe that a power that is greater than us can restore us to sanity.
3. We decided to turn our will as well as our lives to God’s care as we understand God.
4. We further performed a searching and our fearless moral inventory.
5. We admitted to ourselves, to God and fellow human beings the specific nature of our wrongs.
6. We are strongly ready and prepared for God to remove all these defects of character.
7. We further politely and humbly ask God to remove our shortcomings.
8. We have further prepared a list of all persons who are harmed by us and eventually willing to amend them all.
9. We have already amended such people wherever it was possible.
10. We further continued to take personal inventory and promptly admitted when were wrong.
11. We sought and are seeking our conscious contact with God through meditation and prayer, and the way we understand God. We further pray God only for the knowledge of His will for us and pledge for power to carry out His will.
12. We have a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps and have tried to pass on this message to other alcoholics and further practice these principles in all our day-to-day affairs.