Chapter 6: Changing the 12 Steps
As time passes our book literature has a tendency to get more and more frozen – a tendency for conversion into something like dogma. This is a trait of human nature which I am...
Tagged: 12 steps
God on Every Page
The first issue of the AA Grapevine was published in June of 1944. This year, in October, for the first time ever an issue was devoted to the stories of atheists and agnostic members...
An Updated “How It Works”
This updated version of “How it Works” – originally published as chapter five of Alcoholics Anonymous in 1939 – was created by Hilary J and the Sober Agnostics group and is read at the...
One Bite at a Time
By JHG Recovering alcoholics are famous for theatrical displays that amount to pole-vaulting over mouse droppings. It’s an entertaining but otherwise pointless spectacle. While staying sober can require tremendous amounts of courage and commitment,...
Principles and the 12 Steps
By Patricia K. I have been sober for a while. I got sober before the development of AA meetings for atheists, agnostics and freethinkers. Even though I do not believe in a god, I...
AA, Alcoholism and Medical Science
AA never really opened up a channel for two way communication with the medical community. By Brent P. Who Me? My name is Brent and I’m an alcoholic, crack addict and opioid addict. So,...
A Buddhist Path to Recovery
A more diverse world of treatment options casts a wider net for addicts who’ve fallen through the cracks. By Mark Hay Originally published in GOOD on February 18, 2016 At the age of 18,...
Changing the 12 Steps of AA
Simply because we have convictions that work very well for us, it becomes quite easy to assume that we have all of the truth. Whenever this brand of arrogance develops we are sure to...
The Power of Our Stories
By Chris G. When I first came to AA, I had no story. Oh, there were lots of stories I could tell: drunken episodes, all the problems the world had given me, all my...
My Journey in AA
Chapter 19: Do Tell! Stories by Atheists and Agnostics in AA Neil F. On the 12th of April 1986, I drove from Toronto to Montreal and spent the evening drinking with friends. The next...
A Personal Inventory
For many in AA, the Steps contain important tools in our recovery from alcoholism and addiction. Today Steve K. shares how Steps Four and Ten – a personal inventory – are a part of his sobriety....
Is AA Literature Too Antiquated?
By Dee Young Originally published on The Fix on November 25, 2015 In 77 years and four editions, the Big Book’s Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions has remained completely unchanged. But most people seem...
Atheist in a Foxhole
Chapter 5: Do Tell! Stories by Atheists and Agnostics in AA Russ H. On a sunny Saturday morning at the end of July, 1995, I pulled into the cul-de-sac where I lived with my...
Step 6
This is a chapter from the pioneering book: The Alternative Twelve Steps: A Secular Guide to Recovery. It was written by two women, Martha Cleveland and Arlys G., and originally published in 1991. As valuable today as...
