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...
Tagged: 12 steps
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
By Steve K. In the book Alcoholics Anonymous, it suggests that resentment is the number one manifestation of self/ego. “Being convinced that self, manifested in various ways, was what had defeated us, we considered...
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...
A 12 Step Agnostic
By Steve K. As a child I had the common experience of growing up in a home with an alcoholic parent. My stepfather was a daily drinker who was incapable of forming a loving relationship...
Rewriting the 12 Steps for Atheists
By Tracy Chabala One of the biggest concerns of many AA newbies is the “God thing.” I sympathize, because I still have an issue with the God thing after eight years in AA. I’ve...
Listening for the Reality
This article was printed in the AA Grapevine in 1991. That’s a long time ago, and yet it still resonates today. That definitely makes it a sign of an unresolved problem within our Fellowship. By...
The Therapeutic Effects of the 12 Steps
By Allen Berger, PhD The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous have been heralded as the most important spiritual development of the past 100 years. It is my opinion that they should also be considered...
A Skeptic’s Journey to a Higher Power
Originally published in TGIF at Renascent on February 27, 2015. TGIF Weekly Recovery News is an e-newsletter published on Fridays by Renascent, one of Canada’s leading abstinence-based treatment centre, and features articles and lived experience essays...
The Buddha and Bill W.
By Regina Walker Originally published on March 3, 2015 in The Fix. AA is often accused of being a Christian cult, but it has a lot more in common with Buddhism than many may...
The Steps Cafeteria-Style
“The 12 Steps are so formed and presented that an alcoholic can either ignore them completely, take them cafeteria-style, or embrace them wholeheartedly.” (from the Conference-approved pamphlet, A Member’s Eye View of Alcoholics Anonymous)...
