TWELVE-STEPS MEETING

Twelve-Steps Meeting



Twelve-Steps Meeting

Introduction

During the last decades, the twelve-step programs become more popular in order to treat patients with compulsion, addiction and other behavioral problems. The method of twelve-step is adopted to deal with a current crisis of abusing substances and dependency of people. More than 200 self-help organizations (fellowships) are waged for recovery of these peoples' behavior by following twelve-step method (Rumney, 2009).

A number of treatment houses are conducting the twelve-step for both out-patient and in-patient, and the goal of these houses is to find out the causes of patients' behavior and addiction (Laura & Boorstein, 2006).

The Twelve-Step Approach

The most prevalent current approach to treating substance misuse does not fit neatly into any of the theoretical perspectives we have discussed, though it relies on principles from many of them. Today's dominant approach is a collection of self-help treatments based on the Alcoholics Anonymous twelve-step method, which is at the core of the “recovery movement” (Cloud & Granfield, 2001). Alcoholics Anonymous was born in 1935 when two men, Bill Wilson, a stockbroker, and Bob Smith, a surgeon, sat down one afternoon and talked together about their struggles with alcoholism. Wilson had been trying valiantly to stay sober after years of problem drinking, and he had a religious awakening after reading William James's classic book, The Varieties of Religious Experience (Caruso, 1996). The combination of this experience with the recognition by the two men of the helpful power of their mutual support, empathy, and advice led them to co-found Alcoholics Anonymous. Since then, the organization has grown exponentially, based on the simple principles of Wilson and Smith's initial conversations, which are embodied in the “Twelve Steps” (mention in Table 1). The twelve-step principles now form the foundation of the many support groups that deal with a wide variety of addictive problems (Littlejohn, 2009).

The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous

We admitted we were powerless over alcohol and that our lives had become unmanageable.

Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

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.

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 ...