“We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.” My name is Robert and I am an alcoholic. Step one is the admission of complete defeat to this disease, which has been a challenge for most of us, as I know it was for me. I went through 8 or 9 30-day relapses and eventually stayed sober […]

“Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.” What if, at this present time, you still don’t believe in the “powerless” concept, or you can’t as yet accept the fatality of your illness? Yes, you can still feel and see the repercussions of your latest debauch, and you’re basically aware of your present location […]

“Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.” There are a lot of angles to this program,” the guy said after the meeting. That rang a bell with me. I knew he had been a professional thief while drinking, and I acknowledged the fact that I had probably […]

“Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.” I read somewhere that early AAs, Bill Wilson included, completed all 12 steps in a very short time sometimes mere hours. Perhaps times were simpler then; no cell phones, no internet, people often worked at one company their whole working life. No one talked about being “dual diagnosed,” there was no […]

“Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.” Hi my name is Liz and I’m an alcoholic. First of all, I’d like to say that I’m truly grateful for finding the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous. Only God knows where I would be right now if it wasn’t for the rooms and the […]

I often hear people in the Fellowship say, “It’s hard to discuss Step 6 because it is only one paragraph in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous.” For me, Step 6 is a process that began at Step 1 when I was able to fully concede to my innermost self that I was powerless over alcohol and that my life […]