| The 12
Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous are
a very important part of the recovery process for young
people. However, since these programs were written for
adults, it's sometimes hard for young people to
understand the 12 Steps and make them work. You can't use
what you don't understand. Here's a version of the 12
Steps that keeps the concepts of the original but is
simpler to understand. 12 Steps for Teens
- Admitted that when
we participate in drinking, drugging, and
acting-out behavior that our lives get out of
control.
- Come to believe
that we could change with the help of others.
- Made a decision to
work with others to make changes in our behavior
and our value systems.
- Made a list of
behaviors we need to change and recognize the
strengths we have that will help us make these
changes.
- Shared our list
with another person.
- Were ready to
leave these old behaviors, attitudes and values
behind.
- Became willing to
work with others to change these old behaviors,
attitudes and values.
- Made a list of
people, including ourselves, that have been hurt
by our behavior and decided to make amends to
them.
- Took
responsibility for our behavior and for forgiving
ourselves making amends to people who have been
hurt by our behavior.
- Continued to take
responsibility for ourselves, and admit when we
were wrong.
- Tried, with the
help of others, to be a better
person—someone we can be proud of and live
with, without using drugs or alcohol.
- Having been able
to change our lives with the help of others, we
offer our help to others.
Original 12 Steps
Alcoholics Anonymous
- We admitted we
were powerless over alcohol—that our lives
had become unmanageable.
- Came to believe
that a Power greater then ourselves could restore
us to sanity.
- Made a conscious
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 God
to remove our shortcomings.
- Made a list of all
the persons we had harmed, and become willing to
make amends to them all.
- Made direct amends
to such people whenever 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 a result of these steps,
we tried to carry this message to others and
practice these principles in all of our affairs.
Janice E Gabe, MSW, CCSW,
NCAII is the president of New Perspectives of Indiana and
author of "Cultures of Change -- Recovery and
Relapse Prevention for Dually Diagnosed and Addicted Adolescents."
She is also a therapist who works with children,
adolescents and families.
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