A Comprehensive and Modern Look at
In December 1934, a patient in a New York hospital underwent such a profound psychic change that he went on to change forever how we understand alcoholism and addiction in general. Never again would alcoholism be seen as a lack of willpower, but instead a personality disorder, one that has no known cure and can only be managed on a daily basis.
Shortly after his release, a chance meeting with a doctor who was also suffering the effects of years of alcoholism, cemented his theory on how to manage addiction. The doctor said many professionals had tried to cure him and he didn’t believe this man could offer him anything useful. But the man said he wasn’t there to help him, he was there to help himself.
What was supposed to be a 15 minute meeting, turned into many hours of the two sharing their stories. The principle of identification was born – “an addict will only believe another addict”.
The two men decided to test the theory by visiting a random patient in the agony of withdrawal at a local hospital. At first the patient wasn’t interested, but the sincerity of the two men sparked a tiny ray of hope in him and he agreed to see them again the next day. That man became AA member number three and stayed sober until his death 19 years later.
Those two men, Bill Wilson and Doctor Bob Smith, spent months working with other addicts. The year was 1935 and, along with around 100 other addicts, a series of 12 steps on how to treat alcoholism were being developed. By 1939, the organisation was formalised as Alcoholics Anonymous and the first book by that name was released.
The steps have remain unchanged, which is remarkable, given how much society has changed since then. They are timeless and have been adapted to suit all forms of addiction, regardless of the substance – or even no substance at all.
Despite being labelled as a cult, a religious con-job, a process of coercion and manipulation, and many other worse things, millions of people worldwide have moved from a position of hopelessness to one of recovery. Fundamental to how the steps work is that recovery is a journey, not a destination. They are steps of recovery, not to recovery.
Addiction is a complex phenomenon that still causes much argument amongst both medical and psychological experts. It’s not surprising that, if it can’t even be defined, there can be no agreement on how to solve it. The aim of the steps is to enable us to function as close to normal as possible, and then do what Bill Wilson did – pass the message on to other suffering addicts.
People who recover and then go on to use their substance or obsessive behaviour of choice in a controlled manner, do not have the underlying personality disorder. Their addiction was successfully treated by utilizing the steps and no further therapy is necessary.
For most of us though, we will never be able to safely use again. Many have tried and were not successful. We maintain our recovery on a daily basis, ever aware we are not cured, but only in remission.
But that does not mean we have to attend meetings for the rest of our life. We can live a very successful and fulfilling life, simply by practising the steps on our own. They are the tools we have mastered and no one can steal them away from us.
The purpose of this website is to take a comprehensive look at what each step was designed to achieve and how the original wording is perceived in our modern, 21st century world.