What are the Twelve Steps

The twelve steps program is a set of guiding principles that is accepted by teenagers, young adults, and adults as 'spiritual principles' which outline the course of action for recovery from addiction, compulsion, or other behavioral problems. Twelve steps program began with alcoholics anonymous in the 1930's and have since taken part in the recovery from addiction for many troubled teenagers and young adults.

The steps include:

1. We admitted that we were powerless over our addiction - that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood God, praying only for knowledge of God's will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

If you are the parent or loved one of a teenager or young adult that is struggling with addiction or other out of control behavior and are interested in a twelve step program but not with the Christian aspect of it, there is an alternative. The twelve step programs, as practiced in secular society, are non-Christian, unbiblical attempts to solve the problems of life apart from God.

Seek Help Today

Twelve step programs include Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), Narcotics Anonymous (NA), inpatient, outpatient, and may be used in some therapeutic boarding school settings. At Therapy Insider we are determined to find the help that best suits the needs of troubled teenagers or young adults struggling with addiction or behavioral problems.

To read more about the causes, signs and symptoms, and treatment for addiction (whether a substance addiction or a behavioral addiction); see our about addiction page.