Courage to Change
How Al-Anon/Alateen Works
A welcome to newcomers
As a newcomer to Al-Anon/Alateen you may feel that you are here for the alcoholic…that your presence here may teach you how to stop his or her drinking. The truth is; you are here because of the alcoholic and not for the alcoholic. You will soon learn that you did not cause the alcoholic to drink; you cannot control the drinking; nor can you cure the alcoholic. You are here for yourself! You and you alone are responsible for dealing with your own pain. Al-Anon/Alateen is your program; it is your recovery from the effects of the disease of alcoholism. You will find love, understanding, and a lot of hope from the Al-Anon Family Group. The people around you today are experiencing, in varying degrees, the hurt and anger, the anxiety that you are experiencing. We in Al-Anon share our experiences because it helps us to focus on our recovery and ourselves. We do this with the use of the Al-Anon tools of the program (steps, slogans, literature, and the like) which will be provided to you. Al-Anon will work for you if you allow it to. It’s as effective as you make it. It’s the safe place, the right place to be. What you say, or hear, at a meeting and who you see there stays in the room. Your anonymity is protected at all times. Finally, if you would like more information about Al-Anon/Alateen and group meetings, please continue to peruse this site to learn more about our program and its steps.
The twelve Steps
A study of these steps is essential to progress in the Al-anon program. The principles they embody are universal, applicable to everyone whatever their personal creed. In Al-Anon, we strive for an ever-deeper understanding of these steps and pray for the wisdom to apply them to our lives.
1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol – 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 Him.
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 Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and become 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 & meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him praying only for knowledge of His will for us & 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 others and to practice these principles in all our affairs.