12-Step Fellowship is essentially The Golden Rule

Those who practice the 12 steps are not a religious cult or a group of fanatics. The 12 steps are what our parents were supposed to teach us…do unto others as you would have others do unto you…The Golden Rule.

• 1st Step:
  I am powerless. My life is unmanageable…Many people read into it that they must "surrender" and they misinterpret the word surrender. They think it implies failure. It does not. Consider substituting "strategic partnership." This is a positive step, not a negative step…a first step of recognition that requires a partnership with something other than the part of you which continues to keep you in the cycle of addiction.

• Steps 2 and 3:
  I turn myself over to a higher power — a higher self. Please note that nowhere does it say Jesus Christ, Allah, Buddha, the Dalai Lama…it simply means a recognition that somewhere in the universe is an entity more powerful than myself.

• Steps 4 and 5:
  I take a moral inventory of myself and write on paper what I’ve done wrong. The hardest part of this step is not to write down what is wrong…but to write on the other side of the paper what is good, because addicted individuals specialize in beating themselves up.

• Step 12:
  I stand on the bank watching a complete stranger in the quicksand and I take the vine…I remove the daggers, thorns, clean off the elephant dung and throw him the vine…pull him out, clean him off, hug him and tell him I love him. Why? Because someone did that for me.

Recovering people are the best people in the world because they live The Golden Rule…they work that 12-Step Fellowship every day. They recognize their flaws, they recognize those they have harmed, they make amends and they go out and help their fellow human beings who have been in their shoes.

Respect ourselves and respect others — that is the essence of a human being…and recovering people are the definition of being a good person.

Treatment works…but addicted people must stay engaged in the treatment…and assemble a team to help them get and stay well.

Take the shot…and keep shooting. You will score. Staying engaged in treatment is the most successful stairway to recovery.