The concepts in the twelve steps are the best program for living I've ever seen. The tenants of spirituality, helping others, owning what's yours to own and forgiveness are common to most great philosophies as well.

The 12 Steps helped to save my life too! A grateful heart cannot be an unhappy one. Positivity was a strange new animal to me in early sobriety, now it's something I seek on a daily basis. It helps keep me happy, healthy and whole as I continue this journey.

I can only speak of my own experience it gave me the tools and helped me provide myself with a better way of life and after practicing those principles for sometime I came to realize using the 12 steps for alcohol was secondary.

Is it the best program? I have no clue I only know that it worked for me.

The 12 steps saved my life. If I hadn't gone through them I'd have had no idea how to emotionally cope with a debilitating and terminal disease (emphysema). While there isn't much of me left, that which is just happens to be pretty darn happy and at peace with myself because of those steps...

Hugs,
Dennis

Rarely have we seen a person fail to find quality and lasting sobriety who has become a student and practitioner to the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous following the clear-cut direction in our Basic Text. In the Big Book are the precise, specific. clear-cut directions to permanent sobriety.

We recover by the Steps we take NOT the meetings we make

The steps and its concepts opened my eyes to the possibilities I could continue to pursue given my willingness to pay attention to my emotional life and pursue the sign post's presented to me in therapy, the work place no matter what avenues were presented to me . I would be safe no matter how difficult the challenge's were . The drink question was not a boogey man No longer...Oh... one thump K . We have just begun to swallow these chunks of truth about ourselves.Get busy and grow NoW I heard:))
Billy

Here's a song to practice the movements....hehe....really!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z0nysMS8LY

I am so grateful for the 12 steps, and the women and men who walked the walk before me. I cannot imagine my life today without those principals.
Hmmm...well yes I can. Ugly.

AA allowed me to stop drinking right from the first meeting. Nothing I'd tried up until that point had worked for me...gave me hope and my journey started from there...

Bit by bit the steps have also given me a little clarity in my life. ..lots of times in the past people said to me things like "don't tell me what you think...tell me how you feel" :) and I just found that confusing. ..I didn't know, didn't even understand what they were trying to say...oftentimes also I would find myself confused when I got angry...like the feeling and the situation didn't really seem to match in the cold light of day. I found it hard to let go of ill feeling. ..
The feeling was people would do things that pushed my buttons and I would get up and dance...then I would be angry mostly that they made me dance, that they had that much control over me.

Like somebody said the steps helped me realise that this is abput action...but the right kind of action. .."the spiritual life is not a theory. ..we have to LIVE IT" :) All my life I've read self help books and things that seemed to offer an answer but not been able to get to the crux of it, beyond a brief intellectual understanding. I read this book once called "Out of the Box for Life"...the crux was, you're in a box, you put yourself in it and only you can get out...by realising your predicament..."YES!!!" I thought..."So true!...but now how in the hell do I DO THAT?!" Steps gave me that answer years later, or at least a place to start.

I never realised how much I didn't like myself...every now and then I could LOVE myself in a self-aggrandizing, they'll be sorry when im famous kind of way...but I really didnt like myself much. Couldn't stand to look in the mirror- literally. Didn't think anyone would like me if they knew the real me. The phrase "just be yourself" terrified me :) AA opened the door on that too, with a little help from a good counsellor.

There are and always have been things about AA and the folks in it that trouble me but the 12 steps have helped me there too. You do what you do, I do what I do...no problem there. The people that trouble me are not the trouble...all I have to do is drop the bag of bricks I have been carrying around...I couldnt see that until I could see it and still struggle from time to time on any given day but wjat a relief to see the truth :)

I would consider the 12 steps tremendously succesful in my life...saved my life and taught me how to live it...they weren't wholly responsible but at least the foundation and on an ongoing basis the hub of the wheel.

Are they suited for everybody? Maybe not...who cares. At the end of my first meeting of AA I said "I don't know whats happened to you people but I hope it works for me"...didn't even know what I was saying but I'm glad I felt that way.

There is undeniably something at the centre of the 12 steps that has the power to completely change lives, rejuvenate folks...I've felt it and seen it time and again. Maybe it's a shame that isn't everyone's experience but it has been mine

P

12 steps saved my life too. I had failed with every other method I tried to stay sober but this one worked for me. I think it is because they don't just deal with not drinking but also give me a way to live my life in a spiritual way.

In a way the steps are nothing new, they incorporate the spiritual principles of all major religions and spiritual philosophies. But they put them in a way that is easy for anyone to grasp and they can work whatever your belief system.

I am an atheist but by concentrating on spiritual principles the 12 steps have worked for me and I have had a spiritual awakening that allows me to stay sober.

It is a mistake to think AA doesn't work if meetings is the only thing you do. The solution that AA offers is the 12 steps and it isn't possible to know if AA works for you without doing the steps.

I never would say that AA is the only way to stay sober but it worked for me where other methods failed.