Where Did the Idea for the 12 Steps Come From? Bill Wilson, a former member of Alcoholics Anonymous, created the 12 Steps in 1938. During his experience, he wrote down his ideas and tips regarding sobriety.
The Twelve Traditions of A.A. resulted from a need for guidance in our growing organization. Co-founder Bill W. wrote them in the 1940s to address the various questions that arose among A.A. groups. These principles continue to provide A.A. groups with a framework for success.
In 1937, Bill W. suggested writing a book to keep the message of recovery consistent. He also felt it would be the best way to reach more alcoholics that were suffering. At that time, there were approximately 40 sober alcoholics.
The 12 Traditions of AA were first introduced by the founder Bill Wilson, who wrote a series of essays for the Grapevine Magazine in April 1946. They were titled “Twelve Points to Assure Our Future”. In 1947, pamphlets of Bill Wilson's words were sent to all members, free of charge.
Bob Smith, the two men who founded AA in 1935, drew their inspiration for the Twelve Steps from the Oxford Group.
History. Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), the first twelve-step fellowship, was founded in 1935 by Bill Wilson and Dr. Robert Holbrook Smith, known to AA members as "Bill W." and "Dr. Bob", in Akron, Ohio.
Bill Wilson did change them world in ways no one could have imagined. Although a bit rough, this is well worth reading.
In 1946, co-founder Bill Wilson published the "Twelve Points to Assure Our Future" in the AA Grapevine newspaper. In 1953, he published the book, "Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions."
Bill W. wrote “To Wives” for the same reasons he wrote the Big Book as a whole: to publicize the program of Alcoholics Anonymous, and to earn personal income. As documented in Not God: A History of Alcoholics Anonymous by Ernest Kurtz, Bill W. and his wife Lois were destitute in the 1930s, the early days of AA.
The book details stories of other recovering alcoholics who have found sobriety through the program as well. The Big Book also provides other information and methods of support for alcoholics and their families. However, the Big Book is best known for outlining the 12 Steps and 12 Traditions that form the basis of AA.
Resentment Prayer on page 552 of the AA Big Book: He said, in effect" If you have a resentment you want to be free of, if you will pray for the person or the thing that you resent, you will be free.
The final version of the book directs AA followers to embrace a "higher power" and "God of your understanding" instead of "God" or "Jesus Christ" as they follow a path to sobriety.
Bill Dotson, the "Man on the Bed," was AA number 3. At his death, he had not had a drink in more than nineteen years. His date of sobriety was the date he entered Akron's City Hospital for his last detox, June 26, 1935.
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions explains the 24 basic principles of Alcoholics Anonymous. Known as the "Twelve and Twelve,” the book dedicates a chapter to each Step and each Tradition. Chapters provide an interpretation of these principles for personal recovery and the organization of the group.
Tom Powers (1911-2005) attended his first Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in White Plains, New York, in October, 1941. After several unsuccessful hospitalizations Powers remained a hardened alcoholic and drug addict, and his initial success in AA was seriously compromised by his atheism.
The 12 Steps are Born
He speedily wrote for 30 minutes, and when he was completed, he had twelve steps. “We admitted we were powerless over alcohol — that our lives had become unmanageable.” “Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.”
Whether you're working the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), Narcotics Anonymous (NA), Al-Anon, or any other program, the most difficult of all the steps probably step 5. This is the one that asks us to admit "our wrongs" and to do so in front of our higher power and another person.
These 12 steps are outlined in Chapter 5, “How It Works,” of the Big Book. The 12 Steps helped each of the co-founders of AA in their own recovery from alcohol misuse and have continued to help countless others battle their alcohol addictions.
The 4th and 5th steps of Alcoholics Anonymous can be the hardest. After a higher power has been found, it's time to do some soul searching. Step 4 of the A.A. model is as follows: Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. Admitting to oneself that they have a weakness can be the hardest thing.
The difference between the 12 steps and the 12 traditions is not that big these two things are intertwined with each other. The 12 steps are the guidelines by which to get sober and recover. The 12 traditions act as the principles behind the steps and are meant to keep people focused on the primary purpose.
The oldest original and most commonly known 12-step program is AA or Alcoholics Anonymous.