The 12 Steps of Recovery DON'T WORK . . . if not worked by design !!!

The 12 steps of recovery definitely do not work if you don't work them as designed.  When someone who is working the 12 steps relapses, one can go back and usually discovered one of the following "don't"s or "do" s has occurred.  So it is NOT that the steps and Fellowship doesn't work, it is that someone has wandered off and started to do "their own thing" which of course folks with addictions are known to do from time to time.  SO, the 12 steps of recovery don't work and deliver full recovery -

- if you don’t work ALL the 12 steps . . .
- if you don’t have a sponsor & USE the sponsor . . .
- if you don’t sponsor others on a regular basis . . .
- if you don’t go to 12-step Fellowship Meetings (such as AA/NA/CA/SA etc.) . . .
- if you don’t engage the members before, during, & after the meetings that you go to . . .
- if you don’t use the 12 steps you have learned on an on-going basis thru out your life . . .
- if you don’t actively surrender to the Higher Power who will reveal Himself to you as you do step-work . . .

- if you do continue being your own higher power . . .
- if you do the 12 steps cafeteria style (pick and choose what you will and won’t do) , . .
- if you do hold onto resentments, unforgiveness, and bitterness once you understand how to release them . . .
- if you do become complacent about need for a sponsor, the Fellowship, a Higher Power, & sponsoring others . . .

Please feel free to add your comments about how the 12-steps of recovery don't work . . . God bless you in your
journey into recovery.

Christopher J. Daniel, LPC