You can't argue with success they say, and when it comes to success the 12-Step Programs have proven for years to have the highest rates of successful recovery for everything from cocaine, alcohol and food to gambling and narcotics. When Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob were organizing Alcoholics Anonymous they consulted with experts in areas as diverse as science, medicine, psychiatry, psychology, theology and more. But they couldn't find a prescription for helping alcoholics get and stay sober. They finally came up with the 12 Steps--"beyond the help of science, medicine, self-will, discipline, and human effort"(A Guide for, p.18).
These steps are miraculously effective and beautiful in their simple profundity. They contain a paradox which has now saved literally millions of lives by suggesting that the only way to find freedom from the bondage of drinking is to accept absolute powerlessness over it. Sobriety cannot be had through will-power or some supreme effort of self-discipline, but only by throwing in the towel and admitting that you can't stop drinking on your own. Surrendering is the only way out of hell and what school of thought in any field was likely to come up with that premise?
So it is with our ADD 12 Steps if we want them to be effective. We, too, must work them as though our very life depended on them because it does. We will not know wholeness and complete healing unless, like the alcoholic who finally admits complete defeat,we square off with the first step of our program with honesty and humility.
Step 1. We admitted we were powerless over ADD--that our lives had become unmanageable.
Each person has his or her own personal wake-up call or epiphany when they know without a doubt that our ADD symptoms are interfering with the quality of our lives. We may have spent years in therapy, even gotten an ADD coach, read many books on the topic, gone to ADD support groups but our attempts to control our lives and heal ourselves haven't worked. We had to quit fighting and stop playing God. We admitted our powerlessness and the unmanageability of our lives.
Step 2. Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
We look within and find a non-distorted image of just what it says--a power greater than ourselves--that is not contaminated by painful memories, full of critical judgments against us and waiting to punish us. We have been punished enough and we have judged ourselves harshly already. You may find Nature, the group, a teacher or mentor or perhaps you are blessed with an intact conception of a spirit greater than yourself that you choose to call God, Creator, Holy Spirit, One, Cosmo or Popeye. It doesn't matter what you call him, her or it. All that matters is that we know we are powerless, our way doesn't work and faith is a gift we receive that comes from grace.
We will be discussing how these steps work in our lives at our group meetings, so for now I will just post them (almost) without comment.
Step 3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God.
Very important for the agnostic or even atheist or otherwise uncommitted to see that "as we understood God." If you understand your personal "God" to be a river near your home, so be it. Or if your God is the strength of the support group, great. Just have a higher power (H.P.) that is greater so you can be powerless and rest in the certainty that your H.P. is taking care of everything.
Step 4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
Step 5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
Step 6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
Step 7. Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings.
(Shortcomings, Bill Wilson said, was just a varied word choice for defects of character.)
Step 8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
You are not going to work these steps out of order nor will you work them all next week or next month. They won't seem so horrendous by the time you're ready and actually at the starting point for the step.
Step 9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
Step 10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
Step 11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood God, praying only for knowledge of God's will for us and the power to carry that out.
Step 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.
This is an outline of our spiritual journey. If all the mentions of "God" make you skittish, don't worry. Others without that kind of faith have found a H.P. and worked the program just fine. No one is going to force religion down your throat or make you go to church. Religion does not have a place at our group's meetings nor does politics.
Get the book The Twelve Steps: A Guide for Adults with Attention Deficit Disorder. I bought mine in excellent shape but used for less than $4.00 with shipping from Amazon. It will help you understand the 12 steps and how and why to work them. They are essential to real recovery.
We welcome you. Come on in and care and share your way to wholeness by attending our group meetings and working the 12 Steps of ADD. Please join us in seeking personal growth and recovery from Adult Attention Deficit Disorder. We are on a journey to living at our full potential and nothing can get in our way unless we let it. Higher Power or Universe or Cosmos willing, that is.