The DRA Crest
Dual Recovery Anonymous  
    Home    Fellowship Discussion on the 12 Traditions  Find a DRA meeting in your area Find A Meeting  Members Services Member Services  DRA Books and Recovery Gifts Bookstore

 The Twelfth Step of Dual Recovery Anonymous*

Questions & Answers
Meeting Format

DRA Preamble

Accepting Differences

Getting Started

12 Steps

More on the Steps
  Step One
  Step Two
  Step Three
  Step Four
  Step Five
  Step Six
  Step Seven
  Step Eight
  Step Nine
  Step Ten
  Step Eleven
  Step Twelve
12 Traditions

History of DRA

The DRA Crest

Bookstore
 
Find a Meeting
Membership Services

Medication Issues

Register Meetings

Personal Stories

International News

Upcoming Events

Recommend This Site to a Friend

Downloads, PDFs

Step 11 | Step Index

12. "Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to others who experience dual disorders and to practice these principles in all our affairs."

A core principle behind the Twelfth Step is that once we've experienced the benefits of working the Steps, we will want to continue to strengthen our own dual recovery by helping others and doing service work. We continue to live by and practice the principles found in the Steps every day.

IN OUR OWN WORDS: Members share their thoughts on the Twelfth Step


At first I didn't understand when my sponsor said, "You got to give it away to keep it" but after being around the Program for awhile, I began to feel a lot of gratitude. I wanted to give back some of what was given to me so freely. I began to be a temporary sponsor for newcomers. It was then that I realized how this helping others business revitalized and strengthened my own personal recovery. I needed to help others as much for my own recovery as for theirs.


I've found the principles I learned by working the Twelve Steps are really good principles to live my whole life by. Not just so I could get and stay clean and sober and manage my dual disorders. But like when I interact with people at work or my family. They gave me integrity.


I remember how confused and frightened I was in early recovery. If I can tell my story at a meeting and reassure a newcomer so maybe they find a little more hope and stick with it, and be lucky enough to listen to a newcomer's story to remember how it was for me. Maybe I won't have to go back out and use again to remember how bad it felt.


Anyone can do some Twelfth Step work. You don't have to have much recovery to pour coffee, or help clean up after a meeting. Besides, that's the best way to get to really know people. You can't really give what you don't have, but we all have our story. That's worth sharing even if it's just telling someone at your first meeting that you are brand new to DRA.


A spiritual awakening? Well, I suppose it's very different for everyone, but it's really the changes we find in ourselves after working the Steps and being in recovery for awhile. Deep positive changes in the way we look at things, in the way we react to life. We go from dependence to freedom, we go from letting everything in the world bug us to knowing how to find peace even when everything is going to sh*t. And from trying to control everything by ourselves with our willpower to letting others and even God help us.

Step 11 | Step Index


*Adapted from the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous®

*The Twelve Steps of AA are reprinted and adapted with permission of Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. Permission to reprint and adapt the Twelve Steps does not mean that AA has reviewed or approved the contents of this publication, nor that AA agrees with the views expressed herein. AA is a program of recovery from alcoholism only - use of the Twelve Steps in connection with programs and activities that are patterned after AA, but that address other problems, does not imply otherwise. THE TWELFTH STEP OF ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS*  12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and to practice these principles in all our affairs.



Fellowship Step Discussion Booklet - This is a printable booklet of this Step Discussion section of the web site in Adobe Reader (PDF) file format.



0 The 12 Steps of Dual Recovery Anonymous  Introduction
1 We admitted we were powerless over our dual illness of chemical dependency and emotional or psychiatric illness - that our lives had become unmanageable.
2 Came to believe that a Higher Power of our understanding could restore us to sanity.
3 Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of our Higher Power, to help us to rebuild our lives in a positive and caring way.
4 Made a searching and fearless personal inventory of ourselves.
5

Admitted to our Higher Power, to ourselves, and to another human being, the exact nature of our liabilities and our assets.

6 Were entirely ready to have our Higher Power remove all our liabilities.
7 Humbly asked our Higher Power to remove these liabilities and to help us to strengthen our assets for recovery.
8 Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.
9 Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10 Continued to take personal inventory and when wrong promptly admitted it, while continuing to recognize our progress in dual recovery.
11 Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with our Higher Power, praying only for knowledge of our Higher Power's will for us and the power to carry that out.
12 Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to others who experience dual disorders and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
Download PDF Booklet  of this entire Fellowship Discussion portion of the web site on The Twelve Steps of DRA. Adobe® Acrobat® required

   

Dual Recovery Anonymous
World Network Central Office
P.O. Box 8107, Prairie Village, Kansas, 66208
Toll Free 1-877-883-2332


 This web site is created and maintained by The DRA World Service Central Office, Dual Recovery Anonymous World Network Inc.

 Copyright © 1993 - 2009 by DRA World Network Inc. All rights reserved

[contact info]  [privacy statement]  [copyright notices]  [policy on links and linking]  [Webmaster]