Alateen Steps & Traditions
The Twelve Steps
The Al-Anon/Alateen program is based on the following
Twelve Steps which members discuss and apply to their own attitudes
and relationships with others. This can help the Alateen member
develop strength to deal with problems maturely and realistically.
- 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.
- Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the
care of God as we understood Him.
- Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
- Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being
the exact nature of our wrongs.
- Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of
character.
- Humbly asked him to remove our shortcomings.
- Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing
to make amends to them all.
- Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except
when to do so would injure them or others.
- Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong
promptly admitted it.
- Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious
contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge
of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
- 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
The Twelve Traditions of Alateen
Our group experience suggests that the unity of
the Alateen Groups depends upon our adherence to these Traditions:
- Our common welfare should come first; personal progress for
the greatest number depends upon unity.
- For our group purpose there is but one authority - a loving
God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders
are but trusted servants; they do not govern.
- The only requirement for membership is that there be a problem
of alcoholism in a relative or friend. The teenage relatives
of alcoholics, when gathered together for mutual aid, may call
themselves an Alateen Group provided that, as a group, they
have no other affiliation.
- Each group ought to be autonomous, except in matters affecting
other Alateen and Al-Anon Family Groups or AA as a whole.
- Each Alateen Group has but one purpose: to help other teenagers
of alcoholics. We do this by practicing the Twelve Steps of
AA ourselves, and by encouraging and understanding the members
of our immediate families.
- Alateens, being part of Al-Anon Family Groups, ought never
endorse, finance, or lend our name to any outside enterprise,
lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from
our primary spiritual aim. Although a separate entity, we should
always cooperate with Alcoholics Anonymous.
- Every group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside
contributions.
- Alateen Twelfth-Step work should remain forever nonprofessional,
but our service centers may employ special workers.
- Our groups, as such, ought never be organized; but we may
create service boards or committees directly responsible to
those they serve.
- The Alateen Groups have no opinion on outside issues; hence
our name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
<1i>Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather
than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at
the level of press, radio, TV and films. We need guard with special
care the anonymity of all AA members.
- Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our Traditions,
ever reminding us to place principles above personalities.
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ŠThe information on this page
is from Al-Anon Pamphlet #M-18, and is reprinted with permission
of Al-Anon World Headquarters. See the Contact
Page for more info.
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