Originally Posted by
LoneJedi 
Thank you so much for these! I believe in God....but I have issues with the AA 12 steps. They are to, I don't know how to describe it. I'm really happy for the people they work for, don't get me wrong. I know it is a great program for a lot of people. I just don't think it would be for me. Some of these look like they could be of help though.
I have no doubt that many believers may be interested in something beyond the AA 12 step program. Recovery is a very personal thing, and some may feel it as a point of personal responsibility to fix it. I was in AA for years, and I am indebted to the people in AA who offered me help and support when I needed it. The steps, with or without a higher power in them, offer a primer on self improvement, but were not my focus. I wanted to break the cycle of addiction, and I felt a personal responsibility to do that.
And it is indeed our responsibility. We must think it through, educate ourselves on addiction, rise to the challenge of quitting during of those first few days of obsessive cravings, and then finally become aware of those teasing attempts from our AV to encourage us to have just one little "harmless drink."
If someone wants to invite a higher power to help, I have no problem with that, but we must never forget that we are the ones doing the actual work. There is a phrase ringing in my head right now: "God helps those who help themselves," and I think this perception could not apply more than it does in breaking our addiction to alcohol.
There are other programs out there, and I think all have value. We can glean from them those parts which are most helpful, and tweak them to make them applicable to our needs, just as I gleaned what I could from AA. From that, we can come to an understanding of our addiction and find our personal solutions to solve it, and we can make good on our personal responsibility to ourselves.
I don't know how many steps there are in my personal program. My recovery is too fluid to have a number. Often when a problem arises, I invent a "step" to deal with it or tweak something I used before, and then that step recedes into the background of my mind. I think the big unalterable ones in breaking my cycle of addiction are 1.accepting that I can never drink again, 2. making a commitment to never drink again, 3. recognizing my alcoholic voice when it tries to influence me, and 4. rejecting it when I recognize it.
I have other steps that involve my personal growth, but I see those as mostly separate from my addiction issue with alcohol. I realize they are vital to my well being, but different from my drinking. But sobriety makes it clearer to me how I need to approach those problems. So yes, the two things are connected if you want to look at it that way.