The 12 Steps of Addiction
1. I developed and maintained a willful blindness to my powerlessness over the drug of my choice, and became willing to deceive myself that I could manage the mess it produced in my life.
2. Came to argue that there is no power beyond myself, and listened to my own drug-induced insanity as the only trustworthy direction for my life.
3. Made a decision to turn my will and my life and everything I love over to the care of the drug of my choice.
4. Made a one-sided and fearful moral inventory of all those wrongs committed against me, and used it to justify my own short-comings.
5. I learned to stubbornly deny the existence of my wrongs to everyone and everything around me, but most especially to myself.
6. I accepted the help of my drug of choice to cherish my defects of character and learn to see them as personal strengths.
7. I asked my drug of choice to hide me from the humiliation of seeing the truth about my behavior.
8. I made a list of all the people who still trusted me and that might enable me to support my addiction, and became willing to use them.
9. I exploited and manipulated these people where possible, with no regard for how it might injure them or others.
10. Continued to be sensitive to the wrongs others had committed against me, and learned to quickly and immediately shift the blame for my parasitic lifestyle to others.
11. Through the fear and agitation of withdrawal, I was driven to seek greater conscience contact with the drug of my choice, desperately searching for ways to obey the dictates of my addiction, and for the power to carry that out.
12. Having developed a complete spiritual bankruptcy in my life as a result of these steps, I tried to initiate others into this lifestyle so I could have someone to exploit, and surrendered to the practice of these self-destructive principles until the bitter end.
Daily Reprieve 
October 2, 2008 at 5:56 am
[…] for addictions. Each NA or AA (Addictions Anonymous) program adopts their own. This one came from https://endigar.wordpress.com/the-12-step… The 12 Steps of Addiction 1. I developed and maintained a willful blindness to my powerlessness […]
October 3, 2008 at 12:20 am
Earlier in my recovery, I wrote an inverted paraphrase of the 12 steps. It is the page entitled, “The 12 Steps of Addiction.” It was inspired by one thought that seemed valid at the time. In reality, I am and have always been working a program of self-improvement. Before I entered the 12 step program of recovery, I was working a program of alcoholic integration and chemical empowerment. I recognized the hard work I had invested in making the alcoholic oblivion work for me. I needed to be able socialize with confidence. At times, I needed a little bit of extra social courage. Alcohol would do that for me. I needed to be able to get over intense emotional pain or I was going to off myself. Alcohol did that for me. I needed to free myself to attempt more creative boldness. Alcohol did that for me. But it was like Frodo’s use of the Ring. It was short term empowerment with long term costs. In order to make alcoholism work for me, I had to find ways to minimize the impact of the consequences I was experiencing. I had to find a way to deceive myself on a regular basis. That is hard work. The inverted paraphrase outlined pretty accurately for me the work that I would have to invest in order to make the alcoholic booster shot a viable solution. But I did not realize that there is a point of diminishing returns with the progression of the disease. I also did not realize that what I learned under the influenced seemed to remain hidden in a pocket of my brain that I could not access without alcohol. So if I learned something to enhance some element of my creativity while I was drunk, I had to be drunk to access and use it again.
The 12 Steps of Recovery have allowed me the opportunity to deal with emotional pain rather than hide from it. I am also learning to express myself creatively, without passing out during the process. And what I learn stays with me. And I am beginning to love who I am, and this gives me a lifestyle of social confidence rather than flurries of social bravado. When I talk to someone on a real level, I remember what I talked about the next day. This allows me to build relationships.
If alcohol or drugs works for you, I am not here to judge you. I don’t want to change you. If you find that you are experiencing diminishing results and overwhelming consequences, I understand that as well. Be true to yourself. I am being true to myself, and honest with you, when I tell you that I enjoy being sober and learning how to get what I got back then, and KEEPING IT.
February 16, 2009 at 4:37 pm
Interesting.
I like it.
February 16, 2009 at 4:44 pm
[…] leave a comment » You never know what you’re going to find out there. This is a real interesting take on the cause and self-perpetuation of addiction in the form of the 12-Steps of being addicted. Found on another cool wordpress blog: endigar.wordpress.com […]