Twelve Traditions
From Drug Rehab Wiki
Contents |
Twelve Traditions
The Twelve Traditions of twelve steps of recovery programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous are meant to provide guidelines for members of twelve-step groups, between twelve-step groups, other groups, the global fellowship, and society as a whole. Questions addressed in the Twelve Traditions include publicity, purpose, autonomy, finance, spirituality and anonymity, among others.
Origin of the Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous
Several of what constitute the Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) today was first laid out in the Foreword to the First Edition of The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous in 1939. Bill Wilson, A.A.’s co-founder, found that over the years (by 1944), disputes had cropped up among the groups over how to handle issues regarding finances, publicity and religion. As the number of groups was continually growing, there existed a need to clarify the fellowship’s position on these and other emerging issues.
By 1946, Wilson set out the basic ideas for the Twelve Traditions in a much more clear and formulated way. The Twelve Traditions were formulated directly from correspondence between the groups, via A.A.’s “group conscience” method. These were now clearer guidelines for how the various constituents – members, groups and the public as a whole – should interact with each other.
Published in 1946 in the AA Grapevine (the fellowship’s publication), the Twelve Traditions originally carried the title Twelve Points to Assure our Future. The Twelve Traditions were officially adopted in 1950 during A.A.’s First International Convention. In 1953, Wilson’s first book on the subject, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, was published.
The Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous (short form)
1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon A.A. unity.
2. For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority—a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.
3. The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking.
4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or A.A. as a whole.
5. Each group has but one primary purpose—to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
6. An A.A. group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the A.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
7. Every A.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
8. Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
9. A.A., as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
10. Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the A.A. name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
11. Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films.
12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.
The Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous (long form)
Our A.A. experience has taught us that:
1. Each member of Alcoholics Anonymous is but a small part of a great whole. A.A. must continue to live or most of us will surely die. Hence our common welfare comes first. But individual welfare follows close afterward.
2. For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority—a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience.
3. Our membership ought to include all who suffer from alcoholism. Hence we may refuse none who wish to recover. Nor ought A.A. membership ever depend upon money or conformity. Any two or three alcoholics gathered together for sobriety may call themselves an A.A. group, provided that, as a group, they have no other affiliation.
4. With respect to its own affairs, each A.A. group should be responsible to no other authority than its own conscience. But when its plans concern the welfare of neighboring groups also, those groups ought to be consulted. And no group, regional committee, or individual should ever take any action that might greatly affect A.A. as a whole without conferring with the trustees of the General Service Board. On such issues our common welfare is paramount.
5. Each Alcoholics Anonymous group ought to be a spiritual entity having but one primary purpose—that of carrying its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
6. Problems of money, property, and authority may easily divert us from our primary spiritual aim. We think, therefore, that any considerable property of genuine use to A.A. should be separately incorporated and managed, thus dividing the material from the spiritual. An A.A. group, as such, should never go into business. Secondary aids to A.A., such as clubs or hospitals which require much property or administration, ought to be incorporated and so set apart that, if necessary, they can be freely discarded by the groups. Hence such facilities ought not to use the A.A. name. Their management should be the sole responsibility of those people who financially support them. For clubs, A.A. managers are usually preferred. But hospitals, as well as other places of recuperation, ought to be well outside A.A.—and medically supervised. While an A.A. group may cooperate with anyone, such cooperation ought never go so far as affiliation or endorsement, actual or implied. An A.A. group can bind itself to no one.
7. The A.A. groups themselves ought to be fully supported by the voluntary contributions of their own members. We think that each group should soon achieve this ideal; that any public solicitation of funds using the name of Alcoholics Anonymous is highly dangerous, whether by groups, clubs, hospitals, or other outside agencies; that acceptance of large gifts from any source, or of contributions carrying any obligation whatever, is unwise. Then too, we view with much concern those A.A. treasuries which continue, beyond prudent reserves, to accumulate funds for no stated A.A. purpose. Experience has often warned us that nothing can so surely destroy our spiritual heritage as futile disputes over property, money, and authority.
8. Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever non-professional. We define professionalism as the occupation of counseling alcoholics for fees or hire. But we may employ alcoholics where they are going to perform those services for which we may otherwise have to engage non-alcoholics. Such special services may be well recompensed. But our usual A.A. "12 Step" work is never to be paid for.
9. Each A.A. group needs the least possible organization. Rotating leadership is the best. The small group may elect its secretary, the large group its rotating committee and the groups of a large metropolitan area their central or intergroup committee, which often employs a full-time secretary. The trustees of the General Service Board are, in effect, our A.A. General Service Committee. They are the custodians of our A.A. Tradition and the receivers of voluntary A.A. contributions by which we maintain our A.A. General Service Office at New York. They are authorized by the groups to handle our over-all public relations and they guarantee the integrity of our principal newspaper, the A.A. Grapevine. All such representatives are to be guided in the spirit of service, for true leaders in A.A. are but trusted and experienced servants of the whole. They derive no real authority from their titles; they do not govern. Universal respect is the key to their usefulness.
10. No A.A. group or member should ever, in such a way as to implicate A.A., express any opinion on outside controversial issues—particularly those of politics, alcohol reform, or sectarian religion. The Alcoholics Anonymous groups oppose no one. Concerning such matters they can express no views whatever.
11. Our relations with the general public should be characterized by personal anonymity. We think A.A. ought to avoid sensational advertising. Our names and pictures as A.A. members ought not be broadcast, filmed, or publicly printed. Our public relations should be guided by the principle of attraction rather than promotion. There is never need to praise ourselves. We feel it better to let our friends recommend us.
12. And finally, we of Alcoholics Anonymous believe that the principle of anonymity has an immense spiritual significance. It reminds us that we are to place principles before personalities; that we are actually to practice a genuine humility. This to the end that our great blessings may never spoil us; that we shall forever live in thankful contemplation of Him who presides over us all.
Adoption of Twelve Traditions by Other Twelve-Step Groups
After Alcoholics Anonymous, the first and most influential of all the current twelve-step fellowship groups, other groups began to emerge. These included Narcotics Anonymous, which was and is the second-largest twelve-step self-help group. Other groups adopted the Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous, with permission, and revised them slightly to more closely reflect the groups’ purpose and audience.
Thus, for example, much of the Twelve Traditions of Narcotics Anonymous is exactly the same as the Alcoholics Anonymous Twelve Traditions from which it came with the substitution of the words Alcoholics Anonymous and A.A. with Narcotics Anonymous and N.A., alcoholic with addict, and drinking with using. In the case of Narcotics Anonymous, their published version of the Twelve Traditions is called It Works: How and Why. Other twelve-step groups adopting Twelve Traditions include Gamblers Anonymous, Debtors Anonymous, Cocaine Anonymous, Crystal Meth Anonymous, Sexaholics Anonymous, Workaholics Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous, Marijuana Anonymous, just to name a few.
Primary or Singular Purpose
No matter which group of twelve-step fellowships (that uses a form of their adapted Twelve Traditions), each has a principle that is derived from the Fifth Tradition. In the fifth tradition of the A.A. Twelve Traditions (short form), the principle is further elaboration of, “Each group has but one primary purpose – to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.”
Other groups substitute the appropriate word for alcoholic that reflects the identifying characteristics and purpose of that group, or they may rephrase the statement to have similar meaning. In the case of Narcotics Anonymous, the word addict replaces alcoholic.
The philosophy behind this principle is that those who share in common cravings and obsessions are better able to understand and help others who are struggling with similar cravings and obsessions in their specific addictions.
--Suzannekane 12:08, 26 June 2011 (MDT)
