Bill and Bob had NO IDEA what they had started, yet today it is evident that they had an impact not only on recovering alcoholics, but also they had an impact on virtually every upstart recovery program for many years since.  The "why" of this impact lines up with the many "why's" which have both questioned and challenged the so-called twelve-step concept.

I'll leave it to you to look up the various twelve step programs  (e.g. bipolar, addicted, alcoholic, overeaters, etc.) according to your own special curiosity.  In any case, you will probably run into a wall of misunderstanding, UNLESS you have been THROUGH the whole twelve step journey.  In other words, you have to kind of DO it in order to understand the connection between these seemingly arbitrary "twelve steps" and recovery.

http://www.aa-louisiana.org/steps.htm

http://members.aol.com/GlennS1956/12steps.html

http://www.draonline.org/dra_steps.html

http://www.egetgoing.com/drug_addiction/rehab_glossary.asp

http://bipolarworld.net/Bipolar%20Disorder/Dual_Diagnosis/12steps.htm

One thing you may note in your research is the relationship of the twelve step concept to a state of desperate neeed.  Almost all applications of the twelve step approach have arisen only when all other approaches failed in some way.  That failure relationship is a symptom of desperation.  I have observed also that those who engage twelve step recoveries generally do so in a desperate state of mind--that is, the condition from which they seek to recover has apparently caused enough pain that those folks are willing to do ANYTHING to get better.  You will find that "willingness" to do anything is essential to any recovery effort.  So perhaps it will help you understand the "twelve steps", if you can see them as a last ditch or final desperate attempt to overcome the affliction.

With that in mind, and drawing from my experience applying twelve step recovery to both my bipolar disease and my addiction, I have concocted the following definition of the twelve step approach and an explanation of the twelve step process for solving a problem.

    Twelve step program: twelve actions beginning with admitting a problem and ending with maintaining a change which overcomes the problem.

Twelve step approach to a problem: 1) admitting and accepting a problem; 2) believing that I need and can find something more than my own resources to solve the problem; 3) finding and committing to use alternatives beyond my own resources to solve a problem; 4) listing barriers to solving the problem; 5) reviewing how those barriers tend to make the problem worse; 6) committing to accept help beyond my own resources which will specifically overcome the problem; 7) receiving help ro remove barriers and to overcome the problem; 8) assessing the damage the problem has caused; 9) attempting to repair or minimize the damage the problem has caused; 10) reviewing daily interactions with people, places, and events in order to avoid restoring the problem; 11) continuing contact with sources of help which have enabled me to solve the problem,and continuing an effort to sustain and enhance victory over the problem; 12) keeping the solution to the problem fresh and useful by applying it to other problems, and by expressing gratitude through sharing expeience, results, benefits, strength, and hope in an effort to help others.

Words, definitions, and explanations are all good and well, but there's more to the "twelve steps" than I have described, isn't there!?  Those of us who have "done the twelve steps" realize that we had to incorporate an element of spirituality, or spiritual healing, in order to "cement" our recovery.

You see..., THAT'S the part of the twelve step recovery I CAN'T put into words.   Note that, all through the twelve steps, I am looking for some reliable source of strength, means, tools, or empowerment to help me overcome a seemingly impossible or unmanageable circumstance in my life.  In other words, whatever "resource" or resources I choose to help me with my problem, those resources must be absolutely reliable.  Once I have found that reliable resource I have found paradoxically "a way out", where no way out had previously existed!  So you will hear among devoted and successful twelve-steppers the notion of a "higher power."  

The idea of a higher power is easy to explain.  Where all human, physical, and worldly dependencies had eventually failed to help us get better, we quite logically sought a resource which would not fail.  The element of desperation has helped us to open our mind to what cannot be seen, heard, or touched--a source of strength and direction the benefit of which flows mainly through others into our newly opened minds.  This process or flow of strength, once accepted, demonstrates to us time and time again that there is more to the world around us than we can see and understand--more than self-will, self-help, self-gratification, and self-aggrandizement.  We begin to see our lives and ourselves changing in ways which cannot be explained, and we come to have faith in that process of change.  Some refer to this unexplainable change as a miracle--a spiritual transformation achieved by combining belief in a higher power with the twelve steps of problem solving.

From my standpoint, the REAL miracle is the "open mind" (MY open mind) which allowed the whole mysterious transformation to take place.

My name is Jim, and I'm a survivor--a transformed skeptic.

Thanks, Y'all, for being a part of my recovery!

Your friend,

Jim