Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Step One

"We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—
that our lives had become unmanageable."

WHO cares to admit complete defeat? Practically no one,
of course. Every natural instinct cries out against the idea
of personal powerlessness. It is truly awful to admit that,
glass in hand, we have warped our minds into such an ob-
session for destructive drinking that only an act of Provi-
dence can remove it from us.

No other kind of bankruptcy is like this one. Alcohol,
now become the rapacious creditor, bleeds us of all self-
sufficiency and all will to resist its demands. Once this stark
fact is accepted, our bankruptcy as going human concerns
is complete.

But upon entering A.A. we soon take quite another view
of this absolute humiliation. We perceive that only through
utter defeat are we able to take our first steps toward liber-
ation and strength. Our admissions of personal powerless-
ness finally turn out to be firm bedrock upon which happy
and purposeful lives may be built.

We know that little good can come to any alcoholic
who joins A.A. unless he has first accepted his devastat-
ing weakness and all its consequences. Until he so humbles
himself, his sobriety—if any—will be precarious. Of real
happiness he will find none at all. Proved beyond doubt by
an immense experience, this is one of the facts of A.A. life.