12 Steps for Teens

by Janice Gabe

The 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous are a very important part of the recovery process for young people. However, since these programs were written for adults, it's sometimes hard for young people to understand the 12 Steps and make them work. You can't use what you don't understand. Here's a version of the 12 Steps that keeps the concepts of the original but is simpler to understand.

12 Steps for Teens

  1. Admitted that when we participate in drinking, drugging, and acting-out behavior that our lives get out of control.
  2. Come to believe that we could change with the help of others.
  3. Made a decision to work with others to make changes in our behavior and our value systems.
  4. Made a list of behaviors we need to change and recognize the strengths we have that will help us make these changes.
  5. Shared our list with another person.
  6. Were ready to leave these old behaviors, attitudes and values behind.
  7. Became willing to work with others to change these old behaviors, attitudes and values.
  8. Made a list of people, including ourselves, that have been hurt by our behavior and decided to make amends to them.
  9. Took responsibility for our behavior and for forgiving ourselves making amends to people who have been hurt by our behavior.
  10. Continued to take responsibility for ourselves, and admit when we were wrong.
  11. Tried, with the help of others, to be a better person—someone we can be proud of and live with, without using drugs or alcohol.
  12. Having been able to change our lives with the help of others, we offer our help to others.

Original 12 Steps

Alcoholics Anonymous

  1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.
  2. Came to believe that a Power greater then ourselves could restore us to sanity.
  3. Made a conscious decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
  4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
  5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
  6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
  7. Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings.
  8. Made a list of all the persons we had harmed, and become willing to make amends to them all.
  9. Made direct amends to such people whenever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
  10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
  11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
  12. Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to others and practice these principles in all of our affairs.

Janice E Gabe, MSW, CCSW, NCAII is the president of New Perspectives of Indiana and author of "Cultures of Change -- Recovery and Relapse Prevention for Dually Diagnosed and Addicted Adolescents." She is also a therapist who works with children, adolescents and families.