The 12 Steps and Traditions

The good news for anyone seeking to recover from a drug problem is that there are a series of promises that come from following the 12 Steps. A few are listed below. 


Results speak for themselves and all who have followed the Program of DAA have most certainly experienced these promises – and more will be revealed.

• You will find new freedom and new happiness.

• You will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. 

• You will comprehend the word ‘serenity’.

 • You will know peace.

 • You will see how your experience can benefit others. 

• The feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear. 

• You will lose interest in selfish things. 

• You will gain a sincere and healthy interest in those around you.

 • Self-seeking will slip away.

 • Your whole attitude and outlook on life will change. 

• Fear of people and economic insecurity will leave you.

 • You will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle you. 

• You will suddenly realize that God is doing for you what you could not do for yourself. 


  • Drug Addicts Anonymous: The 12 Steps

    Here are the 12 Steps we took, which are suggested as a program of recovery:


    1. We admitted we were powerless over narcotics and all other mind altering substances – that our lives had become unmanageable.
    2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
    3. Made a 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 theses defects of character.
    7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings
    8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
    9. Made direct amends to such people wherever 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 the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to drug addicts and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

    Reproduced and adapted with permission from AA World Services, Inc.Permission to adapt A.A.’s Steps and Traditions does not imply any endorsement or affiliation with DAA.

  • Drug Addicts Anonymous: The 12 Traditions

    1. Our common welfare should come first:  personal recovery depends upon DAA 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 DAA membership is a desire to stop using narcotics and all other mind-altering substances.
    4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or DAA as a whole.
    5. Each group has but one primary purpose – to carry its message to the drug addict who still suffers.
    6. A DAA group ought never endorse, finance or lend the DAA name to any related facility of outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
    7. A DAA group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
    8. Drug Addicts Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
    9. DAA as such, ought never be organized;  but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
    10. Drug Addicts Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues;  hence the DAA 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.

    Reproduced and adapted with permission from AA World Services, Inc.Permission to adapt A.A.’s Steps and Traditions does not imply any endorsement or affiliation with DAA.