12 Step Program

Step 1: Admitting that you are powerless over your substance of choice

Seeking treatment and acknowledging your problem is the first step to achieving sobriety. Once you get to this point, your journey to recovery begins.

Step 2: Came to believe that a higher power could return us to sanity

Though generally a “higher power” relates to faith, at Serenity Lodge it doesn’t have to. A higher power just refers to something bigger than you. As Bill W. says, “It was only a matter of being willing to believe in a power greater than myself. Nothing more was required of me to make my beginning.”

Step 3: Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to our higher power

Even if not directly tied to faith, this step is vital. You allow yourself to surrender and be guided to a new, sober life.

Step 4: Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

During this step of the 12 step program, clients examine their past behaviors and dig deeper into the root of their addiction. This introspective inventory allows for a moral cleansing, allowing individuals to approach the rest of their addiction treatment programs with a clean slate.

Step 5: Admitted to our higher power, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs

Confessing your wrongs is a major step. Once you complete this step, you’ll feel as though the burden of their wrongdoings has been lifted.

Step 6: Were entirely ready to have our higher power remove all these defects of character

It’s at this point where individuals are ready to create distance between themselves and their past behaviors. They acknowledge that they’re ready to start a new life.

Step 7: Humbly asked our higher power to remove our shortcomings

With the help of a higher source—faith-based or otherwise—individuals seek to change their attitudes and work toward being a better version of their former selves.

Step 8: Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all

At this point, individuals take inventory and reflect on people they hurt emotionally or physically during their active addiction. This prepares them for proactively seeking forgiveness.

Step 9: Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others

Seen as Step 8’s actualization, the individuals directly ask for forgiveness from the people they harmed during their addiction.

Step 10: Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it

The last couple of steps of the 12 step program involve maintenance, because recovery is an ongoing process. Remember: recovery is a journey, not a destination.

Step 11: Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with our higher power

If your recovery is faith-based, this means continually praying to develop a deeper understanding with your higher power. For the non-religious, meditation offers an alternative way to embrace your spirituality.

Step 12: Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities

Those who have gone through the 12 steps have learned lifelong principles to help them maintain sobriety. This acquired knowledge makes them an important role model to those beginning the path to sobriety.

To learn more about how Serenity Lodge’s 12 Step Program in Lake Arrowhead, California helps clients recover in a serene, peaceful environment, call us today at (855) 932-4045.