Step one

[MajestyJo]

In order to work the steps we need a close working relationship with our indiviidual NA sponsors. Besides offer help and guidance on addiction issues in our personal lives, sponsors share their experience, hope and faith as they help guide us through the Twelve Steps of Narcotics Anonymous.

Working the steps also requires regular attendance at a weekly NA step meeting. This is an "I can't, we can" recovery program and we can lear a lot by listening to other recovering addicts share their experience working the Twelve Steps.

What follows are some suggestions for working the steps based on the experience of other recovering addicts. For most of us, working the steps involves writing on each one, sharing what we've written with our sponsor, and living each step to the best of our ability.

Keep in mind there are no right or wrong answers to be look up in the back of a textbook or teacher's guide. These are suggestions to help us understand how to work the Twleve Steps of Narcotics Anonymous.

I have also take this same format and substituted the words Cocaine Anonymous in place of Narcotics Anonymous. It is a good guideline to use, not matter what your drug of choice was (People, places and/or things).

Our ideas about the steps change as we work them. In living the steps, we seek progress, not perfection.

1) What is the dictionary definition of "powerless"?
2) How was myl ife powerless during active drug addiction?
3) How was I powerless over my drug use?
4) How did powerlessness extend into other areas like work, finances, relationships, family, etc.
5) What are three good examples of how my life was unmanageable?
6) How does powerlessness apply in those areas?
7) What are reservations and how are they dangerous to my recovery?
8) How is my life unmangeable in my recovery (physically, emotionally, and spiritually)?
9) What are the symptoms of my addiction?
10) What are the benefits of accepting my powerlessness over my addiction?
11) What are the benefits of surrendering the management of my life to Narcotics Anonymous?
12) Is willpower enough to stop using drugs? Explain.
13) How is surrender another word for victory in the NA program.
14) How do I try to control situations to prevent feeling powerless?
15) How is addiction a progressive and incurable disease?
16) How is being self-centered in conflict with spiritual growth?
17) How have denial, substitution, rationalization, justification, distrust of others, guilt, embarrassment, dereliction, isolation, and loss of control been a part of my life?
18) What does being responsible for my recovery mean?
19) Is drug use a symptom of my addiction? Are drugs the prime problem, or does the problem lie within me in the form of physical, mental and spiritual disease that makes me crave drugs? Explain.
20) What does the "we" mean? Define fellowship.
21) What does "I can't ever ge my life together" mean?

This was given to me prior to the new Twelve Step Working Book guide and I think there was just the one page. This isn't a very comprehensive and complete list by any means, but certainly a place to start. We do what we need to do for our own recovery. Everything is a suggestion, but much is a 'must' if you don't want to go back out and use. #1 being "Don't Pick Up!" What you have to do after that, is your decision.

This is a good guideline for finding the root of the problem whether your powerlessness is over people, places and things. Perhaps by checking this you can identify the part of your life that you need to surrender, and use the Steps to find a solution.