The material presented
here is not Al-Anon Conference Approved Literature. It is a method
to exchange
information, ideas, feelings, problems and solutions on a personal
level.
These were my personal Twelve Steps of Dysfunction. Maybe you can relate...
1. I admitted that I was powerless over EVERYTHING - in fact, people, places and things all had power over me. 2. Came to believe that a Power greater than myself didn't give a flip about me - I was completely alone and on my own. 3. Being completely alone, I had only myself for counsel and guidance, and so my will and my life were spent repeating the same thoughts and behaviors over and over again. 4. Took a judgmental and fearful inventory of myself and everyone else. 5. Covered everything up under a heavy blanket of denial; protected myself by isolating. 6. Became entirely fearful of giving up old ways of thinking and behaving. 7. Angrily asked God to change others and make my own miserable life bearable. 8. Made a list of all persons who had harmed me and resolved to resent them forever. 9. Injured myself and others by living in resntment and isolation. 10. Continued to keep doing what I had been doing and getting what I had been getting. 11. Sought through dysfunction and substance abuse to keep numbing and mood-altering myself. 12. Having finally become sick and tired of being sick and tired, I entered the doors of Al-Anon.
...and from that moment on, things have gotten better.
I think the only thing that would be different for me would be that first step. Mine would be maybe something more like:
1. Admitted I should have power over everything, but because those people, places and things seem to be disrespectful of my power, they're making my life a mess.
