When I attended my first A.A. meeting — Perry Street in Greenwich Village, January 1968 — I was in severe withdrawal. Barely able to focus my eyes, I saw the 12 Steps for the first time. It was obvious that, whatever they meant, they were badly written. I made a pledge then: If I lived I would help A.A. re-write the Steps, to put them into good English.
    In the years since that first meeting a lot of water has gone under the bridge, and I have heard the A.A. Steps discussed many thousands of times. From my present perspective I regard the Steps as a mixed bag, containing harmful as well as helpful principles. Aside from the muddled prose style, the A.A. Steps are harmful for two main reasons: One, the aggressive religiosity drives away non-believers, as well as many religious people. Two, the false underlying premise of the Steps is that alcoholics drink because they are bad people, and that alcoholism is merely a symptom of underlying “character defects”. It should be noted that Bill W. plagiarized the Steps from the Oxford Group, whose “principles” were intended to deal with sin, not with a chemical addiction. [Note 1] In addition, the A.A. Steps fail to mention abstinence or the 24-Hour Plan (or Program). Nor do the A.A. Steps address mind-altering drugs other than alcohol — which is significant because Bill W. did use such mind-altering drugs as LSD and belladonna, and persuaded others to use them. [Note 2] Bill W. always hoped that a pharmaceutical “cure” for alcoholism would be developed, which would permit him to drink safely. It is likely that he relapsed during the final years of his life. (See Afterword to this article.)
    At any rate, I have now fulfilled the pledge I made those many years ago. Below are my Freethinker's Steps For Recovery From Alcoholism. They are intended especially for non-believers (atheists, agnostics, rationalists, freethinkers, secular humanists, infidels, etc.), though I hope they could be useful for all recovering alcoholics. I do welcome comments. (To view the Freethinker's Steps as a PDF file click here.)
   

1. We admitted that we were alcoholics — that we suffered from an addiction which is invariably fatal unless arrested.

2. We hoped for recovery from our addiction.

3. We committed ourselves to lifelong abstinence, staying away from the first drink, a day at a time.

4. We joined a fellowship of recovering alcoholics.

5. We honestly evaluated our lives, acknowledging both our strengths and our weaknesses.

6. We did our best to build on our strengths and to overcome our weaknesses.

7. We got our lives in order — dealt with the wreckage of the past — made amends whenever feasible.

8. We strived to be in good health: We stopped smoking, exercised, got enough rest, and ate nutritious food.

9. We determined to live in the real world, here and now, whether pleasant or painful. We favored reason and evidence over superstition and dogma.

10. We abstained from mind-altering drugs, including those prescribed by physicians.

11. We continued to share our experience, strength and hope with other recovering alcoholics.

12. We carried the message of sobriety to alcoholics who were still drinking.

    — John L. (sober since February 1968)
  
    Comments

Notes
1. Dr. John Milam argues that alcoholism is a physical addiction, not the symptom of a psychological problem (or “character defects”). Charles Bufe and James Christopher provide excellent, and not entirely negative, critiques of the A.A. steps. See Bibliography.  

2. In Under the Influence Milam writes that the physician should “warn the alcoholic about the risks of taking drugs of any kind — particularly sedatives, tranquilizers, and antidepressants, which are addictive and interfere with alcoholism recovery.”


This is a chapter in my new book, A Freethinker in Alcoholics Anonymous.