The Alcoholics Anonymous' process, format and content appear and re-appear in a number of other self help groups meetings. The worst of these groups attempt to disguise the AA plagiarism and lose the magic in the process. Those who have found the steps helpful, only change one word of the Steps from alcohol to whatever the problem may be. This fact speaks to the enormous power of the Steps to enhance and modify personality as well as dealing with specific addiction.

1. We admitted that we were powerless over chronic pain…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 understand 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 these defects of character.

7. Humbly asked him to remove all these defects of character.

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed and made amends to them all.

9. Made direct amends to such people whenever 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 throuh prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with the God of our understanding, praying only for knowledge of God's will for us and the power to carry that out.

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to others with chronic pain, and to practice these principals in all our affairs.