Who

Who Needs the Anti-12 Steps?

Anyone who wants to understand how the traditional 12 Steps work, or who needs help understanding the thinking patterns behind an addict's actions, needs the Anti-12 Steps.

Addicts are not foolish or stupid people. They practice a very scientific principal of: "use what works." For someone struggling with an addiction, there is no confusion in the short term process. Taking a drug or engaging in a behavior makes you feel better. Period. Addicts may have tried other methods for dealing with the world, methods such as religion, treatment, asking friends for help, or simply the standard recommendation of "buck up, work harder, just don't do it." All these methods can and do fail. They simply don't provide an instant and measurable payoff for the effort. Addicts tend to get tired of doing things that don't seem to pay off so they turn to what does pay off, and the less waiting the better. The addict’s logic is a simple "why wait?" Since you may never get the payoff you worked for, you should give up and try something that will work - and this makes sense even to sober people.

The core problem is that most addicts can't see the long term costs of the instant payoff, and they simply get more and more shortsighted. Addiction is about a desire for things more and more immediate, since tomorrow may never even get here. So the addict does the "logical" thing and focuses on the needs of the moment. And that means feeling good right now even if it costs a lot later.

The Anti-12 Steps helps addicts start to see farther using a very simple cliché: Hindsight is 20/20. By teaching someone how to look back over a long period, it's easier to get them to learn to start looking forward beyond immediate gratification. By understanding where you have been, how you got there, and where you are, you can figure out where you are going.

Recovering Addicts

Many people trying to work the 12 Steps are cooperative with the process until they reach step 4. The concept of dragging up the past you had hoped to forget, and trying to list "everything" can be a bit scary and overwhelming. The Anti-12 Steps makes this process easier by creating an "outline" for the step. Those starting Step 4 have one main question: "where do I start?" By going through the Anti-12 Steps, the person can just fill out how they did in each Anti-step all the way up to their recovery. By using the Anti-12 Steps the individual can focus on working the step instead of on how to work the step.

The Anti-12 Steps can support someone trying to understand how the traditional steps apply to them, and how to find the matching components between their addiction behaviors and the behaviors necessary to stay sober.