The Tenth Step of Twelve for Addiction Management
The tenth of The Twelve Steps is “[We] continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.” This may sound familiar if you’ve been following along, and there’s good reason for that. Serenity, A Companion for Twelve Step Recovery explains that Steps 10 through 12 are sometimes called the maintenance steps because they repeat many of the points outlined in previous steps, but they emphasize the value of continuing to “work the steps” on a day-to-day basis.
The Narcotics Anonymous Basic Text says, “We work this step continuously…the more we do it, the less we will need the corrective part of this step.” They explain that it’s really a great tool that offers a way to avoid grief before we bring it on ourselves. “We monitor our feelings, our emotions, our fantasies, and our actions. By constantly looking at these things we may be able to avoid repeating the actions that make us feel bad.”
Keith Miller, in his book A Hunger for Healing, describes Step Ten as “a spiritual pocket computer to help us keep tabs on our behavior today and a cleanser to help keep our spiritual lenses clean.” He offers some questions for self-study, such as “Which of my character defects popped up as uninvited guests today? Am I using the tools of the program? Am I praying? Am I thanking God for all the good things he has done for me this day, and for any positive things he’s freed me to do?”
He goes on to explain the need for maintenance steps, from years of experience. “When we begin to feel a little secure and happy and our relationships are more comfortable, many of us ‘forget’ to have our quiet time. We forget to go to meetings and don’t call our sponsor. We’re busy again, because the pain that drove us into the program has been alleviated. This is a dangerous place to be, because it is one of the major delusions of the spiritual life that we can ‘do it ourselves’ without daily contact with God and a daily look at the reality of what is going on in our own lives.”
12Step.org tells us that Step Ten is a pledge to continually monitor our lives with honesty and humility. And that it requires that we deal with our defects promptly when they arise and not to let them linger in our lives.
The Twelve Step Program plays a large part in the recovery process at Transitions Recovery.
