12 Steps for TV Addicts

This is adapted from the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, which you can read in Chapter 5 of Alcoholics Anonymous. The text before and after the steps themselves is also from Alcoholics Anonymous; in many groups, it is read along with the steps. My only adaptations were changing references to alcohol to "compulsive TV viewing," and changing the masculine references to God ("Him") to "God." These are the same adaptations that other 12-Step groups have made to create a version of the Steps for themselves.

Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. Those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program, usually men and women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves. There are such unfortunates. They are not at fault; they seem to have been born that way. They are naturally incapable of grasping and developing a manner of living which demands rigorous honesty. Their chances are less than average. There are those, too, who suffer from grave emotional and mental disorders, but many of them do recover if they have the capacity to be honest.

Our stories disclose in a general way what we used to be like, what happened, and what we are like now. If you have decided you want what we have and are willing to go to any length to get it -- then you are ready to take certain steps.

At some of these we balked. We thought we could find an easier, softer way. But we could not. With all the earnestness at our command, we beg of you to be fearless and thorough from the very start. Some of us have tried to hold on to our old ideas and the result was nil until we let go absolutely.

Remember that we deal with compulsive TV viewing -- cunning, baffling, powerful! Without help it is too much for us. But there is One who has all power -- that One is God. May you find God now!

Half measures availed us nothing. We stood at the turning point. We asked God's protection and care with complete abandon.

Here are the steps we took, which are suggested as a program of recovery:

1. We admitted we were powerless over compulsive TV viewing -- that our lives had become unmanageable.
   
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
   
3. Made a conscious to decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God.
   
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 all these defects of character.
   
7. Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings.
   
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
   
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever 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 through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood God, praying only for knowledge of God's will for us and the power to carry that out.
    
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to TV addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
    

Many of us exclaimed, "What an order! I can't go through with it." Do not be discouraged. No one among us has been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence to these principles. We are not saints. The point is, that we are willing to grow along spiritual lines. The principles we have set down are guides to progress. We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection.

Our description of the alcoholic, the chapter to the agnostic, and our personal adventures before and after make clear three pertinent ideas:

1. That we were compulsive TV viewers and could not manage our own lives.
   
2. That probably no human power could have relieved our compulsive TV viewing.
   
3. That God could and would if God were sought.
   

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I'm going to start working these steps, with one condition on myself. My primary addiction (which I haven't said anything about yet; I will in the future) comes first. And I will not work any step for my TV addiction until I've worked it first for my primary addiction, unless my sponsor tells me to.

Don't hold your breath. Working the steps is a slow, hard, and often painful process. I've seen few addicts complete them in less than two years; most take far longer. (A standing joke in 12-Step groups is the newcomer who arrives expecting to finish his recovery in 12 weeks. He'll do one step a week, and be done.)