Consider

Image via WikipediaConsider

One gets a good feel for what the Christian life is all about by reading the Epistle to the Philippians. Not that Paul set out to write a letter that would define the nature of the Christian life. In fact, Philippians is a rather chatty letter to Christian friends in the church there. Paul shares with them what has been happening in his life. He is under house arrest, chained 24 hours a day to a Roman soldier. He is awaiting Caesar's verdict (concerning his appeal made during the temple riot in Jerusalem). It does not look too good for Paul. There is a chance that the verdict will not be positive, and that he will be executed. he thanks the Philippians for their gift to him. He reports on the health of their fellow church member Epaphroditus. And so on. Paul shares all this news and more with his friends. he does have a few words to say to two of the women who hold leadership roles in the church - Euodia and Syntyche. They need to stop their feuding. But mostly, Paul reflects on what it has meant for him to be a follower of Jesus.

Perhaps this is why Paul's witness to the power of a Christian lifestyle is so moving: it is indirect. He is not arguing a case or making a point. His testimony emerges indirectly and therefore rings of authenticity. What we see in the Epistle to the Philippians is the shape and texture of the life of a mature Christian. it is, therefore, a model for us of what the Christian life is all about. What we see in Paul is the real thing. This is what it means to be a Christian.

It is to this sort of lifestyle that the Twelve Steps points us too. This has been quite clear in our examination of the Twelve Steps. An addiction-free lifestyle is a Christian lifestyle. The Twelve Steps get us started in the right direction. Now it is up to us to keep on in this way. The passage you should read and study at this point is Philippians 3:12-14; 4:4-9 identifies for us what it means to live like a Christian.

What is Paul's goal in life (3:12-14)? How would you describe what Paul wants to obtain?

Why do you suppose that Paul emphasizes "pressing on" and "straining toward" in 3:12-14?

In 4:4-9, what are the attitudes that enable people to cope successfully in difficult times? Which of these attitudes are of special significance to recovering addicts? Why?

"An addiction-free lifestyle is a Christian lifestyle." In what ways have you found this to be true?

Share one significant outcome for you as a result of studying these subjects.

We cannot ever say, "I am completely free of all addictive behavior." What we have begun in the Twelve Step program we must continue to follow. It really is "one day at a time." On the other hand, it is well within our reach to live whole, happy, productive lives beyond the grip of addiction. And we will do so if we trust God and live in his way, in the company of his people who are walking this pilgrim way. This being the case, it is important to think carefully about what we will do now, at this point in this discussion. What is the next step for you?

What makes life worth living?

What brings you joy at this moment in your life? Share how it does?

In what ways are you seeking to make these thoughts part of your life?

End by praying, asking God to help you take the next step required of you. Also pray for people you are trying to help.

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Objective

Image via WikipediaObjective
•To explore Steps Ten through Twelve in order to understand the role of reflection, prayer, and witnessing in living an addiction-free lifestyle.
•To reflect on how well we are doing in following the Twelve Steps.
•To discuss a passage from Philippians in which Paul models for us what the Christian life is all about.
Consider
Step Ten:
Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

Step Eleven:
Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood him, praying only for knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry that out.

Step Twelve:
Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and practice these principles in all our affairs.

Steps Ten through Twelve describe how to live a life that is free from addiction. If Steps One through Nine describe how we can free ourselves from the power of an addiction, then Steps Ten through Twelve tell us how to maintain an addiction-free lifestyle. The activities identified in these final three steps are not strange. They are familiar New Testament practices. Step Ten calls us to daily reflection and repentance. Step Eleven urges us to daily prayer and meditation. And Step Twelve calls us to share with others the story of our spiritual awakening, its impact on our addiction (witnessing), and to continue to live our lives on the basis of the Twelve Step principles.

Reflection
Step Ten describes the kind of ongoing vigilance we are called upon to display as Christians. It has been said that the unexamined life is not worth living (Socrates). And indeed, as followers of Jesus, we are called upon to pay attention to how we live. We know that our natural, unaided tendency is toward selfishness and self-destructive behavior. This is just what being a human being is all about. The aim of daily reflection is to prevent ourselves from being caught by these negative patterns.

At the heart of the reflection process is the inventory. Making an inventory is a familiar practice by now. We did this in Steps Four and Eight. There are various ways to undertake Step Ten inventories:

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Restitution/Reconciliation

Restitution/Reconciliation

Our part in the change process comes in Steps Eight and Nine, when we actually make amends for what we have done. These two steps are not easy. As Philip St. Romain said of Step Nine: "There is little disagreement among Twelve-Step program members that this is both the most difficult and the most cleansing Step of all." Our inclination is let the past stay in the past. And yet, without accepting responsibility for what we have done, it is difficult to move on to the future. In the past, we blamed others for our misfortune. In these steps, we accept responsibility for who we are and what we have done.

Our Step Four inventory gives us the basis for our Step Eight list. We review our inventory to identify those we have harmed. "There are countless ways we may have harmed others: lying, cheating, ingratitude, anger, criticism, rudeness, gossip, sexual infidelity, or selfishness." Some of the people we have harmed may feel bitter toward us and resist our attempts at restitution. This is, unfortunately, part of the pain we must bear.

We make amends in various ways. In some cases, we make amends by changing our behavior: we stop doing one thing and start doing another. In most cases, we need to make direct contact with those we have harmed and seek to repair the damage we have done. This may involve an apology, repayment of a debt, or an act of kindness toward the other person.

In certain situations, to seek to make amends will only make a bad situation worse. Rhilip St. Romain has good advice to offer:

Ask yourself two questions to help you determine whether apology or amends are in order: Will an apology help me to grow in relationship with this person? and Will my apology help the person and/or others in question more than it will hurt them? If you can answer an unequivocal "Yes" to both questions, then you need to begin planning your reconciliatory approach; if you answer "No" to both, then let the matter die. If you are not sure about either, then talk it out with someone until you are sure.... "While we may be quite willing to reveal the very worst, we must be sure to remember that we cannot buy our own peace of mind at the expense of others." This is excellent advice coming from AA.... There is a difference between prudent silence and evasion; in the former, the good of the other is at stake, in the latter, only selfishness.

In undertaking Step Nine:

•Approach the other person with a loving attitude.
•Be willing to accept the consequences of your actions.
•Think through beforehand what you want to say and do.
•Keep it simple and direct.
•Don't blame the other person.
•Don't go into this with any expectations about how the other person should respond to you.
•Remember that this is all about YOUR part in the situation, not the other person's We can surely find fault in others, but in Step Nine we deal with our issues, not theirs.
•To offer an apology is one thing, to change the offending behavior is even better.
•Pray that God will guide you.

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Come to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

Image via WikipediaCome to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

Objective:
•To explore the Second Step in order to understand who the Higher Power is, and what role faith plays in meeting him.
•To reflect on our views of God.
•To discuss the biblical view of faith.
Step Two:
Come to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

A Higher Power
In Step Two, we are introduced to the fact that the Twelve Step program is spiritual in nature. Step Two speaks of "a Power greater than ourselves." Step Three asks us to turn our lives over to "God as we understand him." Steps Five and Six direct us to admit our wrongs to God and ask him to deal with our character defects. It is clear that to recover from our addictive behavior, we need to be in touch with God.

Right from the beginning Alcoholics Anonymous (who created the Twelve Steps) stated the spiritual nature of this program. In the so-called Big Book of AA it says:

If a mere code of morals or a better philosophy of life were sufficient to overcome alcoholism, many of us would have recovered long ago. But we found that such codes and philosophies did not save us, no matter how much we tried. We could wish to be moral, we could wish to be philosophically comforted, in fact, we could will these things with all our might, but the needed power wasn't there. Our human resources, as marshaled by the will, were not sufficient; they failed utterly.

Lack of power, that was our dilemma, We had to find a power by which we could live, and it had to be a Power greater than ourselves.

Of course, the centrality of God to the Twelve Steps raises problems for some. They ask, "Does this mean that Twelve Step programs aren't open to those who are agnostics or atheists?" AA has been sensitive to this question. While steadfastly maintaining that to recover a person needs to find a spiritual basis for life, AA also states: "When ... we speak to you of God, we mean 'your own conception of God.'" This phrase has been interpreted in interesting ways:

•"Your 'Higher Power' can be whatever suits you - nature, science, the AA group - why I have one friend in AA whose first higher power was a Fifth Avenue bus that almost knocked him down. he stayed sober, and gradually his ideas began to change. By its general permissiveness concerning theology, AA is able to help countless alcoholics whose prejudices against overt religion would keep them from identifying with a more orthodox approach."
•"The Twelve Steps is a spiritual program, not a religious one. When we talk about spirituality, we are talking about the spirit of life. This spirit is made up of the force that makes life happen together with our belief in its power. For religious people, this life force may be God. For people who do not have traditional religious beliefs, it may not be."
•The Higher Power has been conceived of in a variety of ways: some consider the Twelve Step group as their Higher Power. Others consider a mountain or a river as their Higher Power. John Bradshaw tells of a man who made an oak tree his Higher Power. (He came to the meeting one day and reported that they had cut down his Higher Power!)
It is true that not everyone believes in God. And of those who believe in God, not everyone puts God at the center of his or her life. Still, it can be argued that all people follow some sot of "Higher Power" whether they know it or not. This "Higher Power" serves as their "god," in that it determines what they choose (i.e., how they spend their time, what they pursue in life, etc.) These "gods" have many names: money, power, love, a cult leader, truth, addictions. Some of these higher powers are positive in that they bring good and promote wholeness (e.g., serving the needs of the poor, the pursuit of truth, love of a person, commitment to planetary wholeness). Other higher powers are negative, in that they move people toward that which is evil and promotes destruction (e.g., alcohol, sex for it own sake, the love of power, the need to possess). However, all these lesser "gods" - be they good or bad - are defective in the end because people were meant to worship and serve the one true and living God. It is from this God who promotes our wholeness and the wholeness of the world.

Therefore, the nature of the Higher Power to whom you commit your life is an important issue. It stands to reason that to be in touch with the Living God (who created the universe and all that is in it) is substantially different than committing oneself to a figment of the imagination or to a pretend-power (like the Fifth Avenue bus). In fact, research has shown that there is a connection between length of sobriety and relative orthodoxy of theology. Those who believe in a God who is real, who cares for them, and who can be known, tend to remain free from their addiction.

Still the point remains: lots of people who are not even vaguely religious are helped by the Twelve Steps. How can this be? Doesn't it matter whether the "Power greater than ourselves" is real or not? Can this Higher Power be anything we choose to give that name?

The fact is that God helps all who call upon him, even when they do so in vague, non-specific, half-believed terms. Theologians speak of this as "common grace." This is the power and presence of God which floods the world. St. Matthew puts it this way: "He [God] causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous" (Mt 5:45).

But there is a world of difference between being the recipient of God's grace and building a life around a relationship to God. There is a world of difference between committing ourselves to a vague principle, an amorphous life force, or a spiritual philosophy and coming to know the Living God in a vital, relational way. This is the difference between believing something and knowing someone. Commitment to a moral principle - eve a true principle - can do no more than give us a pattern by which we shape our lives. We can have no relationship with a principle except to believe it. Furthermore, the principle itself has no inherent power. By itself it can't change us. We change ourselves in accord with how well we conform to the principle. But to be committed to a person is to enter into an unfolding, dynamic relationship that engages not only our mind (belief) but also our will, affections, and actions. Furthermore, if the one to whom we are committed is God, we touch his enormous power and are changed by it. It is not up to us alone; God empowers us.

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human condition.

human condition.

Addictions confront us head-on with the human condition.  Addicted people know what it means to will one thing and yet do another.  They know what it means to fail.  They know what it means to betray trust.  Their experience of addictive behavior helps them to understand what the Bible means when it says that we are a fallen people living on a fallen planet.  They know, in other words what the word "sin" means as a description of the human condition.

The Bible declares that all people are, by nature, sinful.  When we hear the word sin we tend to think of gross misdeeds committed by certifiable felons.  In fact, the word sin describes a far wider range of thoughts and behaviors than crimes against society.  Sin is the word that describes the fact that at times we all do what we know is wrong and that we often fail to do what we know to be right.  But sin is more than what what we do or think.  Sin is a state of being.  Sin grips and binds us; it makes us less than what we want to be (and are called to be by God).  In its essence, sin is rebellion against God.  The consequence of sin is that all people are alienated from God.  They are lost and alone in the universe and, without outside intervention, the path they walk leads to personal disintegration and destruction.  All this, the Bible says, is the result of sin.

This may sound very "theoretical," but when in the grip of addictive behavior, no one has to convince us that the biblical view of human personality is accurate.  We know what it means to be under the control of an alien power (as we wage war internally between not giving in and giving in - knowing that mostly we give in).  We experience the feeling of lostness (as our addictive behavior creates barriers between us and all we care about).  We experience our powerlessness to change and our need for help from a superior power.  Addictive behavior is a window for us to see the fact that our natures are flawed, fallen, and in need of reconstruction.

In fact, some authors feel that addiction is an appropriate term to use when defining the biblical concept of sin.  For example, Keith Miller states:

It is the thesis of this book that this blinding self-absorption called Sin - however well it may be disguised by our civilized exteriors - is the same elusive underlying dynamic as that in the life of the traditional chemical addict.  Sin is the driving dynamic that leads addicts to fasten upon an addictive chemical or behavior that promises to fulfill their self-centered and often grandoise dreams and to blot out the feelings that threaten to overwhelm them.  Sin is the universal addiction to self that develops when individuals put themselves in the center of their personal world in a way that leads to abuse of others and self.

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The Price of Addiction

Image via WikipediaThe Price of Addiction
Sondra is not going to be able to deal with her drinking problem until she admits that she has a drinking problem.  She may not be able to admit her problem until she sees how powerless she is over alcohol.  But admitting powerlessness is very hard.  Most of us are dragged kicking and screaming to this point.  In Alcoholics Anonymous, it used to be said that a person could not get well until he or she "hit bottom."   This meant that when your wife left you because of your drinking, when your boss fired you (because you had lost the ability to concentrate on your work), and when you woke up one day in a detox center (and couldn't remember how you got there), then you might finally admit you had a alcohol problem and needed help.  This is what Step One means when it says, "our lives had become unmanageable."

The hope is, of course, that a person's life does not need to get to this stage before he or she is willing to start dealing with the problem.  Our aim is to recognize the little signs, the things that are going wrong, the preoccupation with an activity, the need to cover up, and say before life gets out of hand, "I've got a problem."

What Step One is all about is "confession."  It is saying, "Yup, that's me.  I've got a problem and it's a big one."  And this is tough.  Who wants to admit to being a drug addict, a food junkie, a sexaholic, or an uncontrollable shopper? "Me?  No, I can't be like that..."  And yet there is no alternative.  If we can't take Step One, we can't get well.

But once taken, a person will have started on the path to recovery.  At AA meetings, when people get up to tell their stories, they begin by saying: "My name is ____.  I'm an alcoholic."  The Twelve Steps to wholeness begin when we can say: "My name is ____ and I am addicted to _____."

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The Power of Naming

The Power of Naming

What is your addiction of choice?  It is very important to identify what it is, because if you can't name your addiction, you can't get well.  This is foundational to the whole Twelve Step program.  This really is Step One.

But this sort of "naming" is very hard.  Who wants to admit to being controlled by food, sex, cocaine, or even jogging?  We feel that to admit we've got a problem is to admit failure.  We feel that it means losing face; it means giving up our illusions of control.  It means opening up the floodgates of bad feelings (like shame, humiliation, worthlessness, etc.).

So we deny that we have a problem.  Denial is the refusal to admit we are in trouble.  Denial is a form of delusion, since one is literally out of touch with reality.  Denial is saying everything is okay when clearly it is not.  Denial is blocking out the negative consequences resulting from the addiction: relationships in disarray, career in trouble, financial stress, health problems.  Denial prevents the addicted person from getting help.

Denial, as it turns out, is one of the characteristics of true addiction.  This is why it is so hard to shake loose from addictive behavior.  Inherent in the problem itself is the inability to accept that there is a problem!  Furthermore, addicted persons really believe they are telling the truth when they deny that they have a problem.

How does a person identify whether an activity (or substance) has become addictive?  Where does one get accurate insight into one's situation?

Experience: our life is such a mess we no longer can deny our problem.
Intuition: in our quiet, reflective moments, we sense that life is getting out of control.  As Ray Hoskins states: "The fact that you have ever felt a need to control a behavior in and of itself is the best indicator that you have an addiction going or developing."
Friends and Family: they stop making excuses for us; instead, they intervene in our destructive behavior and drag us to a Twelve Step meeting.
Small Groups: our caring friends gently confront us with what we can't see about ourselves.
Personal Stories: we hear recovering addicts tell their stories and discover that they are talking about us.
Therapy: we go because of one problem and discover that addiction is our root problem.
Scripture: it acts like a blazing light to us, revealing our true condition.
Grace: we are suddenly confronted with an overwhelming sense of who we are and what we have become, so we cry out for help.

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A Supermarket of Addictions

Image via WikipediaA Supermarket of Addictions

Objective:
To explore the First Step in order to understand why we need to name our addiction in order to begin the process of recovery.
To consider how denial operates.
To discuss the biblical view of human personality.
A Supermarket of Addictions
It was alcohol that proved the undoing of Bill W. and Dr. Bob.  It is out of their struggle with drinking that they developed the Twelve Steps.  Thus it is that in Step One, the whole process of recovery begins with the admission that one is "powerless over alcohol."  You can't get well if you don't know your disease.

But it is not only alcohol to which people can be addicted.  Consider the following::

The large sales of the book Women Who Love Too Much indicate thataddiction to relationships is widespread.  In her book, Robin Norwood describes women who are involved - over and over again - with men who are either afraid of intimacy, are addicted themselves, or are already married (or otherwise unavailable).
There are 12 million compulsive gamblers in America.  Some 50 million people (spouses, children) are affected by this compulsive gambling.  The suicide rate for compulsive gamblers is twenty times higher than the national average, and they have 38 percent more stress-related cardiovascular problems.
Americans consume over 60 percent of the world's illicit drugs.  Six million people use cocaine regularly.  Some $150 billion is spent each year on cocaine.  6,000 people die each year from illegal drugs.  Five to ten million people abuse prescription medications such as sleeping pills, pep pills, and tranquilizers.
Compulsive shopping is a growing problem.  In a recent poll, high school girls ranked shopping as their favorite past time (dating was ranked number six).  Our consumer debt has doubled.  Lest than half of what is bought is used to replace worn-out items.
An estimated ten to eleven million Americans are said to be addicted to religion.  "Unlike others with spiritual or religious interests religion junkies use their church or cult activities not so much for spiritual growth and devotion but as a way to compulsively structure and control their lives - often because they feel out of control if they don't"
Addictive behavior is not just a private misery.  It is estimated that every addict directly affects at least ten other people.

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Image via Wikipedia Introduction

Read Ephesians 2:1-10 where the goal of the Twelve Step program is well expressed.  This is where Paul describes how reconciliation takes place between God and people.  At the root of our addictive behavior is the fact that we have allowed other "gods" to assume primacy in our lives.  Dr. Gerald May, the noted psychiatrist, puts it this way:

Addiction is a deep-seated form of idolatry.  The objects of our addictions become our false gods.  These are what we worship, instead of love Addiction, then, displaces and supplants God's love as the source and object of our deepest true desire.

A "god" is that which guides and determines our behavior.  So alcohol, or materialism, or people-pleasing (or any other addictive behavior) can function as our "god."  In order to be free from the power of these lesser, destructive gods, we need to be reconciled to the one true God (as Step Three shows us).  In the passage we are studying, Paul describes how we are freed from the power of these principalities and make alive again by the free and wonderful gift of God.  This is exactly what we want to happen to us in regard to our addictive behavior.

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Understanding the Twelve Steps

Image via WikipediaUnderstanding the Twelve Steps

There is a progression to the Twelve Steps.  Each must be acted upon in turn.  Each builds on the previous step or steps.  Yet no step is ever fully mastered.  The aim is to continue deepening one's understanding of each step and how it applies to one's life.  No one ever "finishes" the Twelve Steps; however, the aim is to make these a reflexive part of one's life.  There is no hurry to "get through" these steps; the focus is on one day at a time.  Speed, competitiveness, or perfection are not the aim; personal and spiritual wholeness is.  This comes in different ways for different people at different paces.

The Twelve Step program is not magic.  It is not automatic.  It does not come with a 100% guarantee.  It is not always easy to follow.  It is not fun to undertake.  It requires ongoing effort, utter honesty, and continual vigilance.    But it does bring recovery; that is, one develops a pattern of living that makes it possible, with continued effort, to remain free of the addictive behavior.  The testimony of hundreds of thousands of "recovering addicts" indicates that this is so.  And so it should be, because at the heart of the Twelve Step program are sound spiritual principles that describe how transformation takes place:

Will power is not enough.  We need an outside power (God) to enable us to do what we have been unable to do ourselves.
We won't open ourselves to that power until we run out of excuses, rationalizations, and "give-me-one-more-chance's."  In AA, they used to call this "hitting the bottom."
Recovery requires utter honesty: with ourselves, with others, and with God.
We are never fully free of the addiction.  We will always be "recovering addicts," not "recovered addicts" - just as we are never free of "sin," but are always "recovering sinners."  Thus we must continue to live out the principles that freed us from the addiction in the first place.
To be healthy, we have to get outside ourselves and help others who are struggling.

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Origin of the Twelve Steps

Origin of the Twelve Steps

The Twelve Step movement can be traced back to Alcoholics Anonymous.  It all began with a stockbroker and a doctor - both "drunks" by their own admission, but alcoholics who had stopped drinking and who were "in recovery."  (Of course, they didn't talk that way in the early days.  The jargon of addition recovery would come many years later.)  All they knew was that once they had been victims of alcohol (slaves really), but now they were free (though each new day was a challenge).  What Bill W. and Dr. Bob tried to do was to start groups that would help others to stop drinking.  Eventually Bill Wilson put down in writing how they (and others they knew) were able to overcome alcoholism, and thus the Twelve Steps came into being.

The rehabilitation process in AA is based on the Twelve Steps.  It is this same Twelve Step program that is also being used today in groups such as Overeaters Anonymous, Co-Dependents Anonymous, Sexaholics Anonymous, Debtors Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous (as well as in less organized programs of recovery dealing with scores of addictive issues).

Most of these programs are self-consciously secular in their orientation (since they want to remain open to all people regardless of religion).  Nevertheless - and this is the thesis of this study subject - at its heart the Twelve Step program is profoundly spiritual.  It is based directly on the teaching of the New Testament.  Each of the Twelve Steps has its origin in a basic biblical concept.  In this study subject, the aim is to get behind some of the secular language of the Twelve Steps to these foundational biblical principles.  These are not new or mysterious ideas.  In fact, what the Twelve Steps do is define the essence of the Christian life: how to begin it and how to live it.  When we know this, the Twelve Steps no longer seem strange and unfamiliar.

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But, we are beginning, as a nation, to do something about our addictions:

Image via WikipediaBut, we are beginning, as a nation, to do something about our addictions:

Between 14 and 16 million Americans attend one of 500,000 different self-help groups that meet weekly around the country.  The number of groups is expected to double in the years to come.  It is estimated that over 60 million Americans will be in self-help groups.
Self-help groups exist for a mind-boggling array of issues; compulsive shopping, obesity (National Association to Aid Fat Americans), grief and loss, gambling (Gamblers Anonymous), adult children of alcoholics, parents of teens in trouble (Tough love), co-survivors of incest, cocaine addicts, chronic pain.  There are even esoteric groups for women whose daughters won't talk to them, and for people addicted to caffeinated soft drinks.
Many self-help groups are loosely structured: people meet together to share their stories.  There is no leader, no agenda, and no therapist.  Yet these groups help people greatly, as the enthusiastic testimony of members indicate.  Just being with others who understand what you are going through is help enough.
The most common meeting place for these groups is in churches.  However, they generally do not meet on Sundays, nor are they run by the church.  In fact, they often avoid any connection with a particular church, because they want to be open to people of all religions.  Therefore, the majority of these groups are secular in orientation.
A number of these groups are based on the Twelve Step program.  These are the "anonymous" groups, such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Overeaters Anonymous.  These are the most structured of the self-help groups, in that they have a format for the meetings and are often linked to a national organization.

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Purpose:

Image via WikipediaPurpose:
To understand the origins and nature of the Twelve Step program and how it can be adapted by the Christian faith.
To examine a passage from Ephesians that describes well the goal of the Twelve Steps.
Introduction:
We are a nation of addicts and we are just waking up to the fact.  Consider the following statistics:

There are 10 million alcoholics and 50 million nicotine addicts.  Together these two drugs kill some 450,000 people a year.
There are 40 to 80 million compulsive overeaters in the United States.  The weight-loss industry is a $20 billion a year business.
There are 12 million compulsive gamblers.
There are some 11 million workaholics
Untold millions of addicted users of credit cards.
Uncounted numbers of people are addicted to television, to exercise, to shopping, and to sports.
Addictions.  They come in many shapes and forms.  Some have at their heart a substance that enslaves us.  Others focus on a behavior over which we seem powerless.  All are characterized by compulsion.  Addicts cant stop thinking about it or doing it despite the fact that it is hurting them.  Oh, they may not indulge every day; they may go through periods of control.  But in the end they come back to it:

Her boss yells at her and she goes home, where she eats a gallon of ice cream and a box of Oreo cookies - thus her latest diet comes to a crashing end.
He just happens to run into the "boys" and before he knows it he's using the drug again.
It's okay as long as he is not depressed, but when he is, he starts to prowl.  Prostitutes are easy to find.
She stopped drinking, but she has become obsessed about her weight.  She starves herself; she exercises endlessly.
Addictions get inside us and turn us into people we don't want to be.  At their heart, addictions are any self-defeating behavior which we cannot stop despite their negative effect on us.  And the problem with addictions is that we deny we have them.