Many of our members have gotten sober lots of times. Our challenge was staying sober. We were able to stop using for days, months or even years, but we could not find a permanent solution. Eventually, we wound up in rooms like these. If you are a heroin addict desperately searching for a way out, we found one that’s working for us.
We all had our own ideas on how to stop using. These methods didn’t work for long. If these approaches were successful, we would have quit a long time ago. Holding on to these beliefs was futile and until we were able to let go altogether, we could never be free.
We discovered a better way to live. We saw others who no longer struggled with heroin addiction and even seemed happy! They encouraged us to go through the Twelve Steps like they had. By applying these principles in our daily lives, we found a new freedom, a new happiness and a new way of living.
We have found that successful recovery is dependent upon completion of all Twelve Steps. If you want a way out and are willing to work for it, then you are ready to begin.
TWELVE STEPS OF HEROIN ANONYMOUS
- We admitted we were powerless over heroin – that our lives had become unmanageable.
- Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
- Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
- Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
- Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
- Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
- Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
- Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
- Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
- Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
- 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.
- Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to heroin addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
When we sincerely applied the 12 steps to our lives, we found long-term success in sobriety. We are not asked to do this perfectly; we strive for progress, not perfection. We have found a way out of our suffering and simply wish to share what worked for us. In our fellowship you will see heroin addicts helping each other, freely passing on their experience to those who are desperately searching for an answer to their own heroin addiction.