Twelve Steps to Recovery - The Seventh Step

This article summarizes the Eighth Step of the Twelve Steps to Recovery. Refer to the WUMC website for a summary of steps one through seven. The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous lists the eighth step from the original Twelve Steps as, “Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.”

The eighth step of the AA method of recovery is about amends. First we have to make a list of all the persons we harmed and then we have to become willing to make amends to them all. This can be a humbling experience but it is necessary in order to get rid of the guilt over what has been done in the past and move forward. And, Step 8 is not about the action of actually approaching the individual or individuals we harmed but it is about acknowledging our responsibility in our behavior. Step 8 does not only focus on material wrongs but also includes moral wrongs or ethical actions and conduct. It also includes spiritual wrongs and "Acts of omission" by neglecting our obligations to God, to ourselves, to family, and to community because sometimes we did the most harm by what we did not do.

The objective of Step 8 is to clean up all the battered relationships in our lives and to find the reasons for our guilt, pain, fear, and resentment. Typically we tend to place blame on the other persons in our relationships. In this step we must acknowledge that even though they had a part, we are looking at our part and not expecting the other person to apologize or even accept our apology. We complete Step 8 because we need to accept and make amends for our own actions.

So in the eighth step we set about honestly listing these things and working up a plan of action for compensating for our past behaviors. If we stole things, it might not be possible to repay the debt to that person. They might have died and there is no longer any way to directly repay them. It might be necessary to make a plan to donate money to a charity or to the needy. All this is done with the help and support of a sponsor.

This summary was written by the Faith Partners group of WUMC. It is part of a continuing series of articles on each of the twelve steps. If you want to learn more about addictions, the church library has copies of a book and a CD titled Addiction by Dr. Kevin McCauley and Dr. Cory Reich.