Over the course of our documentary production, we’ve learned a good deal about how people change…in some cases related to addiction to something like food, or another substance.

So…as part of our research for the film, I’ve attended multiple 12-step based meetings, for Overeating, Alcohol, and Narcotics.  Being one who often tries to find out “why” for just about anything, I decided to try and figure out how these 12-steps relate to what we’ve learned about change in other areas…

The 12-steps originated as the foundation of Alcoholics Anonymous, and since has been successfully applied to many other addictive behaviors, such as overeating.  Here they are (as taken from Wikipedia)

These are the original Twelve Steps as defined by Alcoholics Anonymous:^[2]

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
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 Him 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 Him, praying only for knowledge of His 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 alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Other twelve-step groups have modified the twelve steps slightly from those of Alcoholics Anonymous to refer to problems other than alcoholism.

So as part of our film, we will likely delve into these steps to a certain degree (not to bore you too much), and try to explain “why” they work.  Now I know some will suggest that these should not have to be over analyzed, but as we search for answers, I feel it can be helpful to put these steps in context of other things we have learned.

To summarize what I have come to understand the 12 steps to be…

1) Ultimately, the process of change must begin with the acknowledgement that there is something that needs to be changed.  This maps very well to Dr. James Prochaska’s Stages of Change Model, which says the first stage of change is Precontemplation…which can be simplified as being “denial” that a problem exists.  While I may not fully agree with the first step, that states “we are powerless” - I believe this first step is the acknowledgement that there is something that we need to change about our behavior…which as Dr. Prochaska might suggest, is critical in moving on to the next stage of change…Precontemplation, where we begin to acknowledge the problem.  Some people say that people find themselves at 12-step programs after they “hit rock bottom” — which means something really bad may have happened, to get an individual to realize or face the problem.

2) There are a good number of steps that refer to a “Power” or “God” — which is often referred to as a “Higher Power”.  Many people who are not religious have a great deal of difficulty incorporating or interpreting these steps as part of their recovery.  At first, I also had some difficulty with the notion of a Higher Power too (since I am not all that religious if that makes sense at all to say).  If one is not religious, it is a very abstract idea.  Ultimately, I believe the steps that refer to this, refer to faith.  Not so much faith in God, but faith that while uncomfortable, the process of change often requires our own ability to believe that something will “work out” in the end…even if it doesn’t seem like it will.  This allows us to question the process less, and give in to the work that lies ahead…with the notion that there is a greater power and knowledge that we do not yet have, and that by doing the right things…abstaining from substance abuse…be it food, or alcohol…that in the end we are making the right decisions…and that it will all pay off in the end.  Additionally, the whole process of change comes from making the right decisions…more consistently — while not as abstract as some might think…the notion of a Higher Power that guides us to make the right decisions will work, if we believe it will…much like the notion of hypnosis.  If we believe there is a higher power that guides us down the right path, it allows us to make the right decisions more often. 

So of all the things that ultimately affect our decisions…and we make many of them each day…if we believe in the notion of a Higher Power, it makes us that much more likely to choose the right things in life.

3) Lastly…a lot of the other steps focus on our awareness of how our actions affect the rest of the world.  Change, from what we have learned in the process of creating INSPIRED…is mostly about our own ability to be honest with ourselves…and to be more aware of each decision we make each day.  In some religions, this might be referred to a “higher state of consciousness” — and it really is…when we can become more in tune with our every action, each of our decisions and actions become much more purposefull…less mindless.  Often times, when we do not eat well, or we do not exercise, we smoke, drink or use drugs, we tend to block out our negative behaviors…rationalize them away.  This behavior is part of our human nature…but it also hinders our ability to change.

We can rationalize why we need to have a bowl of ice cream because it’s been a rough day…or we can be more in tune with how that affects our forward progress if we are trying to lose weight.  (No, I’m not saying that the problem is ice cream…it’s just a tough balance to determine what we really need to keep our minds on a positive note, and to realize when we are rationalizing our negative behaviors…believe me…I do it all the time

Anyhow…that is an attempt to make sense of it all…read the steps yourself and let me know what you think!  While many of us may not believe we have such a behavioral problem that we need to attend a 12-step program for our overeating…I firmly believe we can gain insight into our own lives through many different things.