The Recovery Files · Workbooks
Al-Anon Step Work
The Twelve Steps for families and loved ones
Addiction is a family disease. The person using and the people who love them go through parallel versions of the same struggle: trying to control what can't be controlled, and slowly losing themselves along the way. These seven workbooks take the Twelve Steps through that lens. Each step is looked at from both sides, the loved one's and the person in recovery's, so families and couples can see the same work from where they each stand.
Each workbook mixes short readings with check-ins and written exercises, and each ends with a written commitment or action plan. Work through them in order, at your own pace, ideally alongside a meeting, sponsor, or counselor. They are free to download and print.
These are The Recovery Files' own workbooks. They are not produced or endorsed by Al-Anon Family Groups.
These workbooks support professional treatment and are not a substitute for it. In a crisis, call or text 988, or call SAMHSA at 1-800-662-4357.
Letting go
Steps 1–3. Admitting what you can't control, opening up to help, and deciding to stop carrying it alone.
Al-Anon 1 · Step One: We Admitted We Were Powerless
A dual-lens recovery intensive · 43 pages
For anyone who has tried everything to make someone stop using: pleading, checking, covering, rescuing. This workbook looks honestly at what all that effort has cost you, and at why admitting powerlessness is where real change starts, not where it ends.
Inside: what each word of the step asks of you · a powerlessness inventory · your history with addiction · Step One from both sides · the illusion of control and a control behaviors audit · "what I've tried and why it hasn't worked" · mapping unmanageability across your life and relationships · surrender as strength · your Step One statement and action plan.
Al-Anon 2 · Step Two: Came to Believe
A dual-lens recovery intensive · 34 pages
Living with someone's addiction can bring its own kind of insanity: doing the same things over and over and expecting a different result. This workbook helps you name those patterns and build your own idea of a power greater than yourself, with or without religion.
Inside: your spiritual history · an insanity inventory · barriers to belief · defining your own higher power · Step Two from both sides · building a spiritual practice · your picture of restored sanity · evidence of hope · your Step Two statement and action plan.
Al-Anon 3 · Step Three: Made a Decision
A dual-lens recovery intensive · 34 pages
Letting go doesn't mean giving up on someone or stopping caring. This workbook explains what turning it over really means, where self-will takes over, and how to make the decision again each day.
Inside: what you need to turn over · what it means to be cared for · a self-will inventory · what letting go is and isn't · your history with trust · Step Three from both sides · mapping the Serenity Prayer onto your own life · designing a daily practice · your Step Three statement and action plan.
Taking stock
Steps 4–7. An honest look at yourself, saying it out loud, and becoming ready to change.
Al-Anon 4 · Steps Four & Five: The Inventory and the Admission
41 pages
An inventory that looks at two things: what the disease left behind, and the patterns you built while trying to cope with it. Then it prepares you to say it out loud to another person, which is where the weight starts to lift.
Inside: resentment and fear inventories · harms done · a codependency pattern inventory · harms done to yourself · preparing for Step Five · shame vs. guilt · an assets inventory (what is right in you) · a 7-day daily inventory · your Steps Four and Five commitment.
Al-Anon 5 · Steps Six & Seven: Readiness, Humility, and the Asking
42 pages
Character defects are often survival patterns that have outlived their use. This workbook separates the defects the disease built from the patterns love built wrong, like over-functioning, rescuing, and controlling, and treats asking for help as an act of courage.
Inside: the readiness spectrum · where your patterns came from and what sets them off · what you're still holding onto, and why · defects through the addiction lens and the codependency lens · your own Step Seven prayer · turning defects into virtues · a 7-day practice · your Steps Six and Seven commitment.
Repair and a new way of living
Steps 8–12. Making amends, keeping the work current, and carrying it into the rest of your life.
Al-Anon 6 · Steps Eight & Nine: The List, the Willingness, and the Amend
46 pages
Amends aren't only owed by the person who used. Control and enabling can do harm too. This workbook helps you build your list, find the willingness to act, prepare the words, and recognize when a changed life is the best amend you can make.
Inside: preparing the words for each amend · your Step Eight list and how to sort it · a willingness inventory · fears, obstacles, and amends that can't be made · the amends addiction owes · the amends control and enabling owe · the amend to yourself · your living amend · your Steps Eight and Nine commitment.
Al-Anon 7 · Steps Ten, Eleven & Twelve: Recovery Becomes a Life
47 pages
The maintenance steps, where recovery stops being a project and becomes a way of living. A daily inventory, a practice of prayer and meditation, and service that helps others without going back to carrying them.
Inside: a 30-day maintenance plan · your daily inventory format · spot-check inventories · recurring pattern mapping · your prayer and meditation practice · evidence of spiritual awakening · service without caretaking · principles in all your affairs · what maintenance looks like from both sides · the Twelve Steps as a whole.
New to this? Start with Al-Anon 1. The workbooks build on each other.
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