The 12 Steps for Female First Responders
She serves, She Deserves, She Recovers
Step 1: Admission of Powerlessness and Breaking the Superwoman Myth
We admitted we were powerless over our substance use and mental health struggles—that despite our training to handle any emergency and the additional pressure to prove ourselves as women in this field, our lives had become unmanageable.
•We acknowledged that the same courage that drives us to run toward danger, combined with our determination to show we belong, cannot alone overcome addiction and mental health challenges.
•We recognized that our ability to save others does not mean we can save ourselves from these diseases, and that the "superwoman" expectations we carry do not make us immune to human struggles.
Step 2: Belief in Restoration Beyond Gender Expectations
Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves—whether spiritual, the sisterhood of women in service, our professional brotherhood/sisterhood, or the collective strength of recovery—could restore us to sanity.
•We recognized that just as we rely on backup and mutual aid in the field, we need support beyond ourselves to heal, and that seeking help does not confirm stereotypes about women's weakness but demonstrates the wisdom to use all available resources.
Step 3: Decision to Surrender the Need to Prove Ourselves
Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of this Higher Power as we understood it. We chose to stand down from trying to command and control our recovery alone while simultaneously proving our worthiness as female first responders.
•We released the exhausting burden of representing all women in our profession and trusted in a healing process greater than our individual tactical decisions or our need to exceed expectations.
Step 4: Fearless Inventory of Professional and Personal Pressures
Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves, examining our actions both on and off duty, including the unique pressures we face as women in first responder roles.
•We looked honestly at how our substance use and mental health struggles affected our service, our integrity, our relationships with partners and family, and our ability to uphold the oath we swore to protect and serve.
•We examined how gender-based workplace pressures, the burden of representation, and the exhaustion of constant vigilance may have contributed to our struggles without using these factors as excuses for our choices.
Step 5: Admission of Wrongs and Breaking Gender-Based Isolation
Admitted to our Higher Power, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
•We broke both the code of silence that often surrounds our profession and the additional isolation that can affect women in male-dominated fields.
•We shared our struggles honestly with someone who could understand the intersection of gender and professional pressures, recognizing that vulnerability is not the feminine weakness we've been taught to fear, but profound courage that honors both our humanity and our service.