Debtors Anonymous

 1. I declared that I have total control over my debt/money and that I can completely manage my life and still buy what I want.

(We admitted we were powerless over debt—that our lives had become unmanageable.)

 

 2. Came to know that I need no one and that spending will help me maintain my happiness and sanity.

(Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.)

 

 3. Made a decision to harness the benefits (as I understand them) of anything I chose to purchase.

(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 all others.

(Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.)

 

 5. Admitted to no one, including myself, any of my wrongs, no matter how evident.

(Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.)

 

 6. I became entirely ready to defend, excuse, and justify my actions, using personal attacks on others (if necessary), and to minimize any mistake I make.

(Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.)

 

 7. Boldly declare that I have no shortcomings (while secretly believing that anything bad I ever did could not be forgiven).

(Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.)

 

 8. Made a list of all persons that had (or that I thought had) harmed me and searched for opportunities to collect on those debts.

(Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.)

 

 9. Collected whatever I felt that I was owed whenever possible, regardless of the fact that doing so may cause injury or harm to someone else.

(Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them 

or others.)

 

 10. Continued to take an inventory of others’ wrongs against me and promptly collected on them when possible.

(Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.)

 

 11. Sought through experimentation, expert opinions, partying, and the advice of my spending friends, the next thing to put my money towards. I search only for more knowledge of how and what to purchase, and the means to do so without 

consequences.

(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 an enjoyable experience from spending, I tried to carry this message to other suffering frugal people to lead them to practice these principles in all their affairs with me. 

(Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to compulsive debtors, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.)