The 12 Traditions of Dual Recovery Anonymous
What are the Twelve Traditions of Dual Recovery Anonymous?
DRA has Twelve Traditions which are designed to help guide our Meetings, Groups, Intergroups, and Service Boards to operate in ways that best nurture the recovery efforts of all members of our Fellowship. The Traditions are a set of suggestions that help DRA as a whole keep on track to best fulfill our Primary Purpose and maintain our Founding Vision.
The Twelve Traditions of Dual Recovery Anonymous are built upon the foundation of the original Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous to whom we owe our gratitude. DRA’s Traditions are modified to suit the unique needs of our dual no-fault illnesses and the population DRA serves. At this time we do not have a long form of our Twelve Traditions or a book that fully explains our Traditions in depth. Many answers can be found in our Preamble and our Questions & Answers document. Groups are also well served to borrow the collective wisdom found in AA’s traditional version of the Twelve Traditions where applicable.
The Twelve Traditions of DRA are designed to help members in several ways:
Network: DRA provides a Network of support and information not only to its current members but also to those who may need us in the future. Sharing information and opening lines of communications between Individual Members, Groups, Intergroups, Service Boards, and the World Network Central Office reminds us all that we have an equal partnership in dual recovery. Networking through the Central Office by mail or phone, and helping each other at the Group level are all powerful ways of strengthening our Fellowship and adding resources to further our personal dual recovery goals. Network means connecting: We are connecting or drawing together DRA members and Groups to develop the working structure of DRA.
Unity: DRA must forever remain a united Fellowship with common goals. Our individual recoveries are greatly enhanced by DRA Unity. The Twelve Traditions help our Groups and Intergroups maintain a cohesive, safe, and comfortable atmosphere no matter where a newcomer walks into their first DRA Meeting. Though each Group is autonomous it is also aware of how its actions can influence other DRA Groups and the DRA Fellowship as a whole. Unity means uniting for a common purpose: To help one another achieve dual recovery and to prevent relapse.
Service: When DRA members are ready, they can choose to engage in service work. Lending a helping hand at a DRA function or filling a Group Service Work Committee Position helps us maintain our recoveries and helps make DRA accessible to others. We share the responsibility of helping carry the message of Dual Recovery Anonymous to those who want it. We want our message of hope and recovery to be there for other’s and DRA Service Work at any level is a wonderful way to help achieve this goal. Service means DRA Service Work: We carry our message and provide support to other people who experience dual disorders.
Many of us have felt very alone in our dual illnesses. Our Networking, Unity, and Service Work as guided by the Twelve Traditions of DRA help insure DRA’s continued usefulness and growth. The Traditions help members and Groups develop Twelve Step DRA meetings that are a safe haven where we can experience a Fellowship of people who experience the common bond of dual no-fault illnesses. The Twelve Traditions help insure that the fear, isolation, and secrecy many of us have experienced no longer need be a part of our lives.
The Traditional Twelve Traditions:
As AA developed the Twelve Steps which were the principles by which individual alcoholics could live, they also had to evolve principles by which the A.A. groups and A.A. as a whole could survive and function effectively.
Bill Wilson and the early members of Alcoholics Anonymous developed the original 12 Traditions over a period of about 20 years. Early on when Groups had problems they would often write to Bill Wilson, co-founder of AA, and he would correspond about possible solutions. Over the years this body of letters became quite large and represented what was essentially the combined wisdom of basically the whole Fellowship of AA. In 1945 it was suggested that this mass of problem solving correspondence might be distilled to some basic set of principles that could offer the Fellowship solutions for their problems of living and working together and how best to relate their Fellowship of recovering alcoholics to the world outside.
Initially Bill Wilson called this work “The Twelve Points to Assure Our Future.” He saw them as guidelines necessary to the unity, survival, and effectiveness of the AA Fellowship. He understood well that if he had called them laws or rules, recovering people with their usual mistrust of or distaste for authoritarianism would have surly rejected them. By 1950 they had become universally accepted by the Fellowship and were soon accepted at AA’s first International Conference in Cleveland, Ohio.
Perhaps the best description of the Twelve Traditions this author can give is in the words of Bill Wilson Himself, “The A.A. Traditions are neither rules, regulations, nor laws. We obey them willingly because we ought to and because we want to. Perhaps the secret of their power lies in the fact that these life-giving communications spring out of living experience and are rooted in love.”
Quote reprinted from AA Today, with permission of A.A. World Services, Inc
12 Traditions
- The primary purpose of D.R.A. is to carry the message of recovery to men and women who experience a dual disorder.
- D.R.A. has two requirements for membership; a desire to stop using alcohol and other intoxicating drugs, and a desire to manage our emotional or psychiatric illness in a healthy and constructive way.
- We welcome men and women of all personal beliefs, our program is one of personal freedom and choice.
- Our groups and service work are guided by the principles of the 12 Steps of D.R.A.
- Each group is independent, to better meet the recovery needs of our members. We are sensitive to the well being and unity of other groups and to D.R.A. as a whole.
- To maintain our primary purpose, we avoid all outside distractions. We need not become involved in financial entanglements, lend the D.R.A. name for outside activities and issues, or become drawn into public controversy.
- Every DRA group ought to be self-supporting.
- D.R.A. is a volunteer, self-help organization. To carry out our service work, we may employ special workers, form committees and coordinate projects.
- Our individual dual recovery depends on D.R.A. unity. We carry the message through our personal recovery and our service work. D.R.A. is a non-professional program. We do not provide chemical dependency, mental health or other social services.
- D.R.A. has no opinion regarding the appropriate use of medications or other methods of managing our symptoms.
- In D.R.A. we share an equal partnership in dual recovery. Our traditions and service work help us maintain the integrity of our program, to provide for others and to enhance the unity of D.R.A. as a whole.
- Personal anonymity is the right of every D.R.A. member. We practice anonymity at the level of public media.
12 Steps of DRA
- We admitted we were powerless over our dual illness of chemical dependency and emotional or psychiatric illness – that our lives had become unmanageable.
- Came to believe that a Higher Power of our understanding could restore us to sanity.
- Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of our Higher Power, to help us to rebuild our lives in a positive and caring way.
- Made a searching and fearless personal inventory of ourselves.
- Admitted to our Higher Power, to ourselves, and to another human being, the exact nature of our liabilities and our assets.
- Were entirely ready to have our Higher Power remove all our liabilities.
- Humbly asked our Higher Power to remove these liabilities and to help us to strengthen our assets for recovery.
- Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.
- Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
- Continued to take personal inventory and when wrong promptly admitted it, while continuing to recognize our progress in dual recovery.
- Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with our Higher Power, praying only for knowledge of our Higher Power’s will for us and the power to carry that out.
- Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to others who experience dual disorders and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

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Resources & Tools
- Dual Diagnosis Resources
- Dual Diagnosis Hub Local
- Carers Resources
- Resources for Professionals
- Mental Health Resources
- Free Psychology Tools
- Useful Tools for Professionals
- UK Recovery Colleges Directory
- WRAP (Wellness Recovery Action Plan)
- Online Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT)
- How to Join an Online 12 Step Meeting