THE TWELVE TRADITIONS OF CO-DEPENDENTS ANONYMOUS

1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon CoDA unity. 2. For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority — a loving higher power as expressed to our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern. What 3. The only requirement for membership in CoDA is a desire for healthy and loving relationships. 4. Each group should remain autonomous For more information about the THINE O except in matters affecting other groups TO WN or CoDA as a whole. CoDA program of recovery: RECOVERY is 5. Each group has but one primary purpose — to carry its message to other • Co-Dependents Anonymous DISCOVERY codependents who still suffer. CoDA 6. A CoDA group ought never endorse, (“the blue book”) SELF © finance, or lend the CoDA name to any RESPECT SE E LF BE TRU CoDA related facility or outside enterprise, • Attending Meetings lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary • Welcome to CoDA spiritual aim. This is CoDA Conference endorsed literature 7. A CoDA group ought to be fully • Am I Codependent? self-supporting, declining outside Copyright © 1989 Revised May, 2019 Second Edition All rights reserved. contributions. • Newcomer Handbook © 8. Co-Dependents Anonymous should This publication may not be reproduced ? remain forever non-professional, but or photocopied without written permission • Building CoDA Community: our service centers may employ special of Co-Dependents Anonymous, Inc. workers. Healthy Meetings Matter An Introduction to 9. CoDA, as such, ought never be organized, but we may create For more information about CoDA: Co-Dependents Anonymous service boards or committees directly www.coda.org responsible to those they serve. [email protected] 10. CoDA has no opinion on outside issues; Phone: +1-602-277-7991 hence, the CoDA name ought never be Toll Free: 888-444-2359 drawn into public controversy. Spanish Toll Free: 888-444-2379 11. Our public relations policy is based on This pamphlet contains the four attraction rather than promotion; we need foundational documents which are For additional copies of this pamphlet always maintain personal anonymity at read at every CoDA meeting. the level of press, radio, and films. and other CoDA literature: 12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of www.corepublications.org all our traditions, ever reminding us to [email protected] place principles before personalities.

The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions ITEM 4010A are adapted and printed with permission of Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. THE TWELVE STEPS OF CO-DEPENDENTS ANONYMOUS* What is CoDA? loving relationships. We gather together compulsive behavior and that it is born out to support and share with each other in a of our sometimes moderately, sometimes Co-Dependents Anonymous, CoDA, is journey of selfdiscovery — learning to love extremely dysfunctional family and other 1. We admitted we were powerless over a fellowship of people whose common the self. Living the program allows each systems. We have each experienced others — that our lives had become unmanageable. purpose is to develop healthy and loving of us to become increasingly honest with in our own ways the painful trauma of relationships. ourselves about our personal histories the emptiness of our childhood and 2. Came to believe that a power greater and our own codependent behaviors. We relationships throughout our lives. than ourselves could restore us to CoDA was founded in the mid 1980’s in rely upon the Twelve Steps and Twelve sanity. Phoenix, AZ, by individuals in Alcoholics Traditions for knowledge and wisdom. We attempted to use others — our mates, 3. Made a decision to turn our will and Anonymous, AA, who saw the need These are the principles of our program and friends, and even our children — as our our lives over to the care of God as for a recovery program for people in guides to developing honest and fulfilling sole source of identity, value, and well we understood God. dysfunctional relationships. For the purpose relationships with ourselves and others. In being, and as a way of trying to restore 4. Made a searching and fearless moral of founding CoDA, members adapted, CoDA, we each learn to build a bridge to within us the emotional losses from our inventory of ourselves. with permission, The Twelve Steps and a Higher Power of our own understanding, childhoods. Our histories may include other 5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to Twelve Traditions of AA and wrote The and we allow others the same privilege. powerful addictions which at times we have Preamble and The Welcome. The founders another human being the exact nature used to cope with our codependence. of our wrongs. wrote CoDA’s basic text, Co-Dependents This renewal process is a gift of healing Anonymous, also known as “the blue book” 6. Were entirely ready to have God for us. By actively working the program of We have all learned to survive life, but remove all these defects of character. and “the big book.” Co- Dependents Anonymous, we can each in CoDA, we are learning to live life. realize a new joy, acceptance, and serenity Through applying the Twelve Steps and 7. Humbly asked God to remove our The CoDA Fellowship continues to grow in our lives. principles found in CoDA to our daily life shortcomings. and is comprised of meetings all around and relationships — both present and 8. Made a list of all persons we had the world. The Welcome of Co-Dependents past — we can experience a new freedom harmed and became willing to make from our self-defeating lifestyles. It is an amends to them all. Other Twelve Step Programs Anonymous individual growth process. Each of us is 9. Made direct amends to such people Many CoDA members attend other We welcome you to Co-Dependents growing at our own pace and will continue wherever possible, except when to do twelve step fellowships. CoDA is not Anonymous, a program of recovery from to do so as we remain open to God’s will so would injure them or others. codependence, where each of us may a replacement for other twelve step for us on a daily basis. Our sharing is our 10. Continued to take personal inventory programs, just as other programs are not a share our experience, strength, and hope way of identification and helps us to free and when we were wrong promptly replacement for CoDA. in our efforts to find freedom where there the emotional bonds of our past and the admitted it. has been bondage and peace where there compulsive control of our present. 11. Sought through prayer and meditation has been turmoil in our relationships with Our Foundational Documents: to improve our conscious contact with others and ourselves. Most of us have No matter how traumatic your past or God as we understood God, praying The Preamble of Co-Dependents been searching for ways to overcome despairing your present may seem, there is only for knowledge of God’s will for us Co-Dependents Anonymous is a the dilemmas of the conflicts in our hope for a new day in the program of Co- and the power to carry that out. relationships and our childhoods. Many of fellowship of men and women whose Dependents Anonymous. No longer do you 12. Having had a spiritual awakening common purpose is to develop healthy us were raised in families where addictions need to rely on others as a power greater as the result of these steps, we relationships. The only requirement for existed — some of us were not. In either than yourself. May you instead find here a tried to carry this message to other membership is a desire for healthy and case, we have found in each of our lives new strength within to be that which God codependents and to practice these that codependence is a most deeply rooted intended — precious and free. principles in all our affairs.