Steps and Traditions

The Twelve Steps and the Twelve Traditions of Greysheeters Anonymous*

The Twelve Steps

We admitted we were powerless over food, that our lives had become unmanageable.
Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God, as we understood Him.
Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
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 we were wrong promptly admitted it.
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 for the power to carry that out.
Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to compulsive overeaters, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends on Greysheeters Anonymous unity.
For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority, a loving God as He may express himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.
The only requirement for GSA membership is a desire to stop eating compulsively.
Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or GSA as a whole.
Each group has but one primary purpose, to carry the message to the compulsive overeater who still suffers.
A GSA group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the GSA name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
Every GSA group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
GSA should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
GSA as such ought never be organized, but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
GSA has no opinion on outside issues; hence, the GSA name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, television, and film.
Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.

*Adapted with permission from Alcoholics Anonymous.