Albany Sober Living, Detox & Treatment Directory

“Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.” — Alcoholics Anonymous (1939) · Chapter 5 · How It Works

Step Nine as printed in Chapter 5 — followed in Chapter 6 by the Promises, which the book says begin arriving “before we are half way through.”

“Direct” is the hard part — not a vague apology into the air, but a doorstep, a debt repaid, a wrong named to the person who absorbed it. And notice the exception clause: this Step has a conscience. It refuses to buy your peace with someone else’s pain. The Promises are stapled to this Step for a reason. Freedom, it turns out, has a street address. Usually several.

Quote from the 1939 first edition of Alcoholics Anonymous (public domain). Reflection original to albanysober.com. This site is independent and not affiliated with or endorsed by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.