Step 1 - We admitted that we were powerless over our addiction and that our life had become unmanagable 

Psa 6:2  Have mercy upon me, O LORD; for I am weak: O LORD, heal me; for my bones are troubled.
Psa 6:3  My soul is also greatly troubled: but you, O LORD, how long?
Psa 6:4  Return, O LORD, deliver my soul: oh save me for your mercies' sake.

Psa 38:3  There is no soundness in my flesh because of your anger; neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin.
Psa 38:4  For my iniquities are gone over my head: as a heavy burden they are too heavy for me.
Psa 38:5  My wounds are foul and are corrupt because of my foolishness.
Psa 38:6  I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long.
Psa 38:7  For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh.
Psa 38:8  I am feeble and utterly broken: I have groaned by reason of the turmoil of my heart.
Psa 38:9  Lord, all my desire is before you; and my groaning is not hid from you.
Psa 38:10  My heart pants, my strength fails me: as for the light of my eyes, it also is gone from me.
Psa 38:11  My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my plague; and my kinsmen stand afar off.
Psa 38:12  They also that seek after my life lay snares for me: and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and plan deceit all the day long.
Psa 38:13  But I, as a deaf man, heard not; and I was as a dumb man that opens not his mouth.
Psa 38:14  Thus I was as a man that hears not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs.

Here we see the psalmist in great pain and misery because of their sin.  As addicts we can identify with these types of feelings or conditions that have come from our sin as well. No sane person would want to find themselves in this state of corruption and decay. But because of the sin in our addictive behaviors and our inability to say no to those behaviors, we find ourselves feeling bad in body, heart, mind and soul. Notice the many areas of consequences. In the soul there is a feeling "as a heavy burden they are too heavy for me." In the body, there is "no soundness in the flesh" and even a "loathsome disease". In the heart there is "turmoil of my heart" and the resulting groaning. In relationships, there is a turning away of lovers, friends and family. In society there are "snares" and the saying of mischevious and deceitful things. There is a hint in this psalm also of the solution in laying it before God (38:9). These are what should be covered in the following steps of the program - how to turn it over to God and begin making things right before God and man. 

Psa 55:4  My heart is greatly pained within me: and the terrors of death are fallen upon me.
Psa 55:5  Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, and horror has overwhelmed me.
Psa 55:6  And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest.
Psa 55:7  Lo, then would I wander far off, and remain in the wilderness. Selah.
Psa 55:8  I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest.

Psa 69:19  You have known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonor: my adversaries are all before you.
Psa 69:20  Reproach has broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.

Psa 88:3  For my soul is full of troubles: and my life draws near unto the grave.
Psa 88:4  I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man that has no strength:
Psa 88:5  Adrift among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom you remember no more: and they are cut off from your hand.
Psa 88:6  You have laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deep.
Psa 88:7  Your anger lies hard upon me, and you have afflicted me with all your waves. Selah.
Psa 88:8  You have put away my acquaintance far from me; you have made me an abomination unto them: I am shut up, and I cannot come forth.

Psa 102:3  For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as a hearth.
Psa 102:4  My heart is smitten, and withered like grass; so that I forget to eat my bread.
Psa 102:5  Because of the voice of my groaning my bones cling to my skin.
Psa 102:6  I am like a vulture of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert.
Psa 102:7  I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top.
Psa 102:8  My enemies reproach me all the day; and they that rail against me are sworn against me.
Psa 102:9  For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping,
Psa 102:10  Because of your indignation and your wrath: for you have lifted me up, and cast me down.
Psa 102:11  My days are like a shadow that declines; and I am withered like grass.

Psa 109:22  For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me.
Psa 109:23  I am gone like the shadow when it declines: I am shaken off like the locust.
Psa 109:24  My knees are weak through fasting; and my flesh lacks fatness.
Psa 109:25  I became also a reproach unto them: when they looked upon me they shook their heads.

Pro 14:12  There is a way which seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

Pro 18:14  The spirit of a man will sustain him in sickness; but a wounded spirit who can bear?

Pro 26:11  As a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool returns to his folly.
Pro 26:12  See a man wise in his own eyes? there is more hope of a fool than of him.

Both of these verses from Proverbs can be relevant to how we probably have lived before taking the first step. In verse 11, the fool returns to his folly as a dog returns to its vomit. Our addictive behaviors have been our folly, that which makes a fool out of us. And just as the dog returns to what it knows and is familiar with, even though it may be unhealthy and nasty from an objective viewpoint, so also we have returned to our own addictive behaviors over and over again, even though they are unhealthy and nasty from any objective viewpoint. What may have blinded us to the insanity of this behavior is given in the next verse, verse 12. If we have been wise in our own eyes, saying to ourselves that most everyone or everything else is stupid or wrong or too inhibited or dull in their beliefs and life (name your own excuse that allows you to be wise in your own eyes), then we set ourselves up for being a fool or worse. In reality, we have really become addicted and have let that addiction rule our reason, rather than the other way around. We usually only wake up to this fact when we find our lives out of control and have to admit that perhaps we were not so wise after all. This can be a difficult thing to do, but is the first step on the road to recovery. 

Mat 9:36  But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. 

Mar 5:2  And when he came out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, 
Mar 5:3  Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains: 
Mar 5:4  Because  he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been wrenched apart by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man subdue him. 
Mar 5:5  And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones. 
Mar 5:6  But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshiped him, 
Mar 5:7  And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with you, Jesus, you Son of the most high God? I adjure you by God, that you torment me not. 
Mar 5:8  For he had said unto him, Come out of the man, you unclean spirit. 
Mar 5:9  And he asked him, What is your name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many. 
Mar 5:10  And he begged him much that he would not send them away out of the country. 
Mar 5:11  Now there was there near unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding. 
Mar 5:12  And all the demons begged him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them. 
Mar 5:13  And Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (there were about two thousand;) and were drowned in the sea. 
Mar 5:14  And they that fed the swine fled, and told it in the city, and in the country. And they went out to see what it was that was done. 
Mar 5:15  And they came to Jesus, and saw him that was possessed with the demon, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid. 

This passage tells of the healing by Jesus of a man who had many demons. In modern times we may wonder about what demon possession was really about. But regardless of our conclusions, there are many parallels between someone with demon possession and how we can act in our addictive behaviors. Verse 5:5 tells of the man crying and cutting himself with stones day and night. If we have gone very far into our addictive behaviors we most likely have found ourselves crying and hating ourselves afterwards for what we have done. The hatred may even have gone as far as cutting or doing bodily harm to ourselves in one way or another. It may go on day and night, having no end to the addictive behavior until we finally collapse in sheer exhaustion. And when we get up from the sleep of exhaustion the addictive behavior may take over again until exhaustion, creating an utterly self-destructive form of living. Also, we see in verses 5:3 and 5:4 about the incredible strength of this man. In our addictive behaviors with our adrenalin rushing through us, we also can often have a physical strength beyond our normal day to day strength. This may even be a source of pride and one reason that we turn to our addictive behavior, to have a feeling of strength or empowerment that we normally cannot find within ourselves. The lie of the addiction is, of course, that when we are through with our addictive behavior then we are usually weaker overall  than before, having exhausted our strength or goodwill from others in often daredevil or foolhardy schemes that bring us no lasting good and often destruction. In verses 5:6 and 5:7 we see the answer to this man's dilemma. By God's grace this demon possessed man has the sense to run and worship Jesus. Whether it was the demons within this man or the man himself, there was an acknowledgement of Jesus' position as the "Son of the most high God". Following this, Jesus yielded His power over the man's demons and by verse 5:15 we see that this man had been returned to his right mind. So from the 12 step perspective, one might say that this passage covers steps 1 through 3. The last phrase in verse 15 is very telling also. Instead of rejoicing with this man that he had been delivered, the towns people "were afraid". So it may be also as we turn from our addictive habits. Instead of support and appreciation it may be that others shun us or are afraid of us, especially those who somehow benefit from our addiction (e.g., fellow addicts). This should not deter us from moving forward. In the context of the 12 step program, going forward would mean creating an inventory, which would be a 4th step. In the case of this demon possessed man, an inventory would remind him strongly what he had been delivered from and help motivate him to never return to that state of being again. 

Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwells no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. 
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. 
Rom 7:20  Now if I do that which I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me. 
Rom 7:21  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. 
Rom 7:22  For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 
Rom 7:23  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 

This is a classic passage that tells of how the apostle Paul was ultimately powerless over the sin in his life apart from the power of God. He had the will to do what is right, but at the same time he also had the inclination to do what brought him into the "captivity of sin". In the facing of our addiction and the taking of our first step, we also become aware of how powerless we are over the sin of our addictive behaviors. We realize that no matter how strongly we might will or want ourselves to be a certain way, to do a certain thing or to not do a certain thing, then we find that we are not able to carry through with that in a consistent manner. We find ourselves back to the same old self-destructive behaviors that we have grown accustomed to, that have become so much a part of our lives. In our "flesh", we are not able to carry through on staying away from our addictive behaviors, even though we may want to and know at some level how self-destructive they are. We have been powerless over our addictive behaviors and our life has become unmanageable.    

2Pe 2:12  But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption; 
2Pe 2:13  And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. Spots they are and blemishes, reveling themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you; 
2Pe 2:14  Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: a heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children: 
2Pe 2:15  Who have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; 
2Pe 2:16  But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb donkey speaking with man's voice restrained the madness of the prophet. 
2Pe 2:17  These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever. 
2Pe 2:18  For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that have just escaped from them who live in error. 
2Pe 2:19  While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.