THE TWELVE TRADITIONS

1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends on ADA unity.

2. For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority-- a loving God as God's expression may be found in our group conscious. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.

3. The only requirement for ADA membership is a desire to explore the use of the twelve steps, the twelve traditions, and the principles of the program to better live with an affective disorder.

4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or ADA as a whole.

5. Each group has but one primary purpose-- to carry ADA's twelve step message to the affective who still suffers.

6. An ADA group ought to never endorse, finance, or lend the ADA name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.

7. Every ADA group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.

8. Affective Disorders Anonymous should forever remain nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers.

9. ADA, as such, ought never be organized, but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.

10. Affective Disorders Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the ADA name ought never be drawn into public controversy.

11. Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, TV, internet, and film.

12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.