“While the internal difficulties of our adolescent period were being ironed out, public acceptance of A.A. grew by leaps and bounds. For this there were two principal reasons: the large numbers of recoveries, and reunited homes.”
A while after I joined AA, I went down the wrong path and spent time attributing my problems, mental habits, emotions, and life to events from the past and the actions of family members. This harmed my relationships.
I had to backtrack and learn firstly to accept responsibility for my own life, secondly to regard those in my immediate family (parents, siblings) with understanding and benevolence, without a jot of criticism for the present or the past or their general being, and thirdly to actively contribute to their lives, where appropriate.
For this I needed both the Steps and the Traditions.