How We Make This: Editorial & Content Standards

Twelva is built by people in active recovery, and that lived experience shapes the tone of everything we write — calm, non-judgmental, never preachy, never shaming. But experience alone is not a source. So every piece of recovery content in the app and on this site is grounded in two things: the primary literature of each tradition and authoritative clinical and public-health guidance. This page explains how that works.

What our content is grounded in

We do not invent recovery frameworks. We reflect the established ones faithfully, in plain language, and we paraphrase rather than reproduce any one fellowship's copyrighted text. The traditions Twelva draws on, each from its own primary literature:

The Twelve Steps — the foundational texts of Alcoholics Anonymous (the "Big Book") and Narcotics Anonymous, and the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions.
SMART Recovery — the SMART Recovery Handbook and its 4-Point Program and tools (motivation, urge coping, managing thoughts and feelings, balanced living).
Refuge Recovery — the Buddhist-inspired Refuge Recovery program literature and its mindfulness and compassion practices.
Al-Anon — the Al-Anon Family Groups literature for those affected by someone else's drinking or addiction.
CBT-informed practice — established cognitive behavioural principles linking thoughts, feelings, and behaviour.

Alongside the program literature, we ground clinical and safety statements in authoritative public-health sources, including:

The U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration — SAMHSA.
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism — NIAAA, part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The National Institute on Drug Abuse — NIDA, also part of NIH.

Where the traditional language reaches for a higher power, we always offer a secular reading too. Twelva is multi-tradition by design and does not assume the Twelve Steps — see how each path is served on our tradition pages, from the Twelve Steps to SMART Recovery, Refuge Recovery, Al-Anon, CBT-informed practice, and secular recovery.

How a piece of content is made

Grounded first

Every guide, glossary entry, and reflection prompt starts from the primary program literature and authoritative sources — not from a blank page.

Reviewed by the collective

Content is reviewed by the anonymous Twelva team — people in active recovery — for accuracy, tone, and safety before it ships.

Plain and paraphrased

We explain ideas in our own plain words and never reproduce a fellowship's copyrighted text. The work matters more than the recitation.

Dated and revisited

Educational pages carry a last-reviewed date and are updated when the underlying guidance or program literature changes.

Anonymity, and why it doesn’t weaken this

You will not see a named author or clinician on Twelva. That is deliberate — we stay anonymous in keeping with the traditions of anonymity that recovery is founded on. Authority here comes from lived experience paired with cited, authoritative sources, not from a name on a byline. We think that is more honest for this audience, and more useful: you can check the sources yourself.

What Twelva is not

Twelva is a recovery companion. It is not a substitute for professional medical, psychiatric, or emergency care, and nothing in the app or on this site is medical advice or a diagnosis. Recovery often needs real-world support — a doctor, a therapist, a meeting, a treatment program — and Twelva is meant to sit alongside those, never to replace them.

If you are in crisis or in danger, please reach out to a person now:

In the US, call or text 988 — the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, free and confidential, 24/7.
SAMHSA's National Helpline: 1-800-662-HELP (4357) — free, confidential, 24/7 treatment referral and information service.
Outside the US, find a helpline at findahelpline.com.

Corrections

If you spot something inaccurate, unclear, or that could be said more compassionately, please tell us at support@twelva.app. We take corrections to recovery content seriously and update promptly.

Our editorial standards