“Tight Grippers Anonymous” (TGA)

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🔎 Summary Reflection

While one person’s comfort may be another person’s discomfort, recovery invites us to surrender control over things outside ourselves. In TGA, the recovery isn’t from underwear itself — it’s from fear-based control, anxiety, and judgment that keeps us in a prison of unnecessary tension.

12 steps

1. We admitted we were powerless over our fear of free-balling — that our lives had become unmanageable due to our need for constant control.

2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to a place of peace and acceptance.

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our discomfort over to the care of God as we understood Him.

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of our rigidity, judgments, and fears surrounding others’ personal choices.

5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our anxieties and controlling tendencies.

6. Were entirely ready to have God remove our need to control others' behaviors and our own obsessive discomfort.

7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings and grant us serenity in uncertain situations.

8. Made a list of all whom we have judged or shamed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

9. Made direct amends wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when rigid thinking arose, promptly admitted it.

11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, praying for peace, acceptance, and open-mindedness.

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to others trapped in judgment, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

13th Step Safeguard

“We respect that others may have different comfort levels and personal practices. We do not shame, control, or enforce our preferences upon others. We focus on our own recovery from rigid thinking, fear, and discomfort.”

12 Traditions

1. Our common welfare comes first; personal peace depends on TGA unity.

2. For our group purpose, there is but one ultimate authority—a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience.

3. The only requirement for TGA membership is a desire to release fear and judgment surrounding others' personal habits.

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

5. Each group has but one primary purpose—to carry its message to those trapped in rigidity and fear.

6. A TGA group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the TGA name to any related facility or outside enterprise.

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

8. TGA should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers.

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

10. TGA has no opinion on outside issues; hence the TGA name ought never be drawn into public controversy.

11. Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion.

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

12 Promises

1. We will know freedom from obsessive control.

2. We will learn tolerance and understanding toward others’ comfort choices.

3. We will no longer be disturbed by what others wear or don’t wear.

4. We will find serenity in situations that once triggered judgment.

5. We will become less self-righteous and more open-minded.

6. We will develop healthy boundaries instead of rigid walls.

7. We will experience humor, grace, and lightheartedness.

8. We will stop attempting to control the uncontrollable.

9. We will let go of black-and-white thinking.

10. We will develop empathy for all human experiences.

11. We will grow spiritually, emotionally, and socially.

12. We will become examples of acceptance, peace, and kindness.

Slogans

1. “Let others be.”

2. “Not my comfort, not my business.”

3. “Freedom is bigger than fabric.”

4. “Judgment is the real discomfort.”

5. “Tight grips break. Loose holds heal.”

Acronyms

T.I.G.H.T.

• Trust

• In

• God’s

• Hands

• Today

G.R.I.P.

• Grant

• Release

• Into

Peace