An Altered Spirit: The Twelve Steps and Ebenezer Scrooge - Hardcoverby Anna Fruehling (Author) While in the throes of addiction, Anna Fruehling felt hopeless, afraid, lonely, and ashamed. In short, Anna was spiritually dead, just like the fictional character, Ebenezer Scrooge, an addict who only thought of money and was driven by impulse to constantly seek more. In a creative presentation, Anna compares the twelve steps of addiction recovery with the characters of Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol, a timeless tale