By accepting that you’re powerless over alcohol, drugs or addictive behavior, you’ve come to terms with your personal limitations. We are not meant to go through this life alone and we need other people so we can be healthy, strong and independent. If you are struggling with addiction to alcohol, drugs or a combination of substances, you don’t have to deal with your problems alone. We’re available to talk 24 hours a day, and we offer a wide variety of science-based treatment programs. You aren’t powerless when it comes to entering treatment or a recovery program.
You must first adopt attitudes and actions of being honest and sacrificing your time and energy to help yourself and other sufferers. Conceptually, powerlessness is also an element of 12 Step programs. We might hear this word without giving it much thought if we aren’t steeped in drug and alcohol recovery.
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At one time, our number one priority was to stay sober. Today with the understanding of powerless, our number one priority is our relationship with our creator and how we can best serve. Many 12-Step programs are well-known groups that use the concept of powerlessness to benefit recovery. The Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) Big Book says “powerless over alcohol” as its first principle. AA members believe they cannot control their drinking without the help of a higher power. This belief is what gives them hope and helps them stay sober.
To date, medical science is making headway on the particulars of addiction. Until that happens, we who want to recover must accept the fact of our powerlessness, and by working the steps find the way to escape from that hopeless condition. When in the Boston Sober Homes cycle of addiction, it was not uncommon for us to wake up from a binge feeling guilty for what had just happened, yet with the obsession to use still clawing at our brains. As it turned into a problem, we naively made up our minds to moderate or quit.
The Twelve Steps
Are you ready to achieve liberation and strength over your destructive drinking habits? If so, you must admit defeat, become powerless, and embrace Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) guiding principles, starting with Step 1 of AA. Unfortunately, there was an entire self-help industry out there waiting to enable us in denial. Their sales pitch is that 12 Step programs, whether AA or NA, make us weak by brainwashing us into thinking we are powerless. The power is in us, they say, and in the books and programs they sell. As addiction begins to overtake your life, you lie to yourself about what is happening.
Defining that source of power is less important than accepting its ability to move you beyond your powerlessness. In other words, Step 2 of AA offers the direct and immediate remedy for the problem you admitted in Step 1 of AA. After all, when one family member struggles with alcohol abuse, family https://g-markets.net/sober-living/oxford-house-recovery-homes-characteristics-and/ relations become characterized by dishonesty. Your inability to assert power over alcohol forces you to lie about your use of alcohol and even your whereabouts. This can lead to a cycle of lies, both for you and for the family members who attempt to understand or excuse your behavior.
Powerless Over Alcohol: Giving Up My Best Friend
Step 1 of AA requires a great deal of strength and courage as you accept that alcohol has taken over your life. You might not be ready to take the first step at your first AA meeting, and that’s okay. It’s not easy to admit our inability resist alcohol or internal humiliation, but you’re not alone.
