When you are 2 or 10 or 20 years sober, you are still going to be powerless over alcohol. This step is not saying you are powerless over your actions, decisions, or relationships with others; only over your addiction to alcohol or drugs. It is not an excuse to continue in a destructive cycle because there’s nothing you can do about it. The 12-step program is based on the belief that one day at a time we can take control of our lives by making positive changes. Many peer recovery groups use examples of powerlessness in sobriety to help participants accept themselves for who they are. Acceptance includes taking responsibility for our actions and accepting that we cannot change what has happened in the past.
How Music Therapy Works in Substance Abuse Treatment
This attitude will bring immediate and practical results. You must first adopt attitudes and actions of being honest and sacrificing your time and energy to help yourself and other sufferers. Whatever the reason, admitting powerlessness is to say that practicing self-control does not undo the effects of drugs or alcohol on the brain. Accepting this reality is what will equip you to seek treatment rather than deny that there is a problem in the first place. That makes “admitting powerlessness” a form of strength. You might not be ready the first time you decide to attend a meeting.
Mental Health Issues
Your sobriety will remain unpredictable, and you won’t find any enduring strength until you can admit defeat. So you understand the benefits of Step One and of admitting powerlessness, but the next question then is why is such emphasis placed on being reliant on others to get yourself out of addiction? The philosophy behind this thinking is that your judgment was flawed enough to get yourself into this situation, it’s too flawed to get yourself out of it. The accountability and encouragement in meetings and therapy break the power of secrecy where addiction thrives. It helps foster accountability and is a profound place of support. What happens in a group of people admitting powerlessness over addiction is a power in itself.
- This cycle of lies and keeping secrets can go on for years, and that in itself can create an atmosphere that actually causes the situation to deteriorate faster.
- This step of accepting powerlessness from the 12-Step process of recovery essentially highlights the power of drugs and alcohol over our lives.
- In this article, we’ll explain the definition of powerlessness and why it’s so important in AA’s twelve steps process.
- Coming to this understanding will make you much more receptive to looking to sources outside yourself for recovery, such as your sponsor, your fellow group members, or your Higher Power.
Signs You May Have a Drinking Problem
You know that alcohol is bad news for you, you are convinced, and nothing can make you return to drinking. In order to progress to steps two through twelve, you must embrace step one. You will be unable to go further in your recovery if you cannot recognize that you and alcohol do not mix. If you are living with a loved one’s drinking, it can be difficult to admit you are powerless and unable to keep cleaning up the mess and being the responsible one.
- Today with the understanding of powerless, our number one priority is our relationship with our creator and how we can best serve.
- Our family therapy program is second to none.Learn how we can help your family by calling a Treatment Advisor now.
- To admit powerlessness over alcohol (or drugs) means accepting the fact that you’ve lost control over your substance use.
- To date, medical science is making headway on the particulars of addiction.
- The AA first step, admitting powerlessness and acknowledging the unmanageability your addiction brings, is a crucial leap toward lasting recovery.
- The mental obsession and physical cravings increase after the first drink, causing the person to drink more.
Step 1 of AA acknowledges the need for members to hit rock bottom to understand alcohol addiction’s destructive nature. It applies both to our inability to abstain from using a substance or engaging in certain behavior as well as limiting its quantity. While the realization might be painful and challenge the idea of who we imagine ourselves to be, it’s impossible to solve a problem without first acknowledging the scope and scale of the issue. The concept of powerlessness can seem quite foreign, especially to those from countries like America whose culture idolizes independence and raising one’s self by their bootstraps. But powerlessness is not the same thing as weakness; it isn’t something to be feared or despised. It also is not a lack of agency that implies we are helpless when it comes to choosing between right and wrong.
How Do You Get to Step 1?
Accepting our powerlessness (complete defeat) is the bottom that an alcoholic and addict must hit. Although you may be powerless in the fact that you struggle with addiction and have no control over it, you are not powerless over the actions you can take because of that knowledge. By accepting the things you cannot change and understanding that it’s possible to change the things that are within your control, you open yourself up to options that can help you heal. The “Serenity Prayer” said in 12 Step meetings has received widespread media attention ever since Covid-19 entered the American consciousness. Written by theologian Karl Niebuhr in the early 1930’s, the Serenity Prayer was adopted and adapted by Alcoholics Anonymous shortly after it published the Big Book.
The impact of drugs and alcohol on your body over time renders your natural brain functions and mechanisms powerless. To acknowledge the way these substances have impacted your life is to admit that alcohol and drugs have made your life unmanageable and you can’t fix it on your own. We’ve had good reasons to quit for powerless over alcohol good, and we continued drinking or using drugs anyway. This understanding of the word obsession explains why we keep going back to pick up the first drink or drug. It makes so much sense when we look back at our behaviors—the threat of relationships ending, poor health, work-life, bad decisions, legal trouble, etc.
Benefits of Understanding Powerlessness in Sobriety
- The dictionary defines powerless as being without the power to do something or prevent something from happening.
- We consulted with people we trusted, whether family, friends, employers, ministers, physicians, or counselors.
- Humans naturally gather together, which is why group therapy remains a powerful therapeutic tool for alcohol addiction.
- Not so with the alcoholic or addict trapped in the cycle of addiction.
- A person shouldn’t consider themselves weak-willed or incapable when they admit to their powerlessness, and they don’t have to do anything about their addiction yet.
