Little did I know that years later I would be stuttering out my name in a packed 12-step meeting in Amsterdam in 2007. Meanwhile praying to God that no one would recognize me, and that I wouldn’t be found out and lose my job the next day. In essence, you are making a conscious choice to stop lying to yourself. You accept that you can’t continue drinking alcohol or using drugs and that you have absolutely no control when you are using.

The obsessive nature pertains to the overwhelming desire to pick up a drink or a drug and the lengths that the addict goes through in order to getting their next fix. The compulsive nature–where the unmanageability comes into play–is the continued use of substances despite the consequences. If you are seeking drug and alcohol related addiction rehab for yourself or a loved one, the SoberNation.com hotline is a confidential and convenient solution. Unmanageability means you don’t have the self-will or the tools to take control of the triggers around you. At this point, it is time for intervention and professional help if you want to regain control of your life. What is the more accurate way of looking at your process in recovery, in light of powerlessness?

If I admit powerlessness over alcohol and drugs, how does that help me recover from addiction?

There are many ways to overcome powerlessness over addiction. Once you realize that addiction is a disease, you can start to see yourself as someone who is sick, rather than someone who is weak or morally flawed. While these feelings can be overwhelming, it’s important to remember that they don’t have to define us. There are ways to cope with these emotions and even overcome them altogether. Today, we’ll explore how you can gain control over your addiction by learning how to identify your triggers and create a plan for recovery.

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. It is only after a great deal of suffering that an addict can finally reach the point of getting to step one. Their willingness to admit to having no power usually happens after they have repeatedly failed to control their intake or they have hit rock bottom, losing everything that’s important to them. People usually spend some time trying to moderate their drinking or drug use, maybe quitting for a few days or even months before slipping right back into their old behavior. Being powerless means having no control and it is by realizing they have lost control that addicts develop the motivation they need to make important changes in their life. Although the first step can be one of the hardest, admitting to powerlessness can be freeing and open up possibilities to positive transformation.

Addiction can be described as a defensive strategy to avoid feeling powerless.

Understanding powerless, that I had no choice, changed my life. It wasn’t until I had a full understanding of this word powerless over alcohol that my spiritual journey really was able to begin. It also made me realize that I’m not a bad person or a weak person.

How many times have we had these kinds of thoughts and believed them? Let’s face it when we control it, we’re not enjoying it, and when we’re enjoying it, we’re not controlling it. Write down in detail 3 different examples of how your life during your time of acting out has become unmanageable. The original version of the Twelve Steps and The Big Book make numerous https://ecosoberhouse.com/ references to God, and this is largely because AA’s founders were Christians. The original references to God were quickly challenged in the early days of AA, and Bill W. Addressed those challenges by explaining that every member was welcome to interpret God to mean whoever, or whatever, higher power they chose to believe in while working the steps.