To learn more about our vision and treatments, please contact us today. For many addicted to alcohol and drugs, it’s difficult to admit the way addiction has made their lives unmanageable. The self-awareness that comes with realizing how bad things are and how damaging the substance abuse has been is how you can start to desire a better future for yourself. Acknowledging powerlessness over alcohol and drugs can be liberating for many people. It frees you up to focus your time and energy on things that are within your control.

Do You Have to Believe in God for 1st Step AA?

While it’s true that the 12 Steps were originally based on the principles of a spiritual organization, the world isn’t the same as it was in 1935 when AA and the 12 Step program were founded. The word “God” was eventually replaced with “Higher Power” to be more accessible to everyone, powerless over alcohol regardless of faith traditions or beliefs. What you believe to be a Higher Power is a very personal thing. Sometimes alcoholics keep their desire to drink secret because they’re ashamed or think that deciding to quit drinking means they aren’t supposed to be tempted.

How Admitting Powerlessness Helps You Move Through Your 12 Steps

• “We admitted we were powerless over alcohol” is, of course, Step One of Alcoholics Anonymous.
• Whether you are attempting to get sober for the first time or you are returning to sobriety after a relapse, it can be hard to admit that you are unable to stop drinking on your own.
• It frees you up to focus your time and energy on things that are within your control.
• Worldwide, alcoholics, addicts and treatment professionals embraced the Twelve Steps, and more than 35 million copies of AA’s Big Book have been distributed in over 70 languages.
• If you’re struggling with alcohol use—whether or not you’re in AA—it is up to you to choose how you describe your situation.

A fly, captivated by the plant’s charm, lands on the rim and begins to sip the nectar. Yet, little does the fly know, the inner walls of the pitcher are coated with a slippery, waxy substance. As the fly slowly ventures deeper into the tube, it starts to lose its footing. The fly struggles to escape, but only slides deeper into the plant’s tubular body. Here, downward-pointing hairs prevent its ascent, and digestive enzymes begin to break it down. The fly slides deeper and deeper, eventually finding itself trapped in a place where escape seems impossible.

Step 4: Courage

• Admitting to being powerless over alcohol will help a person to recognize that he or she does not have control with their drinking.
• He attributed his success to working with other alcoholics.
• Although the illusion of control may continue, their lives become unmanageable, because alcohol is really in control.
• Their lives too had become unmanageable if they tried to force solutions that had no chance of working.
• Whatever the reason, admitting powerlessness is to say that practicing self-control does not undo the effects of drugs or alcohol on the brain.

At Spero Recovery, we understand how hard it can be to admit that you are powerless over the effects of drugs and alcohol on your life. It’s not only damaging to your confidence, it can be humiliating. We all want to be considered strong and in charge of ourselves, so admitting powerlessness seems like a huge contradiction to that goal. Admitting powerlessness is what reveals your true strength, and our committed staff is ready to help you find it. We offer peer-led recovery programs that are rooted in the 12-Step program of recovery from Alcoholics Anonymous. We believe that these steps are the foundation for building a healthy, sober life, and we have seen the good fruit of these teachings in the lives of our patients.

What Does it Mean to Say You’re Powerless Over Drugs and Alcohol?

It demonstrates the paradox of powerlessness and the role of surrender. Step 1 of AA references the need for members to hit rock bottom before genuinely understanding their addiction. Your rock bottom is whatever makes you realize alcohol is destructive to you and your loved ones. Rock bottom gives you the motivation to open your mind to recovery. You might be avoiding taking the first step toward recovery due to myths and misunderstandings surrounding AA and its steps.

This became the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, which they offered as a path to finding freedom from alcohol addiction. But, since it was the way that had worked for them, it was the way they had to offer others. Admitting powerlessness means accepting what is true and what is not.

How Can You Reach Step 1 of AA?