Acknowledging your powerlessness is liberating because it helps you realize the things you are powerless over so you can devote your energy to your actions–the things you can control. You may be powerless over addiction, but you aren’t powerless, https://ecosoberhouse.com/ period. Once you realize what you can and cannot change, you’re actually quite powerful. You aren’t powerless when it comes to entering treatment or a recovery program. You aren’t powerless when it comes to choosing not to drink or use drugs.
- Ongoing dysregulation, caused by repeated experiences of unprocessed moral distress, can build up at an embodied level — quite literally, in our tissues.
- These include reducing isolation, providing a support system, and witnessing the healing of others.
- I was cranky and irritated and frustrated that I was so grumpy when I had nothing real to complain about.
- As crazy as it sounds, I was completely powerless over my addiction but I was also completely ignorant of how far down the scale I had fallen.
- 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.
- Humans naturally gather together, which is why group therapy remains a powerful therapeutic tool for alcohol addiction.
Mental Health Services
It’s not easy to admit this, but if we don’t accept that we are powerless, then we won’t be able to move forward. The FHE Health team is committed to providing accurate information that adheres to the highest standards of writing. This is part of our ongoing commitment to ensure FHE Health is trusted as a leader in mental health and addiction care. Ethical competence involves what Rushton refers to as ethical embodiment, that is living powerless over alcohol the values that we espouse by making sure that what we hold to be true and sacred is reflected in our actions. Doing so allows us to regain a sense of calm and perspective that is necessary to stay in our “window of tolerance,” which is key for self-mastery. In this way, in any moment, no matter how difficult, we can make an intentional choice to honor our core values, make principled choices, and take wise, ethically grounded action.
Step 3: Accept what you cannot change.
When you start your path in recovery, you’re likely to find that your life is a bit unmanageable. Please don’t feel the need to surrender when you begin; this is an ongoing process, and it might take time to cope with everything that’s happening. I remember one of the old-timers at a meeting discussing that relapse is almost always a direct result of not accepting step one. Taking a second look back over the unmanageability – okay I could agree with that, but then came the part about being powerless. Diving deeper, the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous states that we are essentially powerless over all circumstances, environments, situations, people, places, and things. My ego was rebelling against the idea of this suggested admission, but my heart and my spirit were so broken that I was open to believing that whatever worked for the people around me could work for me, too.
Reflections on surrender and spiritual development
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. In this article, we’ll explain the definition of powerlessness and why it’s so important in AA’s twelve steps process.
How to cultivate moral resilience instead.
- You might be avoiding taking the first step toward recovery due to myths and misunderstandings surrounding AA and its steps.
- Meaning-making simply helps us to broaden our thinking and feeling about a morally difficult situation and keeps us moving forward with integrity and principled action.
- The problem here was that I wasn’t actually turning anything over.
- Powerlessness does not necessarily mean being weak; it simply gives an addict the opportunity to adopt a more humble attitude.
