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The central task of Step 1 is to recognize that our lives are beyond our control, and we cannot continue our superhuman efforts at patching up the many mistakes we make. We recognize that it is time to move from a crisis mode to a prevention mode.
Here are some familiar patterns:
* Alcoholics or drug abusers find that no one will believe their promises anymore.
* Overeaters recognize that all diets have ultimately failed and that they are now facing life-threatening illness.
* Co-dependents find they are too ill or exhausted to go on doing everyone's work and that others have become more and more resistant to the co-dependent's efforts to control them.
* Workaholics find deadlines passing by unmet, forget to write down appointments, or fall ill with no "contingency plan".
* ACOAs become so overwhelmed by their standards and commitments that they cannot get out of bed to act on anything.
- The Twelve Step Journal, p. 39 |