Originally Posted by
BobArctor 
The idea of "powerlessness" can be thought of with the same nuances, I think. Thinking you are "powerless" over an addictive substance in an absolute sense is dangerous and irrational. But, addiction, by definition, means that you have an involuntary relationship with something. So, you are "powerless" to some extent.
In terms of the disease itself, powerless to me means that I can never go back to the way I drank in the beginning. I think many people who relapse do so with the suspicion that since they have succeeded in not drinking for a period of time, that perhaps it's now different. I have yet to meet someone who said they were able to do this for any length of time (no more than two to four weeks typically).
In terms of the things that I used to drink over (social situations, relationships that don't quite work as expected, financial pressures, etc.) much of the problem seems to be that I am coming from a place of "things shouldn't be this way" and trying to bulldoze what exists with my desired reality. Obviously, this doesn't work... I am powerless, whether I want to recognize it or not. It's that willful ignorance that I think we wrestle with in our transition from "not drinking" to sobriety (not needing to drink).