dSober

Something seems to be amiss. Half the votes here say otherwise.

Sudz No More

I was powerless, now I'm not. I think that speaks volumes to those that are still active but want to quit. You may have to declare yourself powerless in the beginning but it doesn't always have to be that way. Get far enough away from the addiction and anything is possible.

I know from my own experience it is hard for someone who is still relapsing to understand the change in how you feel about alcohol. When I was still relapsing I was surely and truly powerless but only because I gave it the power to continue living within me. Once I got determined and stayed off alcohol long enough I no longer felt that way.

RobbyRobot

Well until your trained, you are in fact presently powerless to perform competent brain surgery. There are many other examples to be drawn too. A plane in flight and the pilot suddenly is stricken unconscious. As an untrained passenger, the situation is grim. Being powerless to fly the plane would be painfully crystal clear.

In the above examples, there is more going on then simply a lack of training. Hopefully, plenty of potential of course. However, as for real time ability, not so much.

jdooner

Good to see you back Cabo

jason2

I am not powerless over alcohol. I am powerful over alcohol.

fini

i'm wondering if it would give a different result and/or clarify something if the question were asked instead like this: do you have choice with regards to drinking?

being powerless or powerful over alcohol sounds more like control.

but all these words have too many different meanings for individuals to be useful in such a simply worded question.

personally, i had plenty of willpower, perspective and cognitive tools.

incompetent at quitting? no, i accomplished it many many times.

staying quit was a different matter.

dSober

Sounds a lot like it to me too. I had to surrender and give it up. When I'm in control, I end up getting drunk. I control myself right into a bottle. When, instead, I ask: "What's the next right thing to do?", drinking is never the answer.

Yeah, that is the trick isn't it?

Deckard

I agree with this. I was in a struggle I could not win, so I forfeited the match. I walked away. It's not a question of degrees of power. I'm no longer playing the same game.

DoubleBarrel

I don't know why this is so complicated for some folks.

Step one, admitted we WERE powerless over alcohol.

As in, past tense.

I was powerless but am not today. Alcohol isn't some magical elixir, even to me as an alcoholic.

If I start drinking again, my ability to control it will be gone again.

desypete

of course you are entitled to your opinion. i wasn't attacking you, just your claims on the book as if someone can not read then the book isnt going to be any use to them. but you dont seem to be able to understand that point

my use of the word sorry is not how you think its meant, i am English and we do tend to over use the word sorry as a way of being polite

Sudz No More

True, if this poll was "Do You Have To Abstain From Alcohol The Rest Of Your Life?" You would get a resounding Yes vote from the majority.

I understood his use of the word "Powerless" as never able to drink again because we can't control it. Yet, in context with the responses being mostly about having your own power against Alcohol I believe more in that sentiment.

dSober

Lol, yeah I've noticed that. I think it's pretty cool.

LBrain

Looks like we have a tie heading into day 4.

Soberpotamus

This was true for me. Exactly this.

BradJustBrad

I am not powerless over alcohol, nor have I ever been.

I never had a drink that I did not choose to drink. I made many poor choices to drink, yes, but I own those choices. I cannot abnegate responsibility for my actions.

lovesymphony

No. When I went to AA a long time ago I took "powerless over alcohol" to mean I couldn't always stop myself from having the first drink. I started using it as an excuse when my urges got strong-hey it's the disease making me drink!... I'm not the only one who has said this.

I've never been powerless over the first drink but after drinking my being is altered and I'll be powerless

jsprplc2006

A substantial portion of the American populace think that the biological diversity we see today did not come into existence as a result of evolution by natural selection. Yet, they are wrong.

Every opinion is not created equal. Some people are idiots, and they deserve to be ignored.

jsprplc2006

Your argument is only valid assuming limited time to become "trained".

You get the picture though, so I won't argue further. The only thing you have added to the conversation is nitpicking semantics regarding the difference between "powerless" and "untrained".

dSober

Hard to argue with someone who proves his point.

Zencat

I'm of the current 47.12% of the not powerless over alcohol.

Releasing oneself from addiction has happened to me as 'letting-go'.

As For me = Detachment from alcohol is a release without the struggle, without being overpowered from alcohol or trying to be more powerful over a lost campaign of trying to control the effects, consequences of drunkenness.

Power or powerless has no use in my recovery vocabulary. They are concepts that have no meaning regarding my freedom from active addiction. When all is said: I let go of powerless/not.powerless concepts because in the end they prove little compared to the willful act of stopping to drink.