Windancer

For the first time I have begun working the Twelve Steps. I am on Step One. I was just curious to see what other's interpretation/understanding of it is, what thoughts people have about it, any suggestions of ways/activities to work this crucial step etc.

I think I have just gotten a sponsor and I will be working the Steps with her. But SR is a huge support for me too and I wanted to include all you lovely folks in my 12 Step journey.

Any and all suggestions, comments, thoughts, ideas, basically anything you would like to share about Step One are very, very welcome .

"We admitted we were powerless over alcohol -- that our lives had become unmanageable."

Thank you!

Windancer

The word "powerless" was very hard for me to swallow for a long time. But it is true. I gave all my power away to booze and I am left powerless before it.

Coldfusion

Coming from a scientific perspective, I would examine the null hypothesis also: maybe you DO have power over alcohol. In my opinion, the "Rational Recovery" program--which is discussed here in the Secular forums--embodies this concept. In fact, their oath to never go to a recovery meeting is one thing that convinced me of the importance of recovery meetings!

Windancer

I'm curious as to how Rational Recovery's negative stance on meetings convinced you of the importance of meetings. Would you be able to shed some light on that for me?

Thanks

tomsteve

this is truly a very simple program. if ya want to complicate it, I cant help.
but if you want to keep it simple, step one is lined out in "the doctors opinion","more about alcoholism" and "there is a solution."

powerless- once ive had a drink I cant stop.
unmanageable- life revolved around alcohol and I neglected everything in my life.

we had to fully concede to our inner most self that we were alcoholics. that was the 1st step in recovery

tomsteve

notice the 1st step says "admitted we WERE powerless."
past tense.
after we find a power greater than ourselves and work the steps, we aren't powerless and the 10th step promises tell us that


And we have ceased fighting anything or anyone - even alcohol. For by this time sanity will have returned. We will seldom be interested in liquor. If tempted, we recoil from it as from a hot flame. We react sanely and normally, and we will find that this has happened automatically. We will see that our new attitude toward liquor has been given us without any thought or effort on our part. It just comes! That is the miracle of it. We are not fighting it, neither are we avoiding temptation. We feel as though we had been placed in a position of neutrality - safe and protected. We have not even sworn off. Instead, the problem has been removed. It does not exist for us. We are neither cocky nor are we afraid. That is our experience. That is how we react so long as we keep in fit spiritual condition.

notice the last sentence- that's the condition for remaining to have power.

but put a drink in me and I have no power.

Windancer

I'm not complicating anything at all in any way, nor do I want to complicate it. I just asked for thoughts and opinions and experiences.

Windancer

I had noticed the "we" as opposed to "I" but I didn't catch that it is indeed past tense.

Windancer

Although tomsteve I must be honest. I do have a tendency to over analyze and complicate matters .

tomsteve

just remember that its because we found that HP. another thing that shows it is past tense is in "working with others"


Assuming we are spiritually fit, we can do all sorts of things alcoholics are not supposed to do. People have said we must not go where liquor is served; we must not have it in our homes; we must shun friends who drink; we must avoid moving pictures which show drinking scenes; we must not go into bars; our friends must hide their bottles if we go to their houses; we mustn't think or be reminded about alcohol at all. Our experience shows that this is not necessarily so.

We meet these conditions every day. An alcoholic who cannot meet them, still has an alcoholic mind; there is something the matter with his spiritual status. His only chance for sobriety would be some place like the Greenland Ice Cap, and even there an Eskimo might turn up with a bottle of scotch and ruin everything! Ask any woman who has sent her husband to distant places on the theory he would escape the alcohol problem.
In our belief any scheme of combating alcoholism which proposes to shield the sick man from temptation is doomed to failure. If the alcoholic tries to shield himself he may succeed for a time, but he usually winds up with a bigger explosion than ever. We have tried these methods. These attempts to do the impossible have always failed.
So our rule is not to avoid a place where there is drinking, if we have a legitimate reason for being there. That includes bars, nightclubs, dances, receptions, weddings, even plain ordinary whoopee parties. To a person who has had experience with an alcoholic, this may seem like tempting Providence, but it isn't.
You will note that we made an important qualification. Therefore, ask yourself on each occasion, "Have I any good social, business, or personal reason for going to this place? Or am I expecting to steal a little vicarious pleasure from the atmosphere of such places?" If you answer these questions satisfactorily, you need have no apprehension. Go or stay away, whichever seems best. But be sure you are on solid spiritual ground before you start and that your motive in going is thoroughly good. Do not think of what you will get out of the occasion. Think of what you can bring to it.

iwhen I got into AA I was powerless at first. but then I found that HP working the steps.left to my own devises,tho, I drink, so I go me an HP!!
and if it wasn't past tense I wouldn't be able to do ANY of them things

tomsteve

p.s.
im glad ya don't wanna complicate it. I did. not fun
analyzing and complicating seems to be common among alcoholics. hell I complicate choosing which toilet paper to get at walmart! seriously, I do!! too many choices!!
and analyze??? cant say how many times I got paralysis by analysis.
eventually I surrendered more.
the simpler I make it the easier it is

sugarbear1

The steps as we read them are all in the past tense and are a summary of what we've done, not of what we do.

Step 1 is personal as is the way we work the steps into our lives.

tomsteve

see that,winddancer!?!?!? I complicated trying to explain it and sugarbear summarized it in 2 sentences!!

Windancer

Haha I did see that

Gottalife

An often missed part of step one is the next part, or second part of the direction in the big book. "The delusion that we are like other people, or presently maybe, has to be smashed" In another part is says there must be no reservation whatsoever.

It is the reservation than can trip us up. The thought that one day... or, it might turn out to be of some other cause... these thoughts are guranteed to undermine recovery.

Like others have said it is very simple. Nearly all my first step work was done with a glass in my hand, learning what it meant to be powerless and have an unmaneageable life. The only part of it I did sober was to add the full stop, or period.

I knew I was beat. It was a no brainer. Later I went through those chapters recommended earlier and compared my experience with what was written. Check!

tomsteve

i think this forum proves this to be quite true.
the ONLY people i am like is other alcoholics.
after i was sober a while i realized that i ONLY hung out with people that drank like me.
normal drinkers that could go to the bar, eat a meal(wth is that all about?!? a restaurant is for meals and bar for drinking!) and walk out after 2 or 3.....
they were weird!

sugarbear1

I'd like to take credit for those words, but they come from my sponsor.

With over 30 years of sobriety, I think this sponsor is imparting their current take on sobriety as opposed to someone with less sober days put together....kinda nice, kinda complicated (for me), but it seems to be working.

Gottalife

"We have recovered and been given the power to help others"

Tommyh

we admitted we were powerless over alcohol means to me I am going to drink again,key word for me is powerless,that means to me I cannot choose to drink or not,and have permanently sobriety,fact is I was going to drink one day,be it today,next week or next year.To drink booze is to die for me since I do not have a guarantee I`ll sober up

that our lives had become unmanageable,in other words,(chapter 3) I cannot manage the thoughts that come before a drink successfully to give me sobriety for the rest of my life
that equals insanity when I cannot control my thinking
the physical allergy plus that mental obsession means I am in deep trouble
the first paragraph in chapter 4 of the big book mentions something about step one also. If, when you honestly want to, you find you cannot quit entirely, or if when drinking, you have little control over the amount you take, you are probably alcoholic. If that be the case, you may be suffering from an illness which only a spiritual experience will conquer.

take care and have a good day!

dox

This is not my interpretation; more my experience.

The first part of step one was a no-brainer.
I had seriously tried to quit at least a couple of times and had failed in short order.
Alcohol had a hold on me.
I already knew that .

But that was not a problem was it?
Just buy in bulk, hide it from the Missus and carry on . . .

I was so arrogant about my self-knowledge with respect to powerlessness that some of my first words about step one were:
"I've already done step one. I'm here aren't I ?"

I didn't know about the unmanageability of my life.
Self-centredness had blinded me to my self-centredness -- my selfishness.
Self-deception had blinded me to my self-deception -- my dishonesty.
Sounds complicated;
it WAS.

I could not accept this simple fact about my complicated life:
I was not in control.

Weekly meetings with a wise and patient sponsor, who assigned written work, was what it took for me to accept that my life had become unmanageable.

That was the first simple step for this complicated alcoholic to begin unraveling his tangled, unmanageable life.

At some point, working through the steps, i learned that dishonesty was a major cause of complication and unmanageability.

Once I stopped drinking and got honest with myself and others, the unmanageability began to disappear.

This is a simple programme of action.