powerlessness - or why addiction is like swimming
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powerlessness - or why addiction is like swimming
I have never understood the idea of powerlessness in the 12 Steps. The following article finally cleared up my confusion.
http://aureusinc.com/2012/wp-content...revisited2.pdf
It's an interesting read--noting that once in the water, someone who knows how to swim cannot "choose" not to swim. Knowing how to swim is permanent--an automatic reaction over which the swimmer has no control.
Ditto with addiction-related changes in the brain. Just like a swimmer can't "unlearn" how to swim, the neurological changes don't just go away if the A abstains. This is the meaning of powerlessness--what the author calls "automaticity." Just like the only way for a swimmer not to swim is to stay out of the water, the only way for an A to stay clean is to abstain.
http://aureusinc.com/2012/wp-content...revisited2.pdf
It's an interesting read--noting that once in the water, someone who knows how to swim cannot "choose" not to swim. Knowing how to swim is permanent--an automatic reaction over which the swimmer has no control.
Ditto with addiction-related changes in the brain. Just like a swimmer can't "unlearn" how to swim, the neurological changes don't just go away if the A abstains. This is the meaning of powerlessness--what the author calls "automaticity." Just like the only way for a swimmer not to swim is to stay out of the water, the only way for an A to stay clean is to abstain.
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