When your alcohol use, including being sick from drinking, often prevents you from keeping up with responsibilities at home, work, or school, it’s a problem. Are you wondering whether your drinking is on the high side of normal or if it’s crossed the line into a problem? If any of the following scenarios seem familar, it might be time to make some changes. If you answer yes to even one or two of these questions, Lin recommends speaking to your primary care physician or seeing an addiction specialist. Treatments can include medication and counseling, and it may be possible for you to moderate your drinking rather than quit altogether. The Serenity Prayer is a central mantra of many recovery communities.
Impact on your health
Individuals struggling with alcoholism may not seek help due to feelings of shame, fear of judgment, or a belief that they can manage their drinking on their own. It means recognizing that one’s drinking has become uncontrollable and that attempts to moderate or quit have repeatedly failed. This concept highlights the overwhelming compulsion to drink despite the negative consequences it brings, such as health issues, damaged relationships, and financial problems. The First Step does not say that you are powerless over your actions, your decisions, or your relationships; it says that you are powerless over alcohol/drugs. This is not an excuse for continuing down the same destructive path.
Step 1 of AA: “Powerlessness”, the First of the 12-step Journey
If you’re struggling with drug or alcohol addiction and are trying to overcome it on your own, give 12 step meetings a chance. Find an AA meeting near you to hear from others in a similar position and receive judgment-free support. Further, by accepting that there are things that we cannot control, including our drug use, we open ourselves up to receiving the help of others. Coming to this understanding will make you much more receptive to looking to sources outside yourself for recovery, such as your sponsor, your fellow group members, or your Higher Power. All of which makes you more receptive to learning and healing, which in turn makes it much easier to follow through with the remaining twelve steps of AA.
Admitting Powerlessness Encourages Acceptance
Listen to relatives, friends or co-workers when they ask you to examine your drinking habits or to seek help. Consider talking with someone who has had a problem with drinking but has stopped. Damaged relationships with family and friends, job loss due to unreliability or poor performance, and disruptive sleep patterns that impact overall health are just a few of the ways alcoholism can wreak havoc. Financial powerless over alcohol issues often arise as well, with money being spent on alcohol at the expense of essential needs and responsibilities. MARR Addiction Treatment Centers specialize in treating individuals whose lives have been destroyed by addiction. Relying on 48 years of experience in the treatment industry, MARR identifies each individual’s underlying issues and uses clinically proven techniques to treat them.
- Imagine sipping a beer and suddenly landing your dream job, or a glass of wine doubling your bank balance.
- Services offered by your treatment team can work alongside the 12 Steps to help you find your path to recovery.
- Because he is a member of a support group that stresses the importance of anonymity at the public level, he does not use his photograph or his real name on this website.
- While many peer support groups have adopted or adapted the 12 Steps to fit their philosophies, LifeRing and these other secular organizations have not.
- She holds certifications in addiction and co-occurring disorder counseling and a bachelor’s degree in addiction studies, having graduated summa cum laude.
- This trust and surrender create space for growth and transformation, enabling us to experience a deeper sense of peace and serenity.
- Powerlessness is a lack of decision-making control over your life.
Seeking Support from Others
AA members believe they cannot control their drinking without the help of a higher power. Admitting to being powerless over alcohol will help a person to recognize that he or she does not have control over their drinking. Denying there is a problem only allows the person to continue their destructive behavior. Providing these examples of powerlessness over alcohol can help an individual to start recovery. Many people with an addiction to alcohol feel guilt, low self-esteem, and shame.
When you have a drinking problem, your brain reacts to these triggers differently than a social drinker’s does. New research suggests the risks of even moderate or light drinking may outweigh the benefits. In June, the World Health Organization said that no level of alcohol consumption is safe for our health. And a new study funded by the National Institutes of Health found that binge drinking among adults ages 35 to 50 has reached historic levels. Too much alcohol affects your speech, muscle coordination and vital centers of your brain. A heavy drinking binge may even cause a life-threatening coma or death.
How to Simplify and Interpret Step One, Then Put It into Action
Signs You May Have a Drinking Problem
