Powerlessness is often mistaken for weakness, but this is actually a step of strength. If you or someone you love struggles to manage their drug and alcohol addiction, it is vital to seek drug addiction treatment. Our comprehensive treatment programs and addiction specialists at Lighthouse Recovery Institute can help you find the right path to recovery. Admitting powerlessness means we can’t control our substance abuse. We might be able to stave off our abuse from time to time, but we start drinking or using drugs again sooner than later.

How to Regain Trust in a Relationship After Addiction

This concept highlights the overwhelming compulsion to drink despite the negative consequences it brings, such as health issues, damaged relationships, and financial problems. Some other differences–taking your medication typically keeps you out of the hospital. Taking a medication is designed to prevent self-endangerment, while there are no guarantees with an abused substance. That’s a warning sign that you may have a problem–if you can’t deal with life without the addiction in question. If you must have the addiction to feel normal, beware, you may be powerless over your addiction.

Recovery Advocacy

We sometimes feel as if we are the victim and point fingers at other people or situations. This kind of thinking prevents us from looking at our powerlessness. Accepting our powerlessness opens us up to the willingness for a Higher Power’s help. We let this Power remove the problem by practicing the rest of the steps as a way of life. Until we can accept powerlessness, we will not fully seek Power. Accepting our powerlessness (complete defeat) is the bottom that an alcoholic and addict must hit.

Tips for Starting and Working Step 1 of AA

A foundational truth in recovery is that you cannot stop or do better on your own. This belief assumes that you should be able to do recovery by yourself instead of relying powerless over alcohol examples on the support of other people. It forgets the unsuccessful efforts you’ve made to stop in the past, even though many of them came out of a place of trying to do better.

Mental Health Issues

How Drug and Alcohol Abuse Affects Families

• By recognizing the lack of control over addiction, individuals can begin to explore alternative paths towards recovery.
• One skip becomes two, which becomes five, and before you know it you’ve gone months without receiving the support you need for your recovery.
• This is part of our ongoing commitment to ensure FHE Health is trusted as a leader in mental health and addiction care.