Question for the recovering alcoholics

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  • _
    _ Posts: 6,657
    Yeah, I think the higher power part is what turns a lot of people off from AA, perhaps my friend's husband included. I'm curious too... what higher power do people turn themselves over to if not to God in some form or another? :?
  • Red Mosquito75
    Red Mosquito75 Moline IL Posts: 1,038
    You could use the group as a whole as your higher power. Or you could use your sponsor..For each is different. he should find someone he can relate to in AA and then talk to him about it
    This is Not For You
  • _
    _ Posts: 6,657
    Red Mosquito75 wrote:
    You could use the group as a whole as your higher power. Or you could use your sponsor..For each is different. he should find someone he can relate to in AA and then talk to him about it

    Hmm... that's an interesting concept. But if you turn yourself over to your sponsor as a higher power, wouldn't that qualify as the sponsor "carrying the drunk"?? :?
  • mickeyrat
    mickeyrat Posts: 45,214
    norm wrote:
    pandora wrote:
    AA here in the south, which maybe the same all over, is heavily faith based- Christian. A strong belief in God is needed to overcome alcoholism is one of the 12 steps at least from people I've known who have joined that is what I'm told.

    AA says to turn yourself over to a higher power (or words to that effect)...it doesn't have to be any specific religion
    For AA as a whole, religion has nothing to do with it. There are of course religious members. God is spoken of in the literature, but only because its a more easily understood(or misunderstood) concept. The big book makes it clear it's up to the individual to develop their OWN conception of what that "Power greater Than Ourselves" or higher power would be. My first sponser chose a rock. I'm not sure what mine was or is to this day, but I know without a doubt there is something that makes all this shit work.

    As for the group itself being a higher power, this is a group of people that are able to NOT drink while the individual alone cannot not drink.
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    Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
    you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
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  • LikeAnOpeningBandForTheSun
    LikeAnOpeningBandForTheSun Posts: 6,097
    lettinggo wrote:
    My VERY lay opinion is based on research for my psych thesis which was about the "alcohol gene". I have always been an nurture over nature proponent. I believe that one's environment plays a far bigger role in addiction than one's genetics. Alcoholism is a learned behavior, and the "disease" is literally in the mind. Either way, there is no middle ground. An alcoholic can never just have one.
    i used to believe that until i lived with one. it was like a physical urge to her. very sad. my opinion is there are probably different kinds of alcoholics, i've known people who drank too much because of problems in their life, but she was definitely a genetic alcoholic. it was crazy. she could lay of for a couple weeks but if she had one drink she would drink til unconscious.
  • WaveCameCrashin
    WaveCameCrashin Posts: 2,929
    AA works if you work it. as far as the whole higher power issue some people need to just let go and realize that you are here for a reason and a purpose and you're not a mistake.

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