The first steps of the 12 Step program are the spiritual foundation for drug addiction treatment. They are based on the three spiritual principles found on page 60 of the Big Book of A. A. Essentially they are understood: I can\’t, God can, I\’ll let Him. It says, \”We admitted we were powerless over alcohol and that our lives had become unmanageable.\”

Most readers are aware that Bill W. was one of the co-founders of Alcoholics Anonymous. Most of us know that he had a spiritual awakening and that he described this awakening as a \”great white light experience\”. We may also be aware that after his spiritual awakening he was given a copy of The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James. In his reading of this book Bill discovered there are a great variety of spiritual experiences. He also found that there is one element which is common to all of them. That element is pain. All of the people whom William James studied experienced significant pain prior to their experience of a spiritual awakening. This would suggest that those who take the first step are those who accept their drug addiction and surrender to their powerlessness over their addiction having suffered pain as a consequence of it.

Some would look at the pain and say that it is unfair or that it is a bad thing. I am a cancer survivor. It is unlikely that I would have survived the cancer if it were not for the 12 Step program and the members of 12 Step programs who supported me in my treatment journey. Early I learned that if I was to survive I must \”take the value out\”. That meant that I did not have the privilege of seeing cancer as \”bad\”. For me, cancer was neither good nor bad. It simply was. One of the ways in which we make it more difficult to admit that we are powerless is by seeing drug addiction or alcoholism as a \”bad thing\”. If we are able to simply see drug addiction and alcoholism as a disease that is neither good nor bad, if we can see that we are not cheated but that addiction and alcoholism are simply part of life, then the acceptance part of it is easier.

The next steps state: \”We came to believe that a Power Greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.\” Bill W. understood that many who would work these Steps would have difficulty with a traditional understanding of God. The \”God of religion\” simply would not work for many alcoholics. He therefore borrowed another idea from William James and wrote about \”God as we understood Him.\” Still there are people in the program who will question how we know that God exists. The answer to that question is that we do not know. What we do know is that the treatment Steps work. The 12 Step program works best for most. That is what we know and that is all we need to know. In meetings we hear \”It works if you work it.\” The only reason for working the treatment program is that it works. The only reason for believing in God is because it works.

The next steps state: \”We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.\” For many of us the understanding of God that we received in church or as children in our families simply does not work. There is a real freedom in being able to use an understanding of God which works for us. Again we turn to William James. He taught us that we have a right to believe in God in a way that works for us.

This Step calls us to surrender to a Higher Power. This means that we have a willingness to submit to the authority of God as we understand Him. Again we are confronted with our need to be in control. When we attempt to give up control, we confront a very basic force within us, a need to be in control. The inner spiritual struggle for control is, it would appear, the most fundamental struggle of drug addiction treatment. The capacity to let go of control, to surrender, is the most basic and most difficult issue of recovery. It seems those who are able to surrender are generally those who recover and those who do not surrender are those who do not recover.

Learn more about us at www.valleyhope.org/drug-rehab-alcohol-rehab-aboutus.aspx or
www.valleyhope.org.

Learn more about us at http://www.valleyhope.org/drug-rehab-alcohol-rehab-aboutus.aspx or
http://www.valleyhope.org.

Author Bio: Learn more about us at www.valleyhope.org/drug-rehab-alcohol-rehab-aboutus.aspx or
www.valleyhope.org.

Category: Wellness, Fitness and Diet
Keywords: drug addiction treatment, alcohol rehab, drug rehab, 12 Step Program, Control, Surrender