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Step One - The War on Self
An essay on Step One by J a m e s G - To be updated soon. See my old Step Page here.
“The first step leads to low self-esteem, learned helplessness, personal irresponsibility, and binge drinking. The first step is a step toward disaster; it has no redeeming features.” (Bufe, 1998)
For many problem drinkers that arrive at their first AA meeting, or in their first group therapy session in treatment, the first step is their introduction to the program. It is unlikely these people ended up in either of these places because their lives were running smoothly; the chances are they have been having some serious personal problems that may or may not have been directly caused by their intake of alcohol (or other substances.) People who end up at their first AA meeting tend to be at one of the worst points in their lives and they can ill afford to distrust their new found ‘recovering’ friends. The carefully delivered message from the other people in those rooms will be ‘watered down’ to allow the ‘newcomer’ to slowly come to terms with what is expected of them in return for these ‘instant friends.’ They will most likely be told to ‘keep coming back’ and not to take the first drink. This on the surface will sound like a very reasonable request, especially for anyone who has diagnosed his/her own problem. Other things that might be said at this meeting might include statements about how the ‘recovering’ people there had tried everything else until they got to AA but AA was the only one that worked for them. The person may hear the word ‘God’ being mentioned but any questions about this will be silenced by re-assuring the newcomer that they are free to choose their notion of a Higher Power. Again, on the surface these all appear fairly reasonable statements and practices. In this example it is important to bare in mind that this person is probably feeling very down and with that is very vulnerable and receptive to suggestion. It is often said in AA that we all need to reach our rock-bottom in order that we will have the desire to do what is necessary to stop drinking and stay stopped, namely the 12 Steps and attend meetings for the rest of our lives. The backbone of these Steps is an admission in Step One that we are powerless over alcohol – 'that our lives have become unmanageable.’ In this essay I am going to put it to you that Bufe was correct when he stated this admission ‘leads to low self-esteem, learned helplessness, personal irresponsibility, and binge drinking.’
For anyone observing the alcoholic entering AA’s process of recovery, the first step is unlikely to raise any alarm bells. The problem drinker has either been sent to AA or gone to AA in the belief that AA will solve the very problem they were unable to solve – their drinking. So for this person then to be asked to admit this problem is highly unlikely to raise any issues. However this is not what Step One is stating. Step One states that the alcoholic must admit that he/she is powerless over alcohol at ALL times; in other words, whether he/she is drinking or not. Bill Wilson makes it very clear that AA believes that the alcoholic is powerless over the first drink as well as any subsequent drinks that he/she may take. (As the indoctrination process furthers, the newly labelled ‘alcoholic’ will also be encouraged to admit his/her powerlessness over people, places, and things.) So to clarify, the ‘alcoholic’ in AA’s eyes is absolutely powerless over alcohol in any situation at any time, whether they are drinking or not. Step One does NOT state the alcoholic is powerless over alcohol when they are drinking, it quite simply says that the alcoholic is powerless over alcohol. For anyone reading this that believes this is simply taking the words and using them to fit my argument the following extracts from the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, written by its founder Bill Wilson will be of interest:
When delusion based thinking ...is fully established in an individual with alcoholic tendencies, he has probably placed himself beyond human aid, and unless locked up, may die or go permanently insane. (Big Book pg 24)
We are without defense against the first drink. (Big Book pg 24)
The alcoholic at certain times has no effective mental defense against the first drink. Except in a few rare cases, neither he nor any other human being can provide such a defense. [Big Book pg 43)
Those statements taken in isolation again may or may not make sense to the reader, but if ‘human aid’ can’t provide this defence, then what is Bill Wilson and AA suggesting can? He is leading up to informing the ‘alcoholic’ that has just admitted their powerlessness over alcohol that God is the only thing that can, but only if He (God) chooses to! This effectively reduces the labelled ‘alcoholic’s’ human power, and control over his/her problem to absolutely useless; in fact it is so useless that there is no point in trying. I think at this stage we need to introduce a little background of AA to save any confusion for people who still believe that AA is a self-help group and not a cult like organisation.
Bill Wilson founded AA having claimed to have had a spiritual awakening after joining the Oxford Group. The Oxford Group members believed that the individual was powerless, full stop:
This stems directly from Oxford Group Movement teachings. Oxford Groupers fervently believed that the individual was powerless and that there was an all-powerful God who could, and would, solve all human problems if “men” would only turn their lives over to “Him.” Of course, this belief implies the existence of a God which can only be described as crudely anthropomorphic—a God vitally concerned with human problems, including the most trivial. It’s difficult to see the results of such a belief as anything other than atrocious. In the Oxford Groups, it led, as The Christian Century pointed out, to Frank Buchman’s desire for “a Godcontrolled Fascist dictator”; and in AA it leads to personal powerlessness, learned helplessness, and other-directedness. (Bufe, 1998)
For anyone that knows little about AA and its history this will come as a shock to them, but it is the truth and this information is widely available through a number of sources. Step One is a rehash of Oxford Group principles designed to get the problem drinker (vulnerable recruit) to admit a weakness that is then miraculously solved by God in Steps 2-3. (It does not take a genius to deduce that only Step One uses the word alcohol, yet God is mentioned or referred to in 6 of the other steps.)
While most AA members are okay with the "God" part, Twelve Step apologists go on and on about your right to substitute the group, nature, a light bulb (no kidding!), or a tree in attempts to make the program appear non-religious. However, the Twelve Steps become absurd when interpreted this way: "We humbly asked a light bulb to remove our shortcomings." Yeah, right! Some consider this an unethical bait-and-switch tactic. A few think AA and NA would be more effective if they went ahead and became religions. (Retrieved here.)
That extract raises an interesting question, and although this essay is predominantly about Step One, a thorough examination cannot be achieved without considering the ramifications of accepting this step, and in order to do that we need to look at some of the other steps. Why doesn’t AA just become religious? This is probably because AA is not really a religion, it is a cult. Essentially it does not matter whether they get the problem drinker to believe in God, or a light bulb, as long as they have the member under their control, promoting the program and getting more recruits. Whilst a Christian might want to persuade you of the existence of God and make that the ultimate purpose, AA just wants to convince the problem drinker that he is powerless and that in order to avoid jails, morgues or institutions he has to turn his will and his life over to AA, in the guise of a Higher Power, and practice their principles to recovery. It does not matter what that power is as long as the recruit believes that power works through AA, the rooms and the Steps, giving AA that power. AA sets out to change the whole person, the whole of their character and remove any last thread of self. It is truly a war on self.
On a personal note, I wrote in my journals one night, “The art of isolation, the decline of communication, welcome to the 12 step generation – where all you know about them is what they tell you.” I did not know any of these people before they stopped drinking; I knew nothing about them; I had to take their word for everything they said. The meetings existed of self labelled ‘alcoholics’ all claiming their powerlessness over all things, and telling us how awful their lives had been when they were drinking, and how AA had made honest men and women of them and had thus made them useful members of society again. For some it might be refreshing to note how little credit they take for this, but in reality it is not a healthy mindset. It would suggest they believe they have been chosen for some reason. What does it reduce the rest of us mere mortals to? And if that is not bad enough, it might do us well to note that a number of AAs believe that everyone should learn about the 12 Steps. Perhaps it is attractive to see oneself as powerless, especially if one has no desire to take responsibility.
Step One promotes the disease concept of alcoholism. Whether you believe in the disease concept or not, Bill Wilson’s idea of the disease was a threefold one – mental, physical and spiritual. It is the latter part of that theory that should concern us the most. Bill Wilson states that alcoholism is a disease like diabetes, yet he also states that in order to recover from it each AA member must undertake a personal inventory in which he/she admits his/her faults to another human being, to God and to themselves. This will make no sense to a rational mind. As Agent Orange points out on his website this, “is another bait-and-switch trick. Newcomers are told that alcoholism is a disease, and that they shouldn't feel guilty about it, but that is just a come-on to get people to join A.A.. Bill Wilson always considered alcoholism to be a state of sin, and that is why you have to confess all of your sins and "moral shortcomings" and "defects of character" and "wrongs" in Step Five” (See here.)
However the most damaging aspect of Step One is in how it instils new recruit with a belief that one drink is a total failure, which is what leads to binge drinking. If a problem drinker is tricked into believing they are powerless over alcohol then once they have succumbed to the first one all those messages will flood back to them and they will not even bother to try and control their drinking, or even stop, because they have ‘blown it’ by having one drink – they are powerless over alcohol. This is why many problem drinkers leave AA with a drinking problem that is worse than the one they went there to solve. However a lot of people see a relapse as the fault of the individual, which it probably is, yet AA has told that person that they are powerless over alcohol whether it is in their system or not. (See quotes from Bill Wilson above.) Again, this makes little sense. Family members will blame the alcoholic and recall how ‘sober’ he/she was in AA and how much worse his/her drinking got once they left AA not realising that it was in fact AA that contributed to their loved one's worsening drinking habits by forcing them to believe in their own powerlessness. This also plays into the hands of AA’s belief that alcoholism is a progressive disease that gets worse over time. Perhaps this highlights how AA might have made its own belief a self-fulfilling prophecy:
Dr. Brandsma found that A.A. increased the rate of binge drinking. After several months of indoctrination with A.A. 12-Step dogma, the alcoholics in A.A. were doing five times as much binge drinking as a control group that got no treatment at all, and nine times as much binge drinking as another group that got Rational Behavior Therapy. Brandsma alleges that teaching people that they are alcoholics who are powerless over alcohol yields very bad results and that it becomes a self-fulfilling prediction -- they relapse and binge drink as if they really were powerless over alcohol. (Retrieved here.)
When people ask why should anyone want to challenge AA because it is their belief that AA can only help people, the reasons above highlight a group of people, as many as 95%, that go, or are sent to AA to get help, but are potentially being harmed by it. These theories need exposure so that they too can be challenged and either proved or disproved. AA controls so many facets of the addiction and alcoholism treatment field that this is unlikely to happen for some time, but the process is well underway. For now most of this criticism is conducted online, but it is slowly seeping into the national press. For a cult to survive it needs to control the information that its members are exposed to, unfortunately for AA that is not possible in the age of the Internet. Scientology set up Narconon which it claims was done to aid addicts. If we compare Scientology to The Oxford Group, do we have a case of history repeating itself? Why is it that cults seem to be attracted to addicts and alcoholics? Because they can manipulate them easily with empty promises whilst taking advantage of their vulnerability. This can only serve the ever important objective of all cults; to recruit.
To be continued…
Alternative Take on the Steps: