can alcoholics become former alcoholics
Can Alcoholics Become Former Alcoholics?
Writen by El Veasey
Twelve step approaches tell their members to admit their powerlessness over their addictions and to rely on a higher power to assist them in accomplishing what they can’t do for themselves: stop using and maintain themselves in a perpetual state of recovery. They say this higher power can be anything the addicts choose: a chair, a tree, a sponsor, an idea, etc. If it’s up to the addicts to decide who or what their higher power is, does that higher power have an existence outside of the addicts’ choices or beliefs? So who or what is the real higher power?
On the one hand addicts are told to give up trying to use their personal power, to admit powerlessness and depend on a higher power to help them. Then they’re told to use that personal power they’ve been asked to give up, to choose a higher power, which is really that personal power given up, projected as a higher power outside of themselves! The real higher power is a projection of the addicts’ beliefs about a higher power though they aren’t aware of this!
Sounds like good psychology and apparently it works for lots of people, judging by the proliferation of twelve step groups and programs in existence! (Although it doesn’t seem to work for those who can’t get into the religious aspect of depending on a higher power over one’s own strengths and efforts.) Except that it dupes addicts into thinking that, they have no personal power to use to help overcome their addictions by their own efforts! When in reality, they’re coaxed into using that personal power in an indirect way!
The emphasis should be on helping addicts to open up to a greater wisdom and maturity than to a higher power! Having power without wisdom is not good!) They should be focusing on becoming more aware of when they’re allowing their biases, immaturities and dependencies to stop them from doing what’s best for them to do and then do it! This would be more beneficial to addicts in the long run because, their essential problem is their lack of wisdom, immaturity and emotional dependency on others!
The idea that “once an alcoholic always an alcoholic” and “The alcoholism is a disease” concept, are preconceptions that stereotype all alcoholics as having a genetic defect they can never overcome! All they can do is seek treatment and struggle for the rest of their lives to stay sober! They never recover! They’re always recovering and subject to relapsing!
There is a controversy going on between those who believe that some people are born alcoholics, will always be alcoholics and the best they can do is to remain in a treatment program for the rest of their lives! And between those who believe that there is no genetic test that proves that one is born an alcoholic and that it’s possible for many alcoholics to return to non-alcoholic functioning again!
Group one believes that alcoholics have a genetic defect, an incurable disease—– they’re sick; no matter how well they may be doing, they have a disease and are always in danger of relapsing!
Group two believes that although it’s possible that some alcoholics may have a genetic propensity for alcohol, that most of them learned to become alcoholics, because drinking is a commonly observed behavior in our culture! That drinking is observed in the home, in the movies, on television, in advertising and among peers. Others are observed drinking to relax, to have fun, to feel confidant, to cope with stress and with emotional traumas. That alcoholism is a learned behavior and can be unlearned!
Group one believes that alcoholics need to be in a 12-step program, they need sponsors! They need to accept that alcoholism is a disease and depend on a higher power, in order to be helped!
Group two believes that 12-step programs work for some but not all people! That other approaches like group therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy and learning to become emotionally self-dependent can also be effective, that some alcoholics recover without any treatment at all or with self-help methods!
Groups that support the alcoholism is a disease concept seems to have helped numerous people with alcohol problems. They probably could help many more if the disease concept wasn’t so dogmatically adhered to! It turns many people off! (These groups may have a learned propensity for believing that alcoholics have a genetic predisposition for alcohol abuse.)
It discourages some people, when they hear “alcoholics” with years of “clean time” still calling themselves alcoholics and still feeling that they may be in danger of a relapsing at any time! Some see this as a bleak future to look forward to! They say, “If after all of the struggling I’ve had to go through to get sober, I’m never going to get to the point where I’m no longer in danger of relapsing what’s the point! It’s not worth it! I might as well drink!
Group one views all alcoholics’ potential to recover as being the same ——zero!
Group two allows for variation in alcoholics’ potential to recover and believes that you can’t predict who can or can’t recover before hand!
Which of these groups is right?
If you have a problem with compulsive drinking which way would you rather it be assumed? That you have a disease that you can never recover from or that your case should be examined on an individual basis and to see if you have the potential to recover to non- alcoholic functioning!
You decide!
El Veasey holds Ph.Ds in counseling, political critiques and psycho-social commentary from the University Of Hardknocks Ghetto Town, USA.
Email: elveasey at yahoo.com
Blog1: http://el-veasey.blogspot.com
Blog2: http://lveasey.blogspot.com