for me, in active addiction there wasn't a choice just a never-ending circle of hell....once i was ready for the steps and ready to accept the program of AA i had no problem seeing my powerlessness over alcohol and drugs. i had never looked at it that way before i became willing to work the steps. it was always something i had thought i could or would be able to "control". from my experience and from listening to the experiences of others we didn't even realize we had a choice until the program of AA showed us an easier, softer way and we were ready and willing to be open-minded enough to accept powerlessness.

I agree with what our founders of aa wrote in the BB that if i am alcoholic then I have lost the power of choice and I will never get that power back. It says that no real alcoholic ever recovers control. Thats enough for me i wont argue against the directions for the steps in the BB others may and when i did i kept going back to the drink. In 6 1/2 yrs of sobriety this time i havent found it necesary for me to argue against the directions.

I agree with phil608 I can not argue with the bb, I have lost all control and will never ever beable to have it. I have seen all the terible things drinking and using has done to me and now that i am working the steps and working the program I see how much better I am.so for me when I did my first step we had to make a list of all the ways we were powerless over drinking and let me tell you when I read that list I cry because I cant believe how I let it control my life in many ways.

i try : In my drinking days i saw alcohol as me aponent. I have to fight him on life and dead. In the years that followed my anemy gets stronger and stronger an beats me up every time . But every time i went back into the ring. Than one day now 3 years ago i disided to surrender. I give up for the first time and what happened? The alcohol dident fight me anymore. When i met AA people for the first time i hated them. I thought they were a bunch of loosers. I thought they give up the fight. Now i see they were right. I was powerless against alcohol but i dont want that. When i took step 1, that means when i give up the fight, the victory starts. Even if you are powerless you can make a disiscion. Hope you understand what i mean. Ren

nice post Rene - and very clear to understand.

Once again this choice issue is brought up. I don't seem to be able to make my thoughts clear to some.

Phil talks in the same sentence about choice and control. Damn, please friends, read this one more time and file it away in your minds.

I do not say having choice and having control are the same things. CHOICE AND CONTROL ARE NOT THE SAME THING!

I have the choice today to do many things that are not good. If I make a decision to drink, I'll regret it. I'll regret it because I CAN NOT CONTROLL IT!

Please Phil, read again what I just wrote. Choice and control are not the same thing.

I am a case in point. I have been a member of AA for many many years. I've done the third step many many times. But I have to do it not just once and move on. I have to focus on doing what God wants me to do on a moment by moment basis. I am never going to be perfect. And one of the things I have to make a decision on is to turn my will over to God. Not once in my life, but daily, moment by moment. I know that I, running on self-will, I will often make bad choices.

BUT I HAVE THE CHOICE!

I've beaten my head against this issue on DS far too long for my own sanity! If you other alcoholics don't have the option of doing the wrong thing, I wish I was you, but I have the option today to throw all I've learned in AA and life in the trash. I have to make a decision. You don't, you have it in the bag.

Am I deluded? Am I totally insane? Or can't I make sense when I communicate?

Thanks for bringing this up again Nicky! I think for my health I'll just carry another resentment around all day.... LOL. (just kidding)

I did it just for you Dan!! (lol).

I think you are splitting hairs here Dan. You appear to be talking about choice in one particular context. God gave us free will. We do have a choices when we turn our will over to Him. We seek His will and the power to carry it out and make our choices along spiritual lines.We only lost the choice and control over our drinking until we lived in the solution.

Thank you Gailly! And you are right, but it goes further in my thoughts.

You say:

"We only lost the choice and control over our drinking until we lived in the solution."

In my thoughts, being in the solution makes the choice to do the right thing infinitely easier. But I don't care if I'm an under-the-bridge drunk who hasn't seen a sober day in years, I still can, if I have to, not drink. If only to keep my bagged wine stashed until the wino sleeping next to me falls asleep, or the cops return to their car, I can control myself enough to wait. And if it was important enough to me, I could wait until tomorrow.

It is hard as hell for almost any alcoholic who isn't spiritually fit. It's even hard for many who are spiritually fit. But I will never say that I think it is entirely beyond anyone's ability to wait or to stop.

That is so often used as a cop out.

I think we always have choices in all we do in life but step 1 for me meant accepting this was not a choice I was able to allow myself to choose anymore.
I am so powerless over alcohol!
Nikki :)

yes i am powerless over alcohol and my life became unmanageable. Yet i still tried to manage things once i admitted i was powerless over alcohol...... until it was brought to my attention that i am powerless over alot more than just that. When it comes to choice........ i know for me it is a day at a time.... today i choose not to drink....... and sometimes i say ok not today yet maybe tomorrow...... i heard a friend of mine say that all the time that was in AA and i wasn't. He still has not picked up a drink....... powerlessness over alcohol is what it says in the first step.... i can admitt that...... yet if i don't work the program and want God's will for me then i still can make the choice....... only my opinion of course...... and it may help you in helping others...

Yes, you can choose to "whiteknuckle" it and stop drinking until that cop disappears etc but inevitably, if you are an alcoholic, you will drink again. The mental obsession is too powerful to make that choice not to drink last. I remember the mental, and sometimes physical anguish of that only too well. But now I do not have a problem with alcohol nor the desire to drink it no matter how bad or good my life gets as long as I am in fit spiritual condition. If I am not, I will drink again.

Alright, how nice! Two people in a row who are in the program admit that in the short run, they can choose not to drink. That's all I've been saying.

I hear people who are at varying stages of recovery say at meetings "Today I choose not to drink". So I brought the topic up a few days ago. And round and round it went. It seemed that the consensus was that today we can choose not to drink. For a moment anyway.

Have you ever heard AA members tell a newcomer who hasn't got the tools of the program "Keep coming back and dont' drink between meetings"? If the newcomer had no choice in the matter, why would all these wise sober recovering people even bother to say that? They know from experience that even a newcomer to the program has the choice.

I choose not to drink today !!!

I also choose to work the solution !!!

There ya go Terri..... now you're getting it! LOL