The very first step of Alcoholics Anonymous is to Admit Complete Defeat. To admit that we are powerless over Alcohol and that are lives have become unmanageable.
The real first step in AA is to admit that you are powerless over the alcohol in any and all forms and that your life has become unmanageable. In short, the first step isn't to take charge over your will; it's admitting that your will got you in trouble. It's not a step of empowerment, but of surrender.
The very best way to take the first step is to surrender completely and without reservation. In order to do this you must have W.H.O. The WHO of AA will help you get through every step. The WHO of AA is the Willingness, the Honesty, and the Open Mindedness to proceed. Without this your ego will over power your initial gift of desperation and you will go back out.
Well, let’s take a closer look at that one. Complete defeat is complete, meaning everything, completely, utterly, totally. So that would mean that our powerlessness doesn’t stop at just Alcohol, but stretches much, much further into every aspect of our lives.
The truth is that we have an affliction that not only affects every aspect of our life, but almost every aspect of every life of those that come into contact with us as well.
I believe the lesson Bill Wilson tried to pass on to us through Step One goes something like this: We alcoholics are POWERLESS over alcohol – that means when we take alcohol in any form, it triggers within us an allergic reaction that results in a physical craving – this carving leads inevitably to yet another drunken spree and to all the attendant problems that go with it. But these many problems are not the thing that makes our lives unmanageable – they are only the consequences of our destructive drinking and they do make life one chaotic mess!
But when we finally make up our mind to quit – it's only then we discover that our lives have become UNMANAGEABLE – that we are afflicted with a mental obsession – that "we have lost the power of choice in drink. Our so-called will power becomes nonexistent. … We are without defense against the first drink." When the physical allergy of the body (POWERLESS) is coupled with the mental obsession (UNMANAGABLE) the Big Book says we are suffering from "a hopeless condition of mind and body." If we want to sum up the lesson of Step One in a single word, that one word is: HOPELESS!
Step One is the necessary beginning we need to journey out of the pit of despair and onto the road to recovery.
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