What is ‘Higher Power’ in Addiction Recovery?

“Okay, okay,” the alcoholic says, “I’m ready to seek out the spiritual way of life, and I’m willing to work on being grateful, humble, tolerant and forgiving. But I am not prepared to accept this God stuff, this ‘higher power’ nonsense, or whatever you want to call it. Who needs it, anyway?”

It is the rare alcoholic who accepts “the ‘higher power’ nonsense” without too many questions. All human beings like to think they are in control; alcoholics, who have already lost control over their ability to drink like “normal” people, tend to believe that they should at least have some control over their sobriety. For many alcoholics, giving up control to some vague notion of a higher power seems too much to ask when they have already lost control over their lives.

This explains why some people avoid Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). They are either scared away or entirely turned off by the ideas of someone wagging a finger in their faces, warning them to follow the rules or else demon alcohol will gobble them up. The image of AA as self-righteously moralistic crates fear and disdain in many thousands of alcoholics and non-alcoholic observers, who use phrases such as “organized religion,” “cult,” and “systematic indoctrination” the describe the fellowship.

It was precisely this sense of moral self-righteousness that inspired Bill – co-founder of AA – to break off from organized religion. One dreary November morning in 1934, when Bill was still drinking, his old friend Ebby dropped by for a visit. Here’s the story as Bill tells it in Alcoholics Anonymous:

I pushed a drink across the table. He refused it. Disappointed but curious, I wondered what had got into the fellow.

“Come, what’s all this about?” I queried.

He looked straight at me. Simply, but smilingly, he said, “I’ve got religion.”

I was aghast. So that was it – last summer an alcoholic crackpot; now, I suspected, a little cracked about religion. He had that starry-eyed look. Yes, the old boy was on fire, all right. But bless his heart, let him rant! Besides, my gin would last longer than his preaching.

The notion of a vengeful or Heaven-Hell consequence by someone sitting on a heavenly throne tossing lightning bolts of judgement here and there aroused in Wilson a “certain antipathy”.

I didn’t like the idea. I could go for such conceptions as Creative Intelligence, Universal Mind or Spirit of Nature, but I resisted the thought of a Czar of the Heavens, however loving His sway might be…

My friend (Ebby) suggested what then seemed a novel idea. He said, “Why don’t you choose your own conception of God?”

That was a lightning-bolt moment for Bill Wilson, who suddenly realized that he didn’t have to buy into anyone else’s ideas about God – He could create his own. Ever wary of religions and “their claim how confoundedly right all of them are,” Bill worked hard to create a program that did not claim to be “right,” and found its deepest humility in the undeniable imperfections of its assorted members.

AA embodies a “spirituality of imperfection,” which encourages alcoholics to look at themselves as they indeed are and, in that honest assessment, discover not only humility but gratitude, tolerance, and forgiveness. Choose your own conception of God, and then let go of the demand for ultimate control: That philosophy forms the beating heart of AA. As long as you are willing to admit that something somewhere has more power than you do – as long as you accept that you are not God – you are free to think of God in any way you please.

Wrestling with God, a “higher power,” or, as one alcoholic puts it, “this great invisible something or someone”, comes down to this one question: “Do I have all the answers?” If you think that you do, you have nothing more to learn, and that is that. On the other hand, if you are willing to admit that somewhere, somehow, there may be something or someone who knows more than you do, your world gently expands into spiritual territory.

Addiction recovery is all about acknowledging this Higher Power, and treading on the spiritual path toward a joyous and free life.

If you or a loved one is struggling with addiction, call +91 90008 50001 or 98490 69609