What About This Spiritual Awakening Thing?

The phrase “spiritual awakening,” found in the Twelfth Step and throughout A.A. literature, remains daunting to many beginners. For some, it conjures up a dramatic “conversion” experience – not an appealing idea to an alcoholic just coming off a drunk. To others, beaten down by years of steady drinking, it seems completely out of reach. But for those who persevere, ongoing sobriety almost invariably brings the realization that – in some wonderful and unexpected way – they have indeed experienced a spiritual change.

Spirituality, A.A. style, is the result of action. Step Twelve begins, “Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps. . .” (italics added), and in the book Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions (page 106), Bill W. describes what happens: “Maybe there are as many definitions of spiritual awakening as there are people who have had them. But certainly each genuine one has something in common with all the others. . . .

When a man or woman has a spiritual awakening, the most important meaning of it is that he has now become able to do, feel, and believe that which he could not do before on his unaided strength and resources alone. He has been granted a gift which amounts to a new state of consciousness and being. He has been set on a path which tells him he is really going somewhere, that life is not a dead end, not something to be endured or mastered. In a very real sense he has been transformed, because he has laid hold of a source of strength which, in one way or another, he had hitherto denied himself.”

AA – A Newsletter for Professionals, Fall 2003

Related Reading:

‘God As We Understood Him’

The basic principles of Alcoholics Anonymous were worked out in the late 1930s and early ’40s, during what co-founder Bill W. often referred to as the Fellowship’s period of “trial and error.”

The founding members had been using six steps borrowed from the Oxford Groups, where many of them started out. Bill felt that more specific instructions would be better, and in the course of writing A.A.’s basic text, ‘Alcoholics Anonymous’, he expanded them to twelve.

But he was dealing with a group of newly sober drunks, and not surprisingly his new version met with spirited opposition. Even though the founding members were in many ways a homogeneous bunch (white, middle-class, almost exclusively male, and primarily Christian in background), they represented the full spectrum of opinion and belief. Bill tells us in ‘Alcoholic Anonymous Comes of Age’, a history of the Fellowship’s early years, that “the hot debate about the Twelve Steps and the book’s content was doubled, doubled and redoubled.

There were conservative, liberal, and radical viewpoints.” (page 162) Some thought the book ought to be Christian; others could accept the word “God” but were opposed to any other theological proposition. And the atheists and agnostics wanted to delete all references to God and take a psychological approach.

Bill concludes: “We finally began to talk about the possibility of compromise. . . . In Step Two we decided to describe God as a ‘Power greater than ourselves.’ In Steps Three and Eleven we inserted the words ‘God as we understood Him.’ From Step Seven he deleted the words ‘on our knees.’

And, as a lead-in sentence to all the steps we wrote these words: ‘Here are the steps we took, which are suggested as a program of recovery.’ A.A.’s Twelve Steps were to be suggestions only.” (ibid., page 167)

More than sixty years later, those crucial compromises, articulated after weeks of heated controversy, have made it possible for alcoholics of all faiths, or no faith at all, to embrace the A.A. program of recovery and find lasting sobriety.

AA – A Newsletter for Professionals Fall 2003

Subscribe to updates

Related Reading:

A.A.’s 12-Steps – A Program of Action

A.A.’s Twelve Steps, which constitute its program of recovery, are in no way a statement of belief; they simply describe what the founding members did to get sober and stay sober.

They contain no new ideas: surrender, self-inventory, confession to someone outside ourselves, and some form of prayer and meditation are concepts found in spiritual movements throughout the world for thousands of years.

What the Steps do is frame these principles for the suffering alcoholic – sick, frightened, defiant, and grimly determined not to be told what to do or think or believe.

The Steps offer a detailed plan of action: admit that alcohol has you beaten, clean up your own life, admit your faults and do whatever it takes to change them, maintain a relationship with whatever or whoever outside of yourself can help keep you sober, and work with other alcoholics.

The same applies in a similar way to all 12-Step groups such as Al-anon, Alateen, ACOA, Gamblers Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous and Cocaine Anonymous.

AA – A Newsletter for Professionals Fall 2003

Subscribe to updates by RSS feed.

Related Reading:

Spiritual But Never Religious

The A.A. Program – Spiritual But Never Religious

One of the most common misconceptions about Alcoholics Anonymous is that it is a religious organization. New members especially, confronted with A.A.’s emphasis on recovery from alcoholism by spiritual means, often translate spiritual as religious and shy away from meetings, avoiding what they perceive as a new and frightening set of beliefs.

By the time they walk into their first meeting, many alcoholics have lost what faith they might once have possessed; others have tried religion to stop drinking and failed; still others simply want nothing to do with it.

Yet with rare exceptions, once A.A. members achieve any length of sobriety, they have found a source of strength outside themselves – a Higher Power, by whatever name – and the stumbling block has disappeared.

FAQ – AA – A Newsletter for Professionals Fall 2003; www.aa.org

Related Reading:

Examples of Enabling Behaviors

• Denying that the drinking or drug use constitutes a primary problem.
• Avoiding problems and conflicts which might "cause" the dependent to use alcohol or drugs.
• Minimizing the problems associated with use or the amount used by the dependent.
• Rationalizing the use; excusing the dependent’s increasingly inappropriate behavior as if it is due to other causes.
• Protecting the dependent from the natural and logical consequences of the chemical use.
• Controlling people and situations in order to control chemical use. Attempts to control amount of alcohol consumed.
• Waiting and Hoping. Things will get better. Be patient.
• The "No Talk" Rule, which creates a multitude of taboo subjects including the chemical use itself, sex, family finances, and family relations. Personal feelings, attitudes, values, and fears, especially in any context which would threaten the shaky balance of the family system, also are forbidden topics.

Professional enabling

• Some common problems affecting professionals who have contact with chemically dependent patients/clients include:
• Lack of knowledge about alcoholism/chemical dependency, and the dynamics of recovery.
• Mistaken belief that the dependent could eliminate problems associated with use if she/he really wanted to.
• Feeling powerless to effectively confront the dependent.
• Live and let live policy.
• Resentment at being manipulated leads to emotional withdrawal from the dependent.
• Fear of professional inadequacy leads to avoidance reaction.
• Professional "No Talk" rule associated with issues of confidentiality, politeness, and personal uneasiness.
• Discomfort with own chemical use or that of a family member.

Download the professional enabling questionnaire for teachers, doctors and counselors.

Attached Files:

• professional-enabling-check-list.pdf (13 KB)

Related Reading:

• Alcohol Related Brain Injury
• Adolescent Children of Alcoholics
• Alcoholic jealousy
• Alcoholics Anonymous with Narcotics Anonymous
• ALCOHOLISM MYTHS
• Anti-craving Naltrexone Injection Reduces Drinking
• Brief-TSF Description
• Brief-TSF is Holistic Treatment
• Client Impressions About Alcoholics Anonymous
• Comparison of Addiction Treatment
• Counselor Characteristics
• Dentists and Alcohol and Drug Use
• Free Inhalant Abuse Education
• Inappropriate Treatment for Alcohol Withdrawal is Common
• Predictors of Relapse in Alcoholism
• Prescription Drug Overdose Becomes Big Killer
• Sleep, PTSD and Alcoholism
• Spiritual Assessment
• Sweet Tooth and Alcoholism
• Teen Drinking Leads to Risk of Alcoholism
• The Dry Drunk
• Thyroid Function in Depression and Alcohol Abuse
• Training; Domestic Violence and Substance Abuse
• TSF Description
• Twelve Steps to Recovery from Burnout
• Subscribe to BriefTSF by e-Mail

Related Reading:

Course Overview: This course will define and discuss inhalant abuse, with particular concentration on how to recognize the manifestations of abuse.

This course is intended for nurses in all areas of healthcare, and health professionals in acute care settings.

Upon completion of this course, the learner should be able:

• Define inhalants.
• Identify classes and examples of inhalants.
• Recognize reasons why youths are using inhalants.
• Describe the characteristics of a youth likely to start using.
• Recognize Inhalant research regarding gender and ethnicity.
• Describe methods of Inhalation and the most frequent site of usage.
• Describe the effects of inhalants on the body.
• Define inhalant intoxication, withdrawal, tolerance and addiction.
• Describe the assessment process.
• Identify emergency treatment.
• Recognize fatal and long-term consequences of Inhaling.
• Correlate the relationship of Inhalant abuse and delinquent behavior.
• Describe keys to prevent Inhalant abuse.

What are Inhalants?

Inhalants are breathable chemical vapors that produce psychoactive (mind-altering) effects. While we are commonly exposed to volatile solvents and other inhalants in the home and workplace, most of us are unaware that these substances can be inhaled as drugs. This is probably because most inhalants were not designed to be used that way and because normal use results in low inhaled concentration.

Inhalants are often called “Gateway Drugs” because they lead to use of other drugs, such as marijuana and methamphetamines. Sometimes the chemical itself becomes the drug of choice and is abused into adulthood. Healthcare professionals and the public generally lack awareness of the toxic effects of inhalants and do not consider that household products could be addicting.

Course is available at; http://www.rnceus.com/course_frame.asp?exam_id=47&directory=inhal

Related Reading: