A friend of mine got drunk last weekend. He has been in AA
for a bit, was doing well, took the foot off the gas, and, with no warning,
drank. He was not greatly upset or anything. He just drank.
If you take an action (taking one drink) that inevitably
triggers a chain reaction with devastating consequences, the problem is the
lack of feedback mechanism to stop you. That is the powerlessness. Unmanageability
could be said to extend naturally from this: if one is powerless over whether
or not one drinks, and then how much, and therefore the consequences, one is
not in any sense managing one's life—the course of one's life is essentially
dictated in large part by whether the switch flicks in one's head.
One may or may not be messed up. In fact most people in AA are,
at the beginning. But the danger of presenting the symptoms of being messed up
(restless, irritable, discontent; or the page 52 'bedevilments'; or any number
of other symptoms) as themselves being the trigger for drinking again means
that, if one is free of such symptoms, one might think oneself safe. Probably
one is, but not necessarily. One unmade amend, one dirty secret, one unpaid bill
could be the invisible stone in the shoe.
Most people in AA seem to have both psychological problems
and moral problems. The inventory in Step Four, after all, is called a 'moral
inventory', not a 'psychological inventory'. The questions in the Step Four aim
more squarely at moral deficits (selfishness and self-centredness) than at
discovering the aetiology of cognitive quirks, say.
The seven 'death threats' (those problems that, if left unaddressed,
according to the book 'Alcoholics Anonymous', will result in drinking) are more
moral than psychological (though they have psychological elements): resentment,
secrecy, harm to others, unmade amends, unpaid creditors, complacency, failure
to place oneself in service to others.
It is likely that psychological problems will also have to
be dealt with; the AA programme itself, the folk wisdom of AA, the examples of
psychological wellness in our peers and elders, etc. certainly work many of the
psychological quirks out over the years with no additional work necessary.
Sometimes a bit of external help seems to help; sometimes not.
But it is the moral aspects that need to be dealt with (cf.
the 'death threats' above) for power to be accessed to avoid the first drink.
When the problem is seen chiefly as a psychological one, psychological measures
may seem most appropriate, and the mental garbage is quite likely to take all
of the attention. This is quite dangerous: trying to solve the psychological
problems without the moral problems being addressed is largely futile, but it
is also potentially deadly.
Moral soundness (in today's actions, at least) is an achievable
target for any newcomer, regardless of the messed-up 'head'. Sorting the 'head'
out will surely take a long time. It is in this understanding that hope lies:
if the 'head' needs to be sorted out to stay sober, then good luck! If sobriety
rests on the right actions today, morally, then there's hope for all of us,
whatever else is going on, inside and outside our heads.