Overview
We could gain a deeper, perhaps ‘better’ understanding of addiction and recovery by examining Step One through the lens of anxiety as a root cause. This perspective shifts our focus from just addressing substance use disorder (chemical dependency) and addictive behaviors to understanding the underlying emotional dynamics that drive them. Simply put, anxiety is the ‘cause,’ and addictive behavior is the ‘effect’—an attempt to gain a sense of ‘control’ or ‘management’ over one’s anxiety.
One potential reason for the high relapse rate in substance use disorder is that treatment often addresses symptoms (the effects) rather than the root cause (anxiety). By focusing on anxiety as the underlying driver of addiction, we can open the door to more effective and sustainable recovery strategies. Put another way, clean-time alone doesn’t equal recovery, uncovering or healing from addiction.
The Traditional vs. A New Perspective
Traditionally, Step One has emphasized powerlessness over substances or behaviors—the end products of a longer chain of psychological and emotional events. A new perspective suggests going deeper to address our fundamental relationship with anxiety and how we tend to relate to our emotional discomfort as the primary challenge.
Revised Step One:
“We admitted we were powerless over the mind’s anxiety—that when consumed by uncomfortable thoughts and feelings, we often default to unskillful behaviors in an attempt to soothe or escape, creating unmanageability in our lives and the lives of those around us.”
This new framing emphasizes anxiety as the root cause, while addictive behaviors are seen as attempts—albeit unskillful and often harmful—to manage the resulting emotional discomfort. Understanding this dynamic can help explain why traditional treatment approaches often struggle: they focus on addressing the symptoms of addiction rather than the underlying anxiety that drives and powers it.
Breaking Down the Components
1. Powerlessness Over Anxiety
The first key insight is recognizing our fundamental powerlessness over experiencing anxiety. This is not a personal weakness but a natural part of the ‘human condition,’ rooted in evolutionary biology. Our minds evolved sophisticated threat-detection systems that use anxiety, worry, and fear as essential survival tools.
While these systems served our ancestors well in responding to physical threats, modern life often triggers these mechanisms in response to psychological or emotional stressors. Attempting to suppress or control this system is futile—it is hardwired into our biology. Understanding this reduces shame and invites self-compassion. We are not ‘broken’ or ‘damaged goods’; we are responding predictably to our inherited nervous system architecture.
2. The Anxiety-Behavior Cycle
Anxiety triggers the brain’s survival responses, creating an overwhelming instinct to seek immediate relief. This leads to what we could call the “anxiety-behavior cycle”:
• Trigger: Anxiety or emotional discomfort arises (due to internal or external stressors).
• Response: A reactive urge emerges to escape or soothe the discomfort (activation of the survival brain).
• Behavior: We default to coping mechanisms—usually unskillful and not autehntically helpful—that provide temporary relief.
• Consequence: These behaviors create new problems, which generate more anxiety, perpetuating the cycle.
Over time, this cycle can intensify, escalating the severity of both anxiety and the reliance on contradictory addictive behaviors.
3. Understanding Unmanageability
Unmanageability in Step One isn’t limited to the external chaos caused by addiction. It also refers to the internal frustration of trying to manage or control emotional experiences through outward means. This creates a psychological double bind: the harder we try to control anxiety, the more unmanageable it becomes, much like trying to calm rough waters by splashing around. Recognizing this helps us understand why willpower-based approaches often fail—they intensify the very dynamics driving addiction.
The Role of Addictive Behavior
Addictive behaviors are not the primary problem but rather unhealthy attempts to regulate emotional discomfort. These behaviors temporarily soothe anxiety but ultimately create greater suffering. This framework explains:
1. Why specific substances or behaviors are chosen (they address emotional needs).
2. Why addiction often shifts between substances or behaviors (the underlying anxiety seeks new outlets).
3. Why recovery requires learning new emotional coping skills, not just abstinence by itself.
Why This New Perspective Matters
1. Reduces Shame: Recognizing addictive behaviors as attempts to escape suffering reframes them as human, though unskillful, responses rather than moral failings.
2. Clarifies Willpower’s Limits: Without addressing anxiety, willpower alone is insufficient, as it doesn’t resolve the underlying cause.
3. Points to Effective Solutions: Recovery/Uncovering requires healthier ways of relating to anxiety and emotional discomfort, including meditation practice that focuses on working with one’s attention, emotional regulation, ‘personal response-ability’ and building peer support systems. Why? Because a brain that’s in a state of panic, loses perspective and conscious contact with higher brain functions related to reason and responding, instead of being reactive.
Practical Implications
This understanding suggests several areas for attention focus:
1. Recognizing anxiety and emotional discomfort as normal human experiences, not problems to solve.
2. Developing awareness of personal anxiety-behavior cycles.
3. Building tolerance for uncomfortable emotions without reacting impulsively.
4. Creating healthier ways to self-soothe and manage stress.
Moving Forward
Accepting powerlessness over anxiety is not about helplessness. It is about opening the door to:
• Greater self-compassion
• More effective coping strategies
• Authentic connections with others
• A more sustainable recovery path
The goal isn’t to eliminate anxiety—it’s impossible. Instead, the aim is to develop a new relationship with anxiety that allows us to live without harming ourselves or others.
Summary of this Perspective This revised or re-envisioning in the understanding of Step One from Twelve Step Recovery invites us to look beyond behaviors to the root cause: anxiety. By addressing this core issue, we can create a more comprehensive and effective approach to recovery. The key lies in developing a relationship with anxiety that fosters resilience and self-compassion, allowing us to move beyond the cycles of addiction.
Discussion Questions
1. How do you differentiate between anxiety and your reactions to it?
2. What are some ways you’ve tried to control or escape anxiety in the past?
3. How might accepting powerlessness over anxiety increase your personal power in recovery?
Invitation Toward Happiness
This week, keep a simple journal noting:
• Moments of anxiety or emotional discomfort.
• Your immediate impulses when these arise.
• What you did in response.
• The outcomes of your reactions.
// We Are the Practice Itself
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