The "dash" in Step 1

 

We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable.


I was reading about the first step the other day and I came across something about the first step that I hadn't noticed for over 20 years. The writer basically asked, "did anyone ever notice that there is a dash in the first step, separating the idea of powerlessness from unmanageability?"




My first thought was, "that cant be right". So I checked it and he is correct. Then I asked others who had been around for a while and no one I spoke to was really aware of the dash.

The writer went on to make a point that the dash was really meaningful. His interpretation is that when we become powerless over alcohol - our lives become unmanageable. Period. No other qualification is needed.

He explains that the dash has been inserted to  eliminate the qualification that to be an alcoholic you need to be powerless over alcohol and in your assessment your life must be unmanageable. 

This really started to make sense to me when I thought about the many times people new to AA say, "yeah, I knew I was powerless over alcohol, but I didn't think my life was unmanageable. I still had a job, a family and so on and so on."

As I think about it,  I agree more and more with the writer. It doesn't matter what the circumstances of our lives are- If we are powerless over alcohol our lives are unmanageable- The unmanageability is some combination of the way we think, act, behave, believe, deal with life, etc.

For example, we may still have a job, but we drive to it drunk...we may still have a family, but we are making them crazy with our mood swings and temperament, we may not have gotten a DUI but we could have most of the times we drove..

Did you ever notice the dash in the first step?

What do you think about the interpretation the writer lays out?