The first source of help to which an addict needs to turn

The first source of help to which an addict needs to turn — first in order of time and first in order of importance — is God. This is not a matter of religion or philosophy but simply a matter of fact. It is the power of God which enables addicts to recover. Without that power, there are few recoveries.
Now there are a lot of different opinions about God, but we are not talking about God as an opinion but as a living power. You have to remember that you are an addict, not a professor. Do not waste time theorizing about God. What you do is get in touch with God by the simple and direct means of talking to God, that is, by plain, old, ordinary prayer. Every nitwit knows how to pray; the knack here is to do it. No preliminary ducking or bobbing is necessary. Just do it.
Do not waste energy debating about God. Take God as a possibility
— a working hypothesis. Make the experiment of getting in touch. This comes ahead of everything else, and anybody can do it. You can do it. Hundreds of thousands of alcoholics and drug addicts (many of them atheists) have made this experiment and proved to themselves that there is a Power greater than themselves who responds and gives real, practical, effective help when called on. All real recovery begins here. It makes no difference whether you are a believer or not. If you are not, start by praying to the God you don’t believe in. Just park your objections for a while, and do it as an experiment.

Related articles

• Solution Based Recovery is the natural home for Process addiction
• Process Addiction no different to the compulsions that drive drug addiction and substance abuse.
• A process addiction refers to compulsive behavior, such as compulsive gambling, sexual addiction, eating disorders and spending addictions.
• Process Addiction is a relatively new way of describing an addiction to an activity, or a process
• Why does a man become a drug addict
• Sex addiction is a process addiction like gambling, compulsive over eating, spending and workaholism.
• Addiction is a disease of fundamental irrationality.
• For the love addict grief goes beyond the normal stages of the grieving process where they get stuck in one or more of the levels of grief, which turns into extremely painful withdrawal.
• Addicts at their core believe that they are fundamentally flawed.
• EVOPROJECT: One addiction can lead to other addictions, and one drug can make you relapse on another drug.